Rural-Urban Economic Disparities among China’s Elderly

This study uses a nationwide household level survey to assess differences between rural
and urban households. The study is unique in two ways: (1) relies on a nationwide survey
whereas most studies target a given province or region; (2) narrows the population
surveyed to households headed by elderly, defined as 60 years of age or older.

We find a significant difference in rural versus urban income inequality. Gini
coefficients show that income inequality is significantly higher among rural households
than urban households. These results are consistent with other region-specific kind of
income inequality studies.

Explanatory factors include demographic characteristics of households, namely the
level of education, age and marital status; institutional factors such as living arrangements;
urban-biased government policies and a long history of development and government
policy relatively more favorable to urban residents; and poorly developed factor markets.
Rural households are older, less educated, have more children, and are somewhat larger
than the urban counterparts.

One interesting line of research would be to extend the analysis to include
disparities in expenditures and health and to calculate age-specific Gini coefficients. In
addition, since the current study only applies to the distribution of household income it
may be of interest to measure disparities in income per capita.

16

<<   13   14   15   16   17   18   >>

More intriguing information