>I thought that "we" was "us." Is there anyone who doesn't believe
>that Deng Xiaoping's dismantling of the communes in the late 1970s
>triggered an enormous increase in agricultural production in China?
That may be, but does that translate into increased welfare for peasants? Haven't scores of millions been displaced, desperate for day labor in the cities?
World Bank economist Branko Milanovic's work - part of a first effort to estimate global income distribution on the basis of household surveys (an article on which is also imminently forthcoming in LBO) - shows the following ginis* for China for 1988 and 1993. These increases in the space of just five years are fairly stunning. His numbers on global income distribution are pretty stunning too.
GINI INDEX
1988 1993 China(rural) 29.3 32.9 China(urban) 23.3 27.1
Doug
------ *For an explanation of the gini index/ratio/number/statistic, see <http://www.panix.com/~dhenwood/Gini_supplement.html>.