| Publication |
2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
For a long period following the establishment of People's Republic of China in 1949, urban and rural areas were treated separately and differently. Since 1978, China has experienced over three decades of rapid economic growth, with annual growth rates of over 9 per cent. However, despite this "economic miracle", the country has also witnessed ever-enlarging urban-rural inequalities across a range of indicators such as income, education, medical care, provision of infrastructure and social insurance. For example, while the per capita urban household income increased from 343 yuan in 1978 to 13,041 yuan in 2007, over the same period the per capita rural household income increased from 134 yuan to only 3,998 yuan. (1) A cluster of studies that investigated urban-rural inequalities in China have attributed the inequalities to factors such as a dualistic urban-rural structure, (2) urban-biased development strategy, (3,4) market forces (5) and taxation. (6) Urban-biased policies and related measures like the household registration system (hukou) were initially formulated on the basis of the typical socio-economic conditions in China in the period after 1949. These policies and measures have, however, intentionally diverted resources (capital, labour and materials) from rural to urban areas, and induced greater urban-rural inequality in China.
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