UNU-WIDER WIDER Book Launch of the study on Poverty and Inequality in China

Invitation flyer - Poverty Growth Inequality Triangle in China 5 June 2008 (62.25 kilobytes)

Press release details....

Poverty can be reduced through growth and/or improved distribution. However, growth can lead to a decrease or increase in inequality. Meanwhile, poverty and growth depend on the current level and dynamics of inequality. This complex inter-relationship, a so called poverty-growth-inequality (PGI) triangle, poses a challenge and dilemma to development strategists and policymakers: should growth or inequality be prioritized in the design and execution of development policies?

Post-reform China represents a good opportunity for studying the PGI triangle. While growth in China helped lift 270 million rural poor out of poverty during 1980–2000, the efficiency-driven-but-equity-ignoring development experience has led to rising inequality along all dimensions and the recent emergence of urban poverty.

The WIDER project tackles the PGI triangle and offers policy implications. It is found that growth alone, even though of unprecedented magnitude in China, is not sufficient for poverty reduction. Urbanization or the migration of 550 million rural residents to the cities is the only long-term solution to poverty and inequality problems.

Guanghua Wan, Director of the project and Terry Sicular, a co-author, will discuss and present key findings and policy recommendations of this study during the launch organized at UN Headquarters.

CHAIRPERSON
Sha Zukang is Under-Secretary-General of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations (UN-DESA).

SPEAKERS
Guanghua Wan is a Senior Research Fellow at WIDER. Previously taught at Sydney University and University of New England, his research expertise includes poverty and inequality decomposition, applied econometric modeling, rural development and TFP analysis. An honorary Professor of several leading universities in China including Fudan University and Sichuan University, he has published several books and over 60 articles in referred international journals.

Terry Sicular is Professor at the Department of Economics, University of Western Ontario and a Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Waterloo, Ontario.

DISCUSSANTS
John P. Bonin is Chester D. Hubbard Professor of Economics and Social Science at Wesleyan University in Middletown CT, USA. Bonin was the Editor of the Journal of Comparative Economics from 1996 to 2006 and is President-Elect of the Association for Comparative Economic Studies. Bonin has published more than sixty-five articles in economic journals; has authored three books and co-translated four French microeconomic theory books. 

Carl Riskin is Distinguished Professor of Economics at Queens College, CUNY and Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University's Weatherhead East Asian Institute. He is the co-author (with A.R. Khan) of Inequality and Poverty in China in The Age of Globalization (Oxford University Press, 2001).
 

WIDER Publications on Inequality and Poverty in China

Income Inequality and Poverty in Transition China, edited by Fang Cai and Guanghua Wan, published by Social Sciences Academic Press (China) in September 2006. In Chinese.
Journal of Comparative Economics, Volume 34, number 4 (2006). WIDER Symposium: Analysing the Socioeconomic Consequences of Rising Inequality in China, edited by Guanghua Wan and Xiaobo Zhang. Accessible via the science direct website.
The Review of Income and Wealth, Volume 53, number 1 (2007) comprised a special issue arising from UNU-WIDER’s inequality and poverty in China research. It is available free online.
A special selection of papers in the Review of Development Economics, Volume 12, number 2 (on the theme of 'Poverty-Inequality-Growth: The Case of China') published in May 2008. These are available free online.
Understanding Inequality and Poverty in China: Methods and Applications, edited by Guanghua Wan, published by Palgrave Macmillan in February 2008.
Inequality and Growth in Modern China, edited by Guanghua Wan, published by Oxford University Press in March 2008.
The UNU Policy Brief ‘Poverty Reduction in China: Is High Growth Enough?’ published in English, and Chinese.

Details are available under publications

Selected endorsements of OUP and Palgrave Macmillan books

• The miraculous economic growth in China has, since the mid-1980s, been accompanied by rapidly rising inequality. This is slowing down poverty reduction and is tearing at China’s social fabric. Understanding the causes and implications of this rising inequality is thus critical. This volume provides the most up to date and thorough empirical analyses of these crucial issues by leading China scholars. It should be required reading for China scholars as well as policy-makers trying to address this worrying rise in inequality.
  —Stephan Klasen, Professor of Economics, University of Göttingen; Director, Courant Center ‘Poverty, Equity, and Growth in Developing and Transition Countries’; Editor, The Review of Income and Wealth

• The book gathers a fascinating collection of articles on various aspects of income inequality and poverty in China. This is applied economics at its best, with essential policy implications for the fastest growing economy in the world for the past quarter of a century.
  —Jacques Silber, Bar-Ilan University, Israel; Founder and Former Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Economic Inequality

• This volume of high quality research resulting from UNU-WIDER provides an essential reference for scholars and students worldwide in their research and studies on growth and income inequality in modern China. The editor, Dr Guanghua Wan, is one of the world’s most productive and authoritative experts on the Chinese economy.
  — Shujie Yao, Professor of Economics and Chinese Sustainable Development, and Head of the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies, University of Nottingham and Special Chair Professor of Economics, Xi’an Jiaotong University

Admission is free. Please register in advance: online at www.ony.unu.edu Or
tel: 212-963–6387; E-mail: unuona(at)ony.unu.edu