The large-scale reform of the state-owned sector and the development of a private sector in the 1990s changed the nature of employment in urban China. The system of allocated, lifelong jobs (the iron rice bowl) that had previously prevailed under state planning was eroded, permitting more labour...

In China urban residents have traditionally been protected against labour marketcompetition from rural-urban migrants. Over the period of urban economic reform, rural-urbanmigration was allowed to increase in order to fill the employment gap as growth of labourdemand outstripped that of the...

This paper provides an overview of research on income inequality in China over the period of economic reform. It presents the results of two main sources of evidence on income inequality and, assisted by various decompositions, explains the reasons income inequality has increased rapidly and the...