China's impressive growth has been accompanied by increasing inequality and a widening rural–urban divide. This paper identifies and examines nine major dimensions of this divide: income,consumption, education, healthcare, employment, child care, pensions, access to public services and...

Although dual economy models are widely recognized for their explanatory power and applications in development economics, their lack of micro-economic foundations and the associated loss of clarity has led to mainstream economists underplaying their importance. By providing a micro-economic...

Using three comparable national representative household surveys for China in 1988, 1995 and 2002, the present paper reveals the regressivity and urban bias of China's direct tax and welfare system in this period. It shows that a regressive taxation system and skewed allocation of subsidies...