Fri May 21 13:05:39 EDT 1999
Name: Dwayne Benjamin
Email: brandt at chass.utoronto.edu
Institution: University of Toronto
Co-author: Loren Brandt, University of Toronto
Title: China: Historical evidence
Internet Address of abstracted work:
By mail:
Dwayne Benjamin and Loren Brandt
c/o EEH Editorial Office
525 B Street Suite 1900
San Diego CA 92101-4495
Language: English
Abstract:
Drawing on a unique household-level data set from the northeast China in
the 1930s, this paper explores the connections between the distribution of
land, factor markets, and income distribution. We test whether patterns of
income inequality were consist ant with the predictions of a market
clearing, neoclassical model linking land and labor endowments, through
factor markets to household income. While the model is consistent with some
features in the data, we reject the hypothesis that factor markets worked
perfectly and find support for the historian's intuition regarding the
disproportionate impact of land inequality in the countryside.
Nevertheless, where markets were more active, specially land rental
markets, excess returns to land were diminished and inequality was lowest.
This suggests that factor market development played a positive roll in
reducing inequality in rural China.
Bibliography: Benjamin, Dwayne and Loren Brandt. "China: Historical
evidence." Explorations in Economic History, October 1997.
Subject: D
Geographical Area: 2
Country/Region: China
Time Period: 8