This paper constructs and analyses a long-run time-series for regional inequality in China from the Communist Revolution to the present. There have been three peaks of inequality in the last fifty years, coinciding with the Great Famine of the late 1950s, the Cultural Revolution of the late 1960s and 1970s, and finally the period of openness and global integration in the late 1990s. Econometric analysis establishes that regional inequality is explained in the different phases by three key policy variables; the ratio of heavy industry to gross output value, the degree of decentralization, and the degree of openness.

Ignoring intrahousehold inequality can lead to considerable underestimates of the true levels of poverty and inequality. But the estimated patterns of poverty and inequality across key socioeconomic groups are not affected dramatica'lly.The Policy. Planning, and Research Complex distributes PPR Working Papers to dtsseminate the findings of work in progress and to encourage the exchange of ideas among Bank staff and aD others interested in development issues. These papers carry the names of the authors, reflect only theur views, and should be used and cited accordingly. The findings, interpretauons, and conclusions a* the authors' own. TIhey should not be autnbuted to the World Bank, its Board of Durctors, ius management, or any of its member countries.

No abstract

This paper develops a unified empirical framework for describing the relative contribution of rural-urban and inland-coastal inequality to overall regional inequality in China during the 1980's and 1990's. The framework assesses rural-urban and inland-coastal inequalities from the same data set, presents results for a sufficiently long time period to transcend short-term fluctuations, allows for differential price changes, and applies a consistent notion of the contribution to inequality using a decomposition analysis. While the contribution of ruralurban inequality is much higher than that of inland-coastal inequality in terms of levels, the trend is very different. The rural-urban contribution has not changed very much over time, but the inland-coastal contribution has increased by several fold. The paper ends by investigating the role of labor migration in this outcome.

Journal articleIFPRI3; GRP3; Theme 9; ISIDSGDP