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This paper estimates the relationship between initial village inequality and subsequent household income growth for a large sample of households in rural China. Using a rich longitudinal survey spanning the years 1987-2002, and controlling for an array of household and village characteristics, the paper finds that households located in higher inequality villages experienced significantly lower income growth through the 1990s. However, local inequality's predictive power and effects are significantly diminished by the end of the sample. The paper exploits several advantages of the household-level data to explore hypotheses that shed light on the channels by which inequality affects growth. Biases due to aggregation and heterogeneity of returns to own-resources, previously suggested as candidate explanations for the relationship, are both ruled out. Instead, the evidence points to unobserved village institutions at the time of economic reforms that were associated with household access to higher income activities as the source of the link between inequality and growth. The empirical analysis addresses a number of pertinent econometric issues including measurement error and attrition, but underscores others that are likely to be intractable for all investigations of the inequality-growth relationship.

Access to Finance --- Annual Growth --- Credit Market --- Dynamic Panel --- Economic Reforms --- Empirical Analysis --- Enterprises --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Household Income --- Income Growth --- Inequality --- Poverty Impact Evaluation --- Poverty Reduction --- Rural Inequality --- Rural Poverty Reduction --- Services & Transfers to Poor --- Villages

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This paper explores the impact of structural reforms on a comprehensive set of macro-level labor-market outcomes, including the unemployment rate, the average wage index, and overall and female employment levels and labor force participation rates. Together these outcome variables capture the overall health of the labor market and the aggregate welfare of workers. Yet, there seems to be no other comprehensive empirical investigation in the existing literature of the impact of structural reforms at the cross-country macro level on labor-market outcomes other than the unemployment rate. Data were collected from a variety of sources, including the World Bank World Development Indicators, the International Monetary Fund International Financial Statistics, and the International Labor Organization Key Indicators of the Labor Market. The resulting dataset covers up to 88 countries, the majority being developing, for 10 years on either side of structural reforms that took place between 1960 and 2001. After documenting the average trends across countries in the labor-market outcomes up to 10 years on either side of each country's structural reform year, the authors run fixed-effects ordinary least squares as well as instrumental variables regressions to account for the likely endogeneity of structural reforms to labor-market outcomes. Overall the results suggest that structural reforms lead to positive outcomes for labor. Unlike related literature, the paper does not find conclusive evidence on unemployment. Redistributive effects in favor of workers, along the lines of the Stolper-Samuelson effect, may be at work.

Banks and Banking Reform --- Currencies and Exchange Rates --- Economic Reforms --- Economic Theory & Research --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Labor Market Participation --- Labor Markets --- Labor Policies --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Social Protections and Labor --- Unemployment --- Wages

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Economic reforms. --- Economic development. --- Economic history. --- Economic policy. --- Publications périodiques. --- Réformes économiques. --- Statistiques économiques. --- UE/CE Elargissement. --- Pays de l'Est. --- Since 1989 --- Europe, Eastern --- Eastern Europe. --- Europe centrale. --- Russie. --- Ukraine. --- Economic conditions --- Economic policy --- #ETEW:TSCAT --- #BA00160 --- #ANTIL9606 --- Periodicals --- Business, Economy and Management --- Social Sciences --- Economics --- Developmental Issues & Socioeconomic Studies --- European Economic Community countries --- Former Soviet republics --- Pays de l'Union européenne --- Ex-URSS --- Economic integration --- Conditions économiques --- Périodiques

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The author applies a systems-oriented "holistic" approach to China's radical economic reforms during the past quarter of a century. He characterizes China's economic reforms in terms of a multidimensional classification of economic systems. When looking at the economic consequences of China's change of economic system, he deals with both the impressive growth performance and its economic costs. The author also studies the consequences of the economic reforms for the previous social arrangements in the country, which were tied to individual work units-agriculture communes, collective firms, and state-owned enterprises. He continues with the social development during the reform period, reflecting a complex mix of social advances, mainly in terms of poverty reduction, and regresses for large population groups in terms of income security and human services, such as education and, in particular, health care. Next, the author discusses China's future policy options in the social field, whereby he draws heavily on relevant experiences in industrial countries over the years. The future options are classified into three broad categories: policies influencing the level and distribution of factor income, income transfers including social insurance, and the provision of human services.

Agriculture --- Banks and Banking Reform --- Capital --- Cred Development --- Debt Markets --- Economic Performance --- Economic Reforms --- Economic Systems --- Economic Theory and Research --- Emerging Markets --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Financial Literacy --- GDP --- Growth Rate --- Health, Nutrition and Population --- Income --- Industrial Economics --- Influence --- Interest --- International Trade --- Investment and Investment Climate --- Labor Policies --- Macroeconomic Stabilization --- Macroeconomic Stabilization Policy --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Microfinance --- Mixed Economy --- Outcomes --- Ownership --- Population Policies --- Poverty Reduction --- Private Sector Development --- Pro-Poor Growth --- Production --- Social Protections and Labor

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The author applies a systems-oriented "holistic" approach to China's radical economic reforms during the past quarter of a century. He characterizes China's economic reforms in terms of a multidimensional classification of economic systems. When looking at the economic consequences of China's change of economic system, he deals with both the impressive growth performance and its economic costs. The author also studies the consequences of the economic reforms for the previous social arrangements in the country, which were tied to individual work units-agriculture communes, collective firms, and state-owned enterprises. He continues with the social development during the reform period, reflecting a complex mix of social advances, mainly in terms of poverty reduction, and regresses for large population groups in terms of income security and human services, such as education and, in particular, health care. Next, the author discusses China's future policy options in the social field, whereby he draws heavily on relevant experiences in industrial countries over the years. The future options are classified into three broad categories: policies influencing the level and distribution of factor income, income transfers including social insurance, and the provision of human services.

Agriculture --- Banks and Banking Reform --- Capital --- Cred Development --- Debt Markets --- Economic Performance --- Economic Reforms --- Economic Systems --- Economic Theory and Research --- Emerging Markets --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Financial Literacy --- GDP --- Growth Rate --- Health, Nutrition and Population --- Income --- Industrial Economics --- Influence --- Interest --- International Trade --- Investment and Investment Climate --- Labor Policies --- Macroeconomic Stabilization --- Macroeconomic Stabilization Policy --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Microfinance --- Mixed Economy --- Outcomes --- Ownership --- Population Policies --- Poverty Reduction --- Private Sector Development --- Pro-Poor Growth --- Production --- Social Protections and Labor