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Income per capita inequality in China: The Role of Economic Geography and Spatial Interactions

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  • Laura Hering

    (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Sandra Poncet

    (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

This paper contributes to the analysis of growing income disparities within China. Based on a structural model of economic geography using data on per capita income, we evaluate the extent to which market proximity and spatial dependence can explain growing income inequality between Chinese cities. We rely on a data set of 195 Chinese cities between 1995 and 2002. Our econometric specification incorporates an explicit consideration of spatial dependence effects in the form of spatially lagged per capita income. We provide evidence that the geography of access to markets is statistically significant in explaining variation in per capita income in China, especially so in provinces with low migration inflows which is coherent with NEG theory.

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  • Laura Hering & Sandra Poncet, 2010. "Income per capita inequality in China: The Role of Economic Geography and Spatial Interactions," Post-Print hal-00633899, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00633899
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9701.2010.01241.x
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    Cited by:

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    2. Bosker, Maarten & Brakman, Steven & Garretsen, Harry & Schramm, Marc, 2012. "Relaxing Hukou: Increased labor mobility and China’s economic geography," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 252-266.
    3. Haijiang Wu & Qichao Wu, 2021. "The geography of migrant workers' income in China: Evidence from a migrants dynamic survey in 2017," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(3), pages 1826-1851, September.
    4. Han, Feng & Ke, Shanzi, 2016. "The effects of factor proximity and market potential on urban manufacturing output," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 31-45.
    5. Hering, Laura & Poncet, Sandra, 2009. "The impact of economic geography on wages: Disentangling the channels of influence," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 1-14, March.
    6. Herrmann-Pillath, Carsten & Libman, Alexander & Yu, Xiaofan, 2014. "Economic integration in China: Politics and culture," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 470-492.
    7. repec:hal:journl:dumas-00802143 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Roberts, Mark & Deichmann, Uwe & Fingleton, Bernard & Shi, Tuo, 2012. "Evaluating China's road to prosperity: A new economic geography approach," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(4), pages 580-594.
    9. Roberts,Mark, 2016. "Identifying the economic potential of Indian districts," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7623, The World Bank.
    10. Das, Samarjit & Ghate, Chetan & Robertson, Peter E., 2015. "Remoteness, Urbanization, and India’s Unbalanced Growth," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 572-587.
    11. Roberts, Mark & Deichmann, Uwe & Fingleton, Bernard & Shi, Tuo, 2010. "On the road to prosperity ? The economic geography of China's national expressway network," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5479, The World Bank.
    12. Alfred M Wu, 2019. "The logic of basic education provision and public goods preferences in Chinese fiscal federalism," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(12), pages 1-15, December.

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