Rural China

with Nong Zhu.

In China, rural-to-urban migration and development of the rural non-farm sector strongly modified rural household income structure since the economic reform. In the mid 2000s, almost half of total rural income in China was from non-farm activities. Whether the decline in poverty was principally due to farm income growth or due to non-farm income growth and whether the rising share of non-farm income in total rural household income was the leading cause of the sharp increase in rural inequality have been key issues of debate.