Markets and Income Inequality in Rural China: Political Advantage in an Expanding Economy
基于1996年全国调查数据，研究中国农村市场化改革中政治职位对家庭收入的持续影响，发现干部身份的优势不随经济增长减弱，而创业回报随工资就业普及下降。
When market reform generates rapid growth in an agrarian subsistence economy, changes in inequality may be due to economic growth and structural change rather than to the intrinsic features of markets. The case of post-Mao China is examined using nationally representative survey data gathered in 1996 to address unresolved questions about findings from 1980s’ surveys. Well into reform's second decade, political officeholding has a large net impact on household income—comparable to that of operating a private enterprise. Contrary to findings based on earlier surveys and expectations about the impact of growth, cadre household advantages are stable across levels and forms of economic expansion. Returns to entrepreneur ship, however, decline sharply with the spread of wage employment. Future declines in relative returns to political position are therefore unlikely to occur due to the further spread of private household entrepreneurship, and theories of change based on this mechanism appear untenable.