TY - JOUR

T1 - Migration and regional inequality

T2 - changing characteristics of China's economic inequality

AU - Peng, Lianqing

AU - Swider, Sarah

PY - 2017

Y1 - 2017

N2 - Scholars studying economic inequality in China have maintained that regional inequality and economic divergence across provinces have steadily increased over the past 30 years. New studies have shown that this trend is a statistical aberration; calculations show that instead of quickly and sharply rising, regional inequality has actually decreased, and most recently, remained stable. Our study suggests that China’s unique migratory regime is crucial to understanding these findings. We conduct a counterfactual simulation to demonstrate how migration and remittances have mitigated income inequality across provinces in order to show that without these processes, we would have seen more of a rise in interprovincial income inequality. We conclude by arguing that inequality in China is still increasing, but it is changing and becoming less place-based. As regional inequality decreases, there are signs that point to the increasing importance of interpersonal inequality.

AB - Scholars studying economic inequality in China have maintained that regional inequality and economic divergence across provinces have steadily increased over the past 30 years. New studies have shown that this trend is a statistical aberration; calculations show that instead of quickly and sharply rising, regional inequality has actually decreased, and most recently, remained stable. Our study suggests that China’s unique migratory regime is crucial to understanding these findings. We conduct a counterfactual simulation to demonstrate how migration and remittances have mitigated income inequality across provinces in order to show that without these processes, we would have seen more of a rise in interprovincial income inequality. We conclude by arguing that inequality in China is still increasing, but it is changing and becoming less place-based. As regional inequality decreases, there are signs that point to the increasing importance of interpersonal inequality.

KW - China and regional economic inequality

KW - migration

KW - remittances

KW - economic convergence

KW - hukou system and inequality

U2 - 10.1080/15387216.2017.1292144

DO - 10.1080/15387216.2017.1292144

M3 - Journal article

VL - 58

SP - 89

EP - 113

JO - Eurasian Geography and Economics

JF - Eurasian Geography and Economics

SN - 1538-7216

IS - 1

ER -