Evaluation Of Chinese Urban Anti-poverty Policies During Transition

Chinese urban poverty occurred after its market-oriented reform, especially became more serious since the mid1990s along with the rapid economic transition. In order to release the urban poverty, a series of anti-poverty policies have been proposed by the governments at all levels, including macro policies and institutions for the employment and economic growth, as well as micro policies and institutions for the minimum living security of urban resident. Based on this, aiming to evaluate the effeciency of urban anti-poverty policies from macro and micro aspects and provide theoretical basis for the improvement of anti-poverty policies, the foreign and domestic evaluation techniques and tools are used combining with the survey data of Chinese urban residents.The effects of every economic policy on poverty are expressed on the variation of poverty indice, which are the foundation and premise for evaluation, so the meanings, characteristics and calculating methods of some major poverty indice are introduced in this paper at first. The poverty indice in this paper can be divided into two types: (1) F-G-T poverty index. It is the most frequently used one, which can be further divided into three indice: poverty incidence rate, poverty gap rate and squared poverty gap rate. They can respectively reflect the extension, depth and intensity of poverty. (2) Watts poverty index and exit time index derived from Watts poverty index. Both of which are sensitive to the income distribution of poverty population, and the latter is very meaningful. There are different characteristics and emphasises in these five poverty indice of two types, so the effects of anti-poverty policies can be evaluated from different aspects.The first section of this dissertation is the evaluation of the impacts of macroeconomic or preventive economic policies on the urban poverty. Economic growth is the sustained power for poverty reduction, but the effects are determined by income distribution. Firstly, the relation among economic growth, income inequality and poverty in Chiese urban since 1980 are quantitatively analysed. Secondly, the impacts of economic growth on poverty are calculated by both F-G-T index and exit time index. The results show that the rate of poverty reduction through growth is marginally diminishing, and the adverse effects of income inequality on poverty reduction become greater and greater, so poverty can not be alleviated automaticly only by economic growth itself. Chinese urban poverty is also accompanied with citiziaton, the latter will influce rural, urban and nation's poverty. Finally, the impacts of citization on urban and nation's poverty are evaluated by four factors decomposition method in this paper. Citization aggravates the urban poverty to some extent, but alleviates the nation's poverty to a great extent.The second section of this dissertation is the evaluation on the globalization on the urban poverty in China. Besides economic institution reform, opening up is another important resource of Chinese economic growth, but the effects of opening up or globalization on poverty are ambiguous. The impacts of FDI and export trade on Chinese urban poverty are also measured through co-intergration analysis, which indicates that FDI increases the income shares of poverty population, but enlarges the income distribution within them; in contrast, export trade decreases the income shares of poverty population, and reduces income inequality within them too. Chinese urban poverty is more serious in middle and west regions, and the globalization and transition of middle region are faster than those of west region. Therefore, the impacts of globalization, industrization and privatization on urban poverty are also measured with the data of six middle provinces in this paper, and particular attention is paid to the non-linearity between them. As seen from the results, there is non-linearity between FDI and urban poverty. Only after FDI reaches a certain level will it reduce the urban povety.The third section of this dissertation is the evaluation on the impacts of microeconomic or compensatory policies on urban poverty. Since poverty can not be alleviated automatically by economic growth itself, the concrete compensatory policies and institutions, such as urban resident minimum living security, low-rent housing policy and social medical assistance, are essential for poverty reduction. This section sequentially evaluates the effects of the above three policies. The minimum living security is more systemtic and perfect, and low-rent housing policy and social medical assistance are only on trial. Generally speaking, the three policies can provide some basic service for food, housing and health for urban poverty population, but for the sake of money shortage and management, these policies can neither meet the basic demands for all the urban poverty population, nor prohibit temporary poverty population falling into permanent poverty.This paper is different from other similar studies. Firstly, this paper uses scientific and suitable evaluation techniques and methods, such as poverty equivalent growth rate proposed by Kakwani (2004) and four factors decomposition of poverty indice proposed by Son (2003). Secondly, this paper chooses five poverty indice, which contain F-G-T index and exit time index. Exit time index is very meaningful and meets many axioms. Thirdly, urban poverty are analysed based on unified framework of city and country, providing theoretical basis for the nation'anti-poverty policies.The purpose of the researches on the evaluation on the impacts of anti-poverty policies is to reflect the effects of the policies in the latest twenty years, especially in the period of transition, and to provide theoretical basis for establishing reasonable, normalized and efficient anti-poverty policies. The issue of poverty is global and realistic, and will exist forever in relative meanings. During the period of citization, poverty will be focused on urban regions. So the research on urban poverty will be in long-run and dynamics. On the other hand, along with the Chinese social system extending to rural regions, the findings in this paper can also have strong implication for the analysis of rural poverty in the new times.