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

James K. Galbraith, Ludmila Krytynskaia and Qifei Wang

European Journal of Comparative Economics, 2004, vol. 1, issue 1, 87-106

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: Inequality; Russia; China; Provinces; Sectors (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C82 D39 P27 P52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (29)

Downloads: (external link)
https://ejce.liuc.it/18242979200401/182429792004010104.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:liu:liucej:v:1:y:2004:i:1:p:87-106

Access Statistics for this article

European Journal of Comparative Economics is currently edited by Matteo Migheli, Giovanni Ramello, Koji Domon, Peter Grajzl, David M. Kemme, Marcello Signorelli and Richard Watt

More articles in European Journal of Comparative Economics from Cattaneo University (LIUC) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Laura Ballestra ().