Eliminating Poverty Through Development in China: (Routledge Studies on the Chinese Economy)

In recent years China has achieved impressive economic growth, and also made remarkable progress in human development. However, contemporary China is still faced with the great challenge of widespread poverty. This not only constitutes a barrier against China’s pursuit of sustainable economic growth, but also poses a potential threat to China’s attempts to construct a harmonious society in the future. This book, written by three renowned poverty-reduction experts under the aegis of the China Development Research Foundation - one of China’s leading think-tanks - and drawing on the research of over twenty of China’s top scholars in this field, examines China’s efforts to eliminate poverty through development. It analyses all of the key issues, providing a review of China’s past record in poverty alleviation, comparing this with the experiences of other countries, identifying the new characteristics and trends in poverty in recent years, and discussing the factors responsible. It assesses the objectives and success of the poverty alleviation policies adopted by the Chinese government in a comprehensive way, and puts forward suggestions for policy makers. Overall, this book is a valuable account of China’s own thinking on its problems of poverty, and the best ways to tackle it and achieve sustainable economic development.

Table of Contents:
1. Preface 1.1 A review of China’s Poverty and Anti-poverty Efforts 2.1 Socioeconomic Development and Poverty Reduction 3.1 Evolution of Poverty Concepts and other Countries’ Experiences 2. New Characteristics of Poverty in China today 2.1 The Absolute Poverty Line in China 2.2 Poor Populations in Rural Areas of China 2.3 Size and Geographical Distribution of Poor Populations in Urban Areas 3. Analysis of the Causes of Poverty 3.1 Agricultural Dependence and Natural Environmental Constraints 3.2 Human Capital Constraints 3.3 Public Services Constraints 3.4 Causes of Urban Poverty 3.5 A Brief Summary of the Causes of Poverty 4. China’s Poverty Alleviation Policies: Goals and Impacts 4.1 Main Poverty Alleviation Policies and their Characteristics 4.2 The Effects of Poverty Alleviation Policies in Rural Areas 4.3 The Poverty Alleviation Effects of Anti-poverty Policies in Urban Areas 4.4 Conclusive Evaluation of China’s Anti-poverty Policies 5. Governance and Poverty Alleviation 5.1 The Organization of China’s Poverty Alleviation Forces and their Functions 5.2 The Chinese Government’s Primary Experiences in Poverty Alleviation 5.3 The Main Problems with the Chinese Government’s Administrative Practices for Poverty Alleviation 6. Suggestions for Poverty Alleviation Policies

About the Author :
China Development Research Foundation is one of the leading economic think tanks in China, where many of the details of China’s economic reform have been formulated. Its work and publications therefore provide great insights into what the Chinese themselves think about economic reform and how it should develop.