REGIONAL INCOME INEQUALITY AND URBANISATION TRENDS IN CHINA: 1978-2005

A long-standing economic literature has delivered rich empirical evidence on the relationship between economic growth and income inequality or urbanisation, since Simon Kuznets’ pioneering work on the inverted U curve hypothesis. This paper explores the relationship between urban inequality and urbanisation trends in China from 1978 to 2005, a period that corresponds to the economic opening up of the country to the market economy. One of the main issues, here, is not only to test the correlation between regional income inequality and urbanisation trends, but also to highlight the neighbouring effects of this correlation, mainly through the use of some new spatial analysis tools. This paper delivers two conclusions: firstly, neighbouring effects are stronger when it comes to income inequality than urbanisation; secondly, a distortion in development patterns, between northern and southern coastal China appears: in the first one, growth effects and urbanisation process spread all over the different provinces, while in the second one, Guangdong appears as a regional economic centre.INCOME INEQUALITY, URBANISATION, CHINA, SPATIAL

The Experience of Rising Inequality in Russia and China during the Transition

This paper examines the changes in regional and sectoral inequality that accompanied economic transformation in Russia and China throughout the 1990s. The experiences of the two countries are widely viewed as having been polar opposites. While the Soviet collapse had adverse consequences for many parts of the post-Soviet population, the Chinese experience produced a continuing rise of average living standards. Nevertheless, both countries experienced a drastic increase in economic inequality. In both cases, regional inequalities rose more sharply than inequalities across sectors but within regions. In particular, major urban centers gained dramatically relative to the hinterlands. Also, in Russia as in China, those sectors exercising the largest degrees of monopoly power gained the most (or lost the least) in relative terms. In both countries, the respective position of finance improved greatly, while that of agriculture declined. The decline of agriculture in China, however, was not as precipitous as in Russia, and certain sectors, such as education and science, maintained their position in China in a way that was not possible for them in Russia.Inequality; Russia; China; Provinces; Sectors

Investment guidance for the Chinese medical device market

The medical device market is one of the most attractive and profitable areas in the global economy. Since China opened its doors to the world it has attracted increasing amounts of foreign investment. The Chinese medical device market is currently one of the most promising and fastest growing markets, which is the second largest market in the world with 200 billion yuan (RMB) total sales in 2013. This paper illustrates the geographical distribution of the Chinese medical device industry, combined with the location quotient (LQ) assessment, to reveal the medical device industry’s professional level and degree of concentration in each province, providing guidance for investors who are interested in medical device investment in China. The LQ and market share (MS) matrix reveals that the best investment regions in China are: Bohai Economic Rim, Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta Economic Zones

Urban-Rural Consumption Inequality in China from 1988 to 2002: Evidence from Quantile Regression Decomposition

One of the most notable social phenomena in China is the large urban-rural disparity. There are many studies of it, but most of them focus on income or earnings inequality. In this paper, we investigate the consumption disparity between urban and rural households in China from 1988 to 2002. Our results suggest that low quantiles are associated with large consumption disparity. The price effect is the dominant factor for the urban-rural consumption disparity. This disparity increased significantly, both at mean and at every quantile, from 1988 to 2002. However, most of the increase happened from 1988 to 1995, and this increase was mainly from the higher growth rate of urban household consumption. Our results also suggest that rural-urban migration and improvement of the rural educational level are very helpful in reducing urban-rural disparity.inequality, consumption, quantile regression decomposition, China

