Will China's WTO Accession Worsen Rural Poverty?

Kym Anderson, Elena Ianchovichina and Jikun Huang

No 4196, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: Many fear China?s accession to WTO will impoverish its farmers, via greater import competition in its agricultural markets. We explore that possibility bearing in mind that, even if producer prices of some (land-intensive) farm products fall, prices of other (labour-intensive) farm and non-farm products could rise. New estimates, from the global, economy-wide numerical simulation model known as GTAP, of the likely changes in agricultural and other product prices as a result of WTO accession are drawn on to examine empirically the real income implications of China?s WTO accession. The results suggest farm/non-farm income inequality may well rise within China but rural-urban income inequality need not. The Paper concludes with some policy suggestions for alleviating any pockets of farm household poverty that may emerge as a result of WTO accession.

Keywords: Wto accession; China's economic reform; Income inequality; Rural poverty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O19 O53 P31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev and nep-tra
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Will China's WTO accession worsen farm household incomes? (2004)
Working Paper: Long-run impacts of China's WTO accession on farm-nonfarm income inequality and rural poverty (2003)
Working Paper: Impact of ChinaÂ’s WTO Accession on Farm-Nonfarm Income Inequality and Rural Poverty (2002)
Working Paper: Impact of China’s WTO Accession on Rural-Urban Income Inequality (2002)
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