The Effect of Trade Liberalization on Chinese Rural Poverty

Type Journal Article - Asian Social Science
Title The Effect of Trade Liberalization on Chinese Rural Poverty
Author(s)
Volume 5
Issue 5
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2009
Page numbers 23-33
URL http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ass/article/download/1696/1594
Abstract
There has been much controversy over the impacts of trade liberalization on poverty. Some have argued that trade
liberalizations are beneficial to the poor in developing countries, while others have argued that the gains will be
captured more by the non-poor. The policies of trade liberalization in China have reduced the NPRs of some
agricultural products, which cut down the welfare of its producers, but the expansion in foreign trade of agricultural
products rapidly reduces rural poverty. The change in foreign-trade construction of agricultural products not only
impacts the welfare level of different kinds of agricultural producers, but also makes the farmers in coastal areas be the
greatest gainers. This paper applies SURE with simultaneous-equations to assess the link of trade-poverty in China, and
its result shows that the link of trade-poverty in China is characterized by inverted U-shape. That is, before the mid
1990s, trade liberalization in China worsens the rural poverty; and after then it is beneficial to rural poverty reduction.

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