From an administered labor system under central planning, the Chinese economy has moved towards a labor market. This book reviews the progress that has been made over two decades of urban economic reform. It analyzes the underlying political economy that has both induced and impeded reform, and examines the economic changes that have unleashed market forces. Based on frontier research using specially designed and collected survey data, the book documents the rising wage inequality, the greater rewards for skills, the growing wage segmentation based on labor immobility and profit-sharing, the emergence of serious urban unemployment, and the competition from the rising tide of rural migrants. China does not yet have a functioning labor market: the book concludes by examining the prospects for its creation.
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‘Based on an extensive and original survey work, this book constitutes an enlightening and comprehensive description of the evolution and the current state of the Chinese labour market, in urban as well as rural areas, on the side of individuals, households and firms…This book is of primary importance in the light of China’s current growth and of the international concern about its impact on the world’s economy, and because of the number of people involved.’ ― Journal of Transition, January 2006
“…the overall features of the gradual transition of the Chinese labour market are excellently documented in this book…” ―
Asian-Pacific Economic Literature
“In Towards a Labour Market in China, John Knight and Lina Song organise more than a decade of their research into a well-built theoretical structure to show an orbicular picture of China’s labour market evolution…Having drawn an overall picture of China’s labour market formation, not only have the authors thoroughly and accurately reviewed the reforms of the urban labour system and employment policies, but they have also analysed the extent of and limitations to that evolution empirically.
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Asian-Pacific Economic Literature
About the Author
John Knight is Professor of Economics in the University of Oxford, and Fellow and Vice-Principal of St Edmund Hall, Oxford. John has acted as an adviser to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security in China, World Bank, U.K. Department for International Development, ILO and WIDER.
Dr. Lina Song is Reader in Chinese Economy and Society at Nottingham University. She was a founder-member of the Rural Development Study Group, formed in the early 1980s to advise the Chinese Government on rural economic reform. Most of her research projects have involved collaboration with Government agents, such as Chinese Ministry of Labour and Social Security, the State Committee of Trade and Industry, the State Council Office for Restructuring Economic System, and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. She has advised both British and Chinese governments.
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