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Fifty Years of Regional Inequality in China: A Journey Through Central Planning, Reform and Openness

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Listed:
  • Ravi Kanbur

    (Cornell University)

  • Xiaobo Zhang

    (IFPRI)

Abstract

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Ravi Kanbur & Xiaobo Zhang, 2004. "Fifty Years of Regional Inequality in China: A Journey Through Central Planning, Reform and Openness," Working Papers 158, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore.
    • Handle: RePEc:sch:wpaper:158
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    REgional Inequality; China;

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