This paper uses an asset-based approach to examine poverty dynamics in rural China over the period 1989-2006. The analysis documents a significant structural component in the poverty dynamics of households. The lack of profitable agricultural asset accumulation plays an unneglectable role in...

type="main" xml:id="obes12044-abs-0001" <title type="main">Abstract</title> <p>The objective of our study is to identify patterns and causes of households' transitions into and out of poverty using the long household panel data on rural China in 1989–2009. We propose a discrete-time multi-spell duration model that not only...</p>

This article evaluates the causal impact of rural households’ borrowing, through formal microcredit, on child nutrition in poor northwest China. The analysis exploits the panel data in rural Gansu between 2000 and 2004. Unobserved differences between borrowers and non-borrowers are controlled...

This paper seeks new insight into the reasons for persistent hardship in some Chinese rural households from the perspective of assets, stressing the long-run implications of shocks and risk on households' agricultural asset holdings. Households show a tendency to hold onto substantial savings to...

This article assesses causal effects of formal microcredit on children's educational outcomes by using household panel data (2000 and 2004) in north-west rural China. The unobservables between borrowers and non-borrowers are controlled in static and dynamic regression-discontinuity designs. The...

Corruption is one of the most pervasive obstacles to economic and social development. However, in the existing literature it appears that corruption seems to be less harmful in some countries than in others. The most striking examples are well known as the “East Asian paradox”: countries...

The global population is forecasted to reach 9.4 billion by 2050, with much of this increase concentrated in developing regions and cities. Ensuring adequate food and nourishment to this large population is a pressing economic, moral and even security challenge and requires research (and action)...