SABIIA - Sistema Aberto e Integrado de Informação em Agricultura (Sabiia)

Zhang, Xiaobo; Fan, Shenggen; Zhang, Linxiu; Huang, Jikun.

In developing countries, identifying the most effective community-level governance structure is a key issue and, increasingly, empirical evaluation of the effects of democratization on the provision of local public goods is needed. Since the early 1990s, tens of thousands of villages in rural China have held local-government elections, providing a good opportunity to investigate the effect of democratization on the level of public goods provision. Using a recent village survey conducted over a significant period of time, this paper compares governance by elected officials with that of appointed cadres and finds that elected officials tend to tax constituents less and provide them with higher levels of public services.

LABOR MARKET LIBERALIZATION, EMPLOYMENT AND GENDER IN RURAL CHINA

Palavras-chave: Governance; Democracy; Public goods provision; China; Public Economics; D73; H41; P35.

Ano: 2002

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/16120

Zhang, Linxiu; de Brauw, Alan; Rozelle, Scott.

The major objective of this paper is to discuss the development of rural labor markets in China during the past two decades and understand how it has affected women. Using household survey data that we collected in 2001, we examine the role of women in labor markets by examining employment and migration trends and changes in wages. According to the data of our nearly national representative sample, we find that there has been a sharp overall increase in off-farm participation, most of the increase has been driven by young migrants, and women, especially those in the youngest cohorts, have participated at rates equaling or surpassing those of their male counterparts. We also find that the wages of women have not been adversely affected by the emergence...

GROWTH AND POVERTY IN RURAL CHINA: THE ROLE OF PUBLIC INVESTMENTS

Palavras-chave: China; Labor market liberalization; Employment; Wages; Gender; Labor and Human Capital.

Ano: 2003

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/25932

Fan, Shenggen; Zhang, Linxiu; Zhang, Xiaobo.

Public investment, together with institutional and policy reforms, has contributed substantially to rapid economic growth in rural China since the late 1970s. This rapid growth has also led to dramatic reductions in rural poverty. In this study we use a simultaneous equations model and time-series (1978-97), cross-sectional (25 provinces) data to analyze the differential impact of different types of public investments on growth and poverty reduction in rural China. The results show that government expenditures on education have by far the largest impact on poverty reduction, and the second largest impact on production growth; it is a dominant “win-win” strategy. Government spending on agricultural research and extension has the largest impact on...

LOCAL GOVERNANCE AND PUBLIC GOODS PROVISION

Palavras-chave: Public Economics.

Ano: 2000

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/16115

Zhang, Xiaobo; Fan, Shenggen; Zhang, Linxiu; Huang, Jikun.

Since the early nineties, tens of thousands of villages have held elections of their leaders in rural China. Using a recent village survey, this paper empirically examines the impact of election on public goods provision to the rural community. We found that elected officials tend to tax less on constituents and provide them more with public services.

Migration, Money and Mother: The Effect of Migration on Children's Educational Performance in Rural China

Palavras-chave: Public Economics.

Ano: 2001

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/20570

Chen, Xinxin; Huang, Qiuqiong; Rozelle, Scott; Zhang, Linxiu.

Migration is widely known as one of the main ways of alleviating poverty in developing countries, including China. However, migration itself is not costless. In recent years, there is an emerging concern about the effect of migration on the educational achievement of the children of migrants in China since most of the young children of school age of the migrants are being left in the village when one or both of their parents move to the city to work. This paper examines the effect of the migration activities of the father and/or mother on the educational performance of elementary school students (First to Fifth grade). With a dataset that collected from a survey designed specifically to examine changes in school performance of children before and after...

THE EVOLUTION OF CHINA'S RURAL LABOR MARKETS DURING THE REFORMS

Palavras-chave: Labor and Human Capital.

Ano: 2007

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/9791

de Brauw, Alan; Huang, Jikun; Rozelle, Scott; Zhang, Linxiu; Zhang, Yigang.

This paper contributes to the assessment of China's rural labor markets, while paying attention to whether these markets are developing in a manner conducive to the nations modernization. According to our household survey, we find that the rapid increase in off-farm employment has continued and accelerated during the late 1990s. Our analysis shows that migration has become the most prevalent off-farm activity; has become dominated by young and better educated workers; expanded most rapidly in areas that are relatively well-off; and begun to draw workers from portions of the population, such as women, that earlier had been excluded from participation.

EMPLOYMENT, EMERGING LABOR MARKETS, AND THE ROLE OF EDUCATION IN RURAL CHINA

Palavras-chave: Labor and Human Capital.

Ano: 2002

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/11984

Zhang, Linxiu; Huang, Jikun; Rozelle, Scott.

