A collection of 13 essays based on two national surveys of household income in China - in 1985 and 1995 - and prepared and carried out by the research team. These essays explore a wide range of aspects of the rapidly changing income distribution during this period.

Carl Riskin, Zhao Renwei, Li Shih

1: Introduction The Retreat from Equality: Highlights of the Findings; I: Perspectives on Increasing Inequality; 2: Increasing Income Inequality and Its Causes in China; 3: A More Unequal China? Aspects of Inequality in the Distribution of Equivalent Income; 4: Economic Growth, Economic Reform, and Rising Inequality in China; II: Urban China; 5: Income Distribution in Urban China During the Period of Economic Reform and Globalization; 6: A Spatial Analysis of Wages and Incomes in Urban China: Divergent Means, Convergent Inequality; 7: Urban Housing Welfare and Income Distribution; 8: Economic Transformation and the Gender Earnings Gap in Urban China; III: Rural China; 9: Rural Interregional Inequality and Off-Farm Employment in China; 10: Food Security of Low Income Groups in Rural China; 11: Reexamining the Distribution of Wealth in Rural China; 12: Gender Effects on Household Resource Allocation in Rural China; 13: Labor Migration and Income Distribution in Rural China; 14: Chinese Rural Poverty Inside and Outside the Poor Regions