This symposium contains three papers on poverty and inequality in China. The issues surrounding inequality have been high profile in China for some time. They reflect the growth policies adopted in a commitment, initially from the mid-1980s onward, of growth almost at any price independent of...

In the extant literature either income or consumption expenditures as measured over short periods of time have been regarded as a proxy for the material well-being of households. However, economists have long recognized that a household's sense of well-being depends not just on its average...

This paper analyses the effects of access to Rural Public Works (RPW) and Public Distribution System (PDS), a public food subsidy programme, on consumption poverty, vulnerability and undernutrition in India drawing upon the large household data sets constructed by National Sample Survey (NSS)...

Using pooled household level data for the Indian states of Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh we find that the size of landholdings is a negative predictor of participation in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Program (NREGP). In state level analysis this pattern survives in Rajasthan but...

Economists have long recognized that a household's sense of well-being depends not just on its average income or expenditures, but also on the risks it faces. Hence vulnerability is a more satisfactory measure of welfare than poverty. In this paper we measure the extent of vulnerability as...