The Determinants of Household Income in Rural China

During the period after 1978, China’s countryside experienced sweeping changes in economic and social institutions and incentives. The result has been an unprecedented growth in household income as well as an increase in inequality in the distribution of income. To understand these two related phenomena, it is important to know what factors determine household income in rural China. This chapter tries to shed light on this question by making use of the data from our 1988 household survey. 1 These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.