Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/53682 
Year of Publication: 
2009
Series/Report no.: 
ADBI Working Paper No. 162
Publisher: 
Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), Tokyo
Abstract: 
The development path that the People's Republic of China (PRC) has been following during the past thirty years has led to both internal and external economic imbalances, and is now greatly challenged by the global crisis. This unbalanced growth path was primarily a result of the PRC's labor market reform which took the years of the mid-1990s as its turning point. Before the mid-1990s, the scale of rural-to-urban migration was limited, but it has grown dramatically since then. 1996 also saw drastic employment restructuring in urban areas of the PRC. Labor market reform, accompanied by the foreign exchange system reform in 1994, confirmed the PRC's comparative advantage of low labor cost, and therefore further increased the PRC's reliance on exports. However, the increased income disparity that resulted from the labor market reform may jeopardize sustainable growth if no adjustment is made. To sustain the high economic growth, especially in face of the current crisis, the PRC needs to adjust its reform and development strategies to promote income equality.
JEL: 
J21
O15
O53
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
250.55 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.