This paper studies the trend of Chinese rural welfare and its inequality in the second half of
the 1980’s using rural household survey data of Guangdong and Sichuan. In this connection,
different indicators of economic well-being are used. Compared with other transitional
economies, rural inequality in China increased moderately in the second half of the 1980’s. In
spite of a more rapid pace of transition, Guangdong’s rural inequality did not increase. No
monotonic relationship between the pace of transition and rural inequality is thus discernible.
Finally, by decomposing overall rural inequality into its between-region and within-region
inequalities, we explore the relative importance of inter-provincial inequality. J. Comp.
Econom., December 1998, 26(4), pp. 783–804. The Chinese University of Hong Kong,
Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong. ©