China, like other middle income countries, is facing the challenges of the next stage of development as its leaders seek to guide the nation into becoming a high income country. At this same point of development, however, other countries have faltered, raising the possibility of stagnation or...

The major objective of this paper is to discuss the development of rural labor markets in China during the past two decades and understand how it has affected women. Using household survey data that we collected in 2001, we examine the role of women in labor markets by examining employment and...

Growth and economic development are major concerns around the world. Specifically, a number of developing countries still face major blockages to improving the well-being of the majority of their population. Therefore a fundamental issue arises: how can such countries go through a successful...

This study seeks to explain the differences in infrastructure quality across China’s villages. Using primary data on three main types of infrastructure projects in rural China, we find that a.) between-project within-village quality differences are small and project design has little...

The overall goal of the paper is to understand the progress of the implementation of China’s New Cooperative Medical System (NCMS) program. In the paper we seek to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the program and understand its effect on rural residents using a panel of...

Consumers have increasing demands for product standards. This has important implications for development. This paper develops a formal theory of the process of the introduction of high product standards in developing countries. The model endogenizes the introduction of high standards. Initial...