This paper shows that increasing government social expenditures can make a substantive contribution to increasing household consumption in China. The paper first undertakes an empirical study of the relationship between the savings rate and social expenditures for a panel of OECD countries and...

Effectively implemented gender-focused interventions can have substantial social benefits when supported by the necessary legal and institutional framework, judging from this rural program in China. Using household data specifically collected for the purpose of evaluation, Coady, Dai, and Wang...