This paper distinguish two types of urbanization and argues that urbanization without sufficient employment creation in the urban sector might have no economic benefit as it only involves surplus labour in the rural areas becoming urban surplus labour. It argues that China’s Hukou system that...

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...

It has been widely recognised that China has had a large pool of surplus labour. However, despite its significant implications for wage levels and the Chinese economy, the current debates yield conflicting results as to whether a Lewis turning point has been reached. This paper clarifies a...