Economic growth pattern in China from the angle of poverty and its governance

Abstract

Since the reform and opening up,China has achieved unprecedented economic growth,and made considerable progress in reducing poverty.However,with the rapid economic growth,the income inequality also increases significantly in China.On the one hand,the economic growth pattern affects the trend of inequality;on the other hand,the degree of inequality and imbalance will affect the subsequent reduction rate of poverty.Therefore,the economic growth pattern and the trend of inequality in the interaction affect the overall development of China.This study focuses on the economic growth patterns and poverty reduction of China over the past decade.Poverty can be divided into absolute poverty and relative poverty,with the latter meaning the income gap or inequality.Besides,this article analyzes the income inequality in unit of city.The authors use the poverty growth curve(PGC)to analyze the pattern of China's economic growth,according to the population and GDP in unit of city at prefectural level between 1994 and 2006.In general,the regional disparity was restrained when China's average GDP growth was high.From 1998 to 2000,China's witnessed the immiserizing economic growth,with the lowest GDP growth rate and rapid expansion of regional disparity due to the Asian financial crisis.Between 2003 and 2004,China's economic growth presented a pro-poor growth curve,with the highest GDP growth rate after the Asian financial crisis and shrinkage of regional disparity.During the other periods,China has undergone the trickle-down economic growth,and along with economic growth,although absolute poverty has been alleviated,people in poorer areas have received proportionally less benefits than the non-poor,and regional disparity has been widened.The paper suggests that governance should be essential in the process of the economic growth patterns and poverty reduction in China.