The ethnic minority-majority income gap in rural China during transition
The ethnic minority-majority income gap in rural China during transition
复制标题
DOI：
10.1086/377191
复制
发表时间：
2003-07-01
影响因子：
2
通讯作者：
Shi, L
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Gustafsson, B;Shi, L
20世纪90年代中期，少数民族约占中华人民共和国人口的9%。1从比例上看，这不是一个很大的数字。然而，就中国人口而言，9%的人口就超过了1亿，比任何一个欧盟国家的人口都多。因此，很有必要问问中国的少数民族人口过得怎么样。此外，在解决这个问题时，很自然地要将中国少数民族人口的收入状况与多数人口的收入状况进行比较。由于工业化和经济体制向市场经济转型，中国正在经历迅速的变化。随着经济的发展，许多人的生活水平也提高了。中国农村少数民族的收入与多数民族的收入同步了吗？许多观察人士的回答是否定的，但支持这一观点的相关数据尚未获得。许多情况可以解释为什么少数民族比中国农村的大多数人生活得更差；这或许也能让我们深入了解为什么少数族裔和多数族裔的收入差距会扩大到现在的程度。例如，两国人口在人力资本存量和家庭特征方面存在差异。一个重要的观察结果是，少数和多数人口具有不同的空间分布；大多数少数民族生活在中国的西部，通常是在高海拔地区，那里的经济增长速度较慢，部分原因是自然条件不利。那么，本文可能要解决的第二个问题是，为什么少数族裔与多数族裔之间的差距会扩大。
Ethnic minorities made up approximately 9% of the population in the People’s Republic of China in the mid-1990s. 1 As a proportion, this is not a very large number. For China’s population, however, 9% yields a figure of more than 100 million persons, a number greater than the populations of every single European Union country. It is thus highly warranted to ask how the minority population in China is faring. When addressing this question, it is, furthermore, natural to compare the income situation of the minority population in China with that of the majority.China is experiencing rapid change owing to industrialization and the transition in the economic system toward a market economy. As the economy has expanded, living standards have risen for many. Have the incomes of people belonging to the minority nationalities in rural China kept pace with those of the majority? Many observers answer in the negative, but relevant figures for supporting this have not been obtainable. A variety of circumstances may explain why ethnic minorities are worse off than the majority in rural China; these may also provide insight into why the minority-majority income gap has widened to the extent that it has. For example, there are differences in the stock of human capital and in household characteristics between the two populations. One important observation is that the minority and majority populations have different spatial distributions; most minority persons live in the western part of China, often at high altitudes where economic growth has been slower partially because of the physically unfavorable conditions. The second question this article might address, then, is why the minority-majority gap has widened.