Child Income Poverty Levels and Trends in Urban China from 1989 to 2011

Di Qi () and Yichao Wu ()
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Di Qi: Hohai University
Yichao Wu: Southeast University

Child Indicators Research, 2016, vol. 9, issue 4, No 10, 1043-1058

Abstract: Abstract This paper fills the existing knowledge gap by examining the changes in the extent and nature of child poverty in urban China between 1989 and 2011, and contributes to the literature by using the relative income approach, different from the absolute income approach used in many previous studies. All waves of the China Health and Nutrition Survey Data (CHNS) is used including the newest 2011 survey. Both the anchored and current relative poverty lines were constructed in this paper. In addition, the FGT index introduced by Foster et al. (Econometrica 52(3), 761–766, 1984) is used to measure income poverty gaps and inequalities. The findings show that income distribution has been unequal and the income gap has widened during the study period. Although China has achieved great economic growth since economic reform, the lower income group benefited much less from China's fast economic growth compared with the middle or higher income groups. The findings of this paper imply that policy makers need to pay more attention in future on reducing income inequality in urban China.

Keywords: Child poverty; Relative income; Inequality; FGT index; Poverty gap; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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DOI: 10.1007/s12187-015-9351-1

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