Urban-rural inequality in China

Shouying Liu and Haoze Li

Chapter 11 in Handbook on Inequality in China, 2025, pp 244-273 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Urban-rural inequality is a significant concern within a country's modernization process. This chapter outlines the crucial impact of urban-rural inequality on China's imbalanced development. It examines disparities in income, wealth, public services, and social welfare between urban and rural areas and focuses on the unique institutional factors behind them. This chapter is grounded in a framework of rights analysis and proposes that the fundamental cause of urban-rural inequality lies in the differences between open-access orders. China's reform and rights liberalization have driven economic growth and elevated living standards. However, the distinct urban-rural dual system resulted in a restricted opening of rights for farmers compared to urban residents, which increased urban-rural inequality. China's urban-rural inequality began to decline in 2010. To further narrow this gap, it is essential to promote integrated development and consistently expand farmers’ rights in both rural and urban areas.

Keywords: Urban-rural inequality; Dual system; Imbalanced development; Institutional change; Open access order; City rights (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035317790
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