| Using representative household data, this dissertation considers the level, composition and distribution of household wealth-holding in rural China in 1988 and 1995. More importantly, it analyses the changes that have taken place in composition and distribution of assets over this time period, and locates the origins of many of these shifts in specific facets of rural reform. We find that despite the profound reorganization of the rural economy ushered in by reform, the distribution of wealth in 1995 remains remarkably equal. Indeed, China, unlike virtually every other developing or developed economy, has a distribution of assets which is more equal than its distribution of income. Unfortunately, despite the low degree of asset concentration in absolute terms which we find in rural China, we also find evidence that wealth