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationThis research focuses on the application of geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial analysis methods to urban and regional development studies. GIS-based spatial modeling approaches have recently been used in examining regional development disparities and urban growth. Through the cases of Guangdong province and the city of Dongguan, the study employs a spatial-temporal, multiscale, and multimethodology approach in analyzing geographically referenced socioeconomic and remote sensing data. A general spatial data analysis framework is set through a study of regional development in China's Guangdong province and urban growth in the city of Dongguan. Three intensive spatial statistical analyses are carried out. First, the dissertation investigates the spatial dynamics of regional inequality through Markov chains and spatial Markov-chain analyses. In so doing, it addresses the effect of self-reinforcing agglomeration on regional disparities. Multilevel modeling is further employed to evaluate the relative importance of regional development mechanisms in Guangdong. Second, a spatial filtering perspective is employed for understanding the spatial effects on multiscalar characteristics of regional inequality in Guangdong. Spatial panel and space-time regression models are integrated to detail the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of underlying mechanisms behind regional inequality. Third, drawing upon a set of high-quality remote sensing data in the city of Dongguan, the dissertation analyzes the spatial-temporal dynamics and spatial determinants of urban growth in a rapid industrializing area. Through the application of landscape metrics, three types of urban growth, including infill, spontaneous, and edge expansion, are distinguished, addressing the diverse spatial patterns at different stages of urban growth. A spatial logistic approach is further developed to model the spatial variations of urban growth determinants within the Dongguan city. In short, the dissertation finds that regional inequality in the Guangdong province is sensitive to spatial scales, dependence, and the core-periphery structure therein. The evolution of inequality can hardly be simplified into either convergence or divergence trajectories. Furthermore, development mechanisms and urban growth determinants are apparently different in space and are sensitive to spatial hierarchies and regimes. Overall, through the application of GIS spatial modeling techniques, the dissertation has provided more valuable information about spatial effects on China's urban and regional development under economic transition and highlights the importance of taking into consideration spatial dimensions in urban and regional development studies

Rural Labor Absorption Efficiency in Urban Areas under Different Urbanization Patterns and Industrial Structures: The Case of China

In this paper, we use Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to estimate how well China’s urban areas absorb migrant workers under the interaction of urbanization and industrialization. We applied an output-oriented BCC model to evaluate provincial and regional rural labor absorption efficiency in mainland China. It appears that 4 out of 31 provinces and municipals are efficient, and 2 out of 8 economic regions are efficient in absorbing migrant workers. In the southern and eastern parts of China, urban labor absorption efficiency is higher compared with the western and northern parts of China. Different urbanization patterns and industrial development strategies should be adopted in different economic areas to enhance labor absorption ability in these areas. Urban areas in many parts of China still have potential to accommodate rural migrant workers. The inter-regional flow of production factors would affect urban labor absorption efficiency.rural labor absorption in urban areas, urbanization, industry structure, DEA

No. 01: The Urban Food System of Nanjing, China

With a population of 8.2 million people, Nanjing is the 14th largest city in China. China became a predominantly urban nation in 2011, when its urban population surpassed its rural population for the first time. The declining farming population and area of farmland along with the increased food consumption of urban residents have had significant implications for China’s food security, including in cities such as Nanjing. As with many other Chinese cities, Nanjing’s informal economy has become an important source of income for the poor, including migrant workers. Since the beginning of economic reform in 1978, street vendors have become an integral part of urban China. Their activities are diverse and include selling fresh and processed food, as well as cooking it. The diversity of food outlets in big Chinese cities like Nanjing makes the foodscape extremely complex. There are thousands of supermarkets, small stores and more than 100 wet markets and wholesale markets in Nanjing. Food safety has become an urgent and important issue in the last few years, and the most relevant dimension of food security for Chinese urban residents might well be access to safe food. This audit of the city of Nanjing and its food system highlights the fact that there are major gaps in our understanding of the food system. As the Hungry Cities Partnership research program progresses, accurate information on a range of food issues in the city will fill many of these gaps

The Effects of Intraregional Disparities on Regional Development in China: Inequality Decomposition and Panel-Data Analysis

This paper analyzes the development and effects of intra-provincial regional disparities in China between 1989 and 2001. A decomposition analysis shows that intraprovincial disparities contribute significantly to total regional inequality. In the second part of the paper, the impact of the observed intraprovincial disparities on regional economic development is addressed. Using provincial panel data on industrial growth, capital and employment, the impact of inequality on industrial growth is estimated as affecting technical efficiency and level of technology. The results show a significant positive effect of intra-provincial disparities on provincial industrial growth, with causality from inequality to growth. Moreover, it appears that the inequality-growth relationship is not a linear one, but rather that the impact of extreme changes in inequality is stronger and more significant than a moderate increase in inequality. These outcomes are robust to alternative model specifications and control variablInequality, Decomposition, Growth, Panel Data, China