Interest-free loans are a common feature of low-income rural economies. In much of the economics literature, lending at zero and positive interest are viewed as being highly segmented in the community, with interest-free loans an essential component of long-term mutual consumption agreements...

Prices differ across space: from province to province, from rural (or urban) areas in one province to rural (or urban) areas in another province, and from rural to urban areas within one province. Systematic differences in prices across a range of goods and services in different localities imply...

Prices differ across space: from province to province, from rural (or urban) areas in one province to rural (or urban) areas in another province, and from rural to urban areas within one province. Systematic differences in prices across a range of goods and services in different localities imply...

In this article we analyze trends in income inequality and the distribution of income in rural China from 1987 to 1999. We find an uneven but long-run increase in inequality in rural China and show that nearly half of the rural population was not much better off in 1999 than at the start of the...