The overall goal of this paper is to contribute to the ongoing assessment of China's rural labor markets. To meet this goal, we have three specific objectives. First, we will provide an update of the trends in off-farm labor participation and wages of the sample households and examine how labor market outcomes have changed for those with different levels of education. Second, we will then seek to examine if education in different time periods the late 1980s, the early 1990s and the mid 1990s -- can be associated with increasing access to off-farm jobs. Finally, we will examine how returns to education have changed during the course of the reform era. In short, our hypotheses are that if labor markets are increasingly rewarding those with a.) better...

Insuring Rural China's Health? An Empirical Analysis of China's New Cooperative Medical System

Palavras-chave: Labor and Human Capital.

Ano: 2002

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/11969

Zhang, Linxiu; Wang, H. Holly; Rozelle, Scott; Yan, Yuanyuan.

Although health is an important factor in economic development, millions of China's rural residents have no medical coverage. Nearly 10 percent of those that were sick in rural China consciously did not seek medical care, mostly because of financial constraints. More than 25% of rural residents are dissatisfied with their village's health system. In response to this deteriorating situation, a new cooperative medical system (NCMS) was initialized in rural China in 2003 by the government. However, after two years of trials, there has been no household-based, economic analysis of the program. This paper provides one of the first. Although where introduced, most rural residents voluntarily participate, there are many problems with the program. First, at least...

Can Good Projects Succeed in Bad Villages? Project Design, Village Governance and Infrastructure Quality in Rural China

Palavras-chave: Rural Health; Insurance; Targeting; Design Problems; China; Health Economics and Policy; I11; O15; O53.

Ano: 2006

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/25586

Liu, Chengfang; Zhang, Linxiu; Huang, Jikun; Luo, Renfu; Rozelle, Scott.

This study seeks to explain the differences in infrastructure quality across China’s villages. Using primary data on three main types of infrastructure projects in rural China, we find that a.) between-project within-village quality differences are small and project design has little explanatory power; b.) between-village variations are larger; and c.) there are strong correlations between the ways villages govern themselves and project quality. We conclude that it is difficult to make good projects work in bad communities and that there is something at the village level that is making some projects succeed in some villages, but not in others.

Good News, Bad News: Results from a National Representative Panel Survey on China’s NCMS

Palavras-chave: Infrastructure Quality; Village; Rural China; Community/Rural/Urban Development; Public Economics; H41; H54; H71.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/49944

Yi, Hongmei; Zhang, Linxiu; Singer, Kim; Rozelle, Scott; Atlas, Scott.

The overall goal of the paper is to understand the progress of the implementation of China’s New Cooperative Medical System (NCMS) program. In the paper we seek to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the program and understand its effect on rural residents using a panel of national-representative, household survey data that were collected in 2005 and early 2008. According to our data, we found that there have been substantial improvements to the NCMS in coverage and participation. The service received by rural residents also improved in 2007. While the progress of the NCMS program is clear, there are still weaknesses. Most importantly, the program clearly does not meet its goal of providing insurance against catastrophic illnesses. On average,...

GROWTH, INEQUALITY, AND POVERTY IN RURAL CHINA: THE ROLE OF PUBLIC INVESTMENTS

Palavras-chave: Rural health; Insurance; China; Community/Rural/Urban Development; I1.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/50104

Fan, Shenggen; Zhang, Linxiu; Zhang, Xiaobo.

In the past two decades, China has achieved world renown for reducing rural poverty. However, it is becoming harder to reduce poverty and inequality further in China, even though its economy continues to grow. This report compares the impact specific rural public investments can have on promoting growth and reducing poverty and inequality. Returns to these investments are calculated for the nation as a whole and for three economic zones in the west, central, and coastal regions of the country. Government expenditures that have the highest impact on poverty and growth include education, agricultural research and development, and rural infrastructure (roads, electricity, and telecommunications). Notably, spending on irrigation and anti-poverty loans had...

Tipo: Report

Palavras-chave: Food Security and Poverty; International Development; Public Economics.

Ano: 2002

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/16523

Village Elections, Public Goods Investments and Pork Barrel Politics, Chinese-style

Luo, Renfu; Zhang, Linxiu; Huang, Jikun; Rozelle, Scott.

A key issue in political economy concerns the accountability that governance structures impose on public officials and how elections and representative democracy influences the allocation of public resources. In this paper we exploit a unique survey data set from nearly 2450 randomly selected villages describing China’s recent progress in village governance reforms and its relationship to the provision of public goods in rural China between 1998 and 2004. Two sets of questions are investigated using an empirical framework based on a theoretical model in which local governments must decide to allocate fiscal resources between public goods investments and other expenditures. First, we find evidence—both in descriptive and econometric analyses—that when the...