Shenggen Fan

Xiaobo Zhang

Ravi Kanbur

China’s spectacular growth and poverty reduction has been accompanied by growing inequality which threatens the social compact and thus the political basis for economic growth. Chinese policy makers have realized the importance of the problem and have launched a series of investigations and policy initiatives to address the issues. The regional dimension of inequality—rural/urban and inland/coastal—dominates in a country as large as China, and especially with its particular history. Not surprisingly, regional inequality has come to loom large in the policy debate in China. The policy debate has been informed by, and to some extent instigated by, a parallel analytical literature which has quantified the magnitude of the problem and identified recent trends, offered explanations based on rigorous analysis, and proposed policy interventions in light of the facts and understanding. Through a series of articles which have been published in leading journals, the editors have been involved in a systematic investigation into the nature and evolution of regional inequality in China for over a decade.

Trends, Explanations and Policy Responses

Regional Inequality in China

Linxiu Zhang

Growth, inequality, and poverty; Public capital e investment; Concptual framework and model; Data, estimation, and results.

The Role of Public Investments

Growth, Inequality, and Poverty in Rural China

Steven James

Christopher B. Barrett

Tim Benton

Mark Kahn

Jessica Fanzo

Stephen Wood

Roy Steiner

Philip Thornton

Lindiwe Majele Sibanda

Mario Herrero

Rebecca J. Nelson

Elizabeth Bageant

Edward Buckler

Karen Cooper

Isabella Culotta

Rikin Gandhi

Laté Lawson-Lartego

Jiali Liu

Quinn Marshall

Daniel Mason-D'Croz

Alexander Mathys

Cynthia Mathys

Veronica Mazariegos-Anastassiou

Alesha Miller

Kamakhya Misra

Andrew Mude

Jianbo Shen

Claire Song

This open access book is the result of an expert panel convened by the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability and Nature Sustainability. The panel tackled the seventeen UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030 head-on, with respect to the global systems that produce and distribute food. The panel’s rigorous synthesis and analysis of existing research leads compellingly to multiple actionable recommendations that, if adopted, would simultaneously lead to healthy and nutritious diets, equitable and inclusive value chains, resilience to shocks and stressors, and climate and environmental sustainability.

Socio-Technical Innovation Bundles for Agri-Food Systems Transformation

Derek Headey

The dramatic surge in food prices from 2005 to 2008 seriously threatened the world's poor, who struggle to buy food even under normal circumstances, and led to protests and riots in the developing world. The crisis eventually receded, but such surges could recur unless steps are taken to prevent them. Using up-to-date information, the authors of Reflections on the Global Food Crisis identify the key causes of the food price surge, its consequences for global poverty, and the challenges involved in preventing another crisis. Breaking from many earlier interpretations, the authors conclude that the crisis was not primarily fostered by increased demand for meat products in rising economies such as China and India or by declines in agricultural yields or food stocks, or by futures market speculation. Instead, they attribute the rising food prices to a combination of rising energy prices, growing demand for biofuels, the U.S. dollar depreciation; and various trade shocks related to export restrictions, panic purchases and unfavorable weather. As part of their analysis, the authors also provide the first comprehensive review of both the macroeconomic and microeconomic consequences of the crisis, as well as a detailed comparison of the current crisis with the food price crisis of 1974. To prevent another crisis, the authors conclude that the global food system should be reformed through several key steps: make trade in agricultural commodities more free yet more secure; address long-term threats to agricultural productivity, such as climate change and resource degradation; scale up social protection in potentially food insecure countries; and encourage agricultural production in at least some of the countries now heavily dependent on food imports. Reflections on the Global Food Crisis will be a valuable resource for policymakers, development specialists, and others concerned with the world's poorest people.

How Did It Happen? How Has It Hurt? and How Can We Prevent the Next One?

Reflections on the Global Food Crisis

Sukhadeo Thorat

P. B. R. Hazell

Government expenditure, agricultural growth, and rural poverty; conceptual framework; Data model, estimation, and results.

Linkages Between Government Spending, Growth, and Poverty in Rural India

Shang-Jin Wei

S. M. Ravi Kanbur

This Oxford Companion to the Economics of China presents a new collection of perspectives on the Chinese economy's past, present and future. The contributors of these entries include: the best of young Chinese researchers based in China and outside; renowned academics from the top universities in China, Europe and North America; present and past senior officials of international agencies like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund; seniorChinese government officials from the Centre and the Provinces; and four recipients of the Nobel Prize in Economics. The Editors are four global leaders in Chinese economic analysis and policy who between them have held or hold the following positions: Director General, International Food Policy ResearchInstitute; Co-Editor, China Economic Review; President Chinese Economists Society; Assistant Director of Research at the IMF; Principal Adviser to the Chief Economist of the World Bank; and Professors of Economics at Ivy League Universities.

The Oxford Companion to the Economics of China

Shenggen Fan

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