Poverty Alleviation Research in Rural China: Three Decades and Counting

Abstract

Poverty alleviation is a hallmark of post-revolution Chinese policymaking. Since 1978, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has implemented successive waves of poverty alleviation policies whose effects have become the focus of an ever-increasing body of academic literature. This paper reviews the diverse but limited literature that evaluates the impact of the CPC’s rural poverty reduction programs through four major channels, namely fiscal investment programs, social safety nets, rural governance on the village-, county- and provincial level, and the relocation of rural populations from destitute regions. This paper aims to synthesize results and evaluate whether and to what extent these poverty alleviation programs have had distinct positive or negative impacts on regional development outcomes. Furthermore, I highlight contradictions in empirical findings to motivate the discussion about contextual importance when designing and implementing future rural poverty alleviation programs. Finally, I suggest that an exhaustive and critical appraisal of the empirical strategies used within the reviewed literature would further the development and application of more accurate and informative methodologies.