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Income, Income Inequality and Health: Evidence from China

  • Chapter
Understanding Inequality and Poverty in China

Part of the book series: Studies in Development Economics and Policy ((SDEP))

Abstract

China has recorded impressive growth over the past 25 years since the introduction of the market economy, and there has been a substantial increase in average living standards. However, in recent years there has been growing concern about the large increase in income inequality over the same period. For example, Bramall (2001) shows that the Gini coefficient for rural China has increased by almost 50 per cent from 1980 to 1999. The rising inequality has had and will have important impacts on various aspects of social life, resulting, for example, in frequent social conflicts (Alesina and Perotti 1996), higher levels of violent crime (Hsieh and Pugh 1993), and ultimately in a slowing down of economic growth (Aghion, Caroli and Garcia-Penalosa 1999). While inequality may affect society and its economic development in many ways, we focus in this chapter on a particular aspect of the socioeconomic effects of inequality; that is, its impact on health.

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Authors
  1. Hongbin Li
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  2. Yi Zhu
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), Finland

    Guanghua Wan (Senior Research Fellow and Project Director) (Senior Research Fellow and Project Director)

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© 2008 United Nations University

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Li, H., Zhu, Y. (2008). Income, Income Inequality and Health: Evidence from China. In: Wan, G. (eds) Understanding Inequality and Poverty in China. Studies in Development Economics and Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230584259_6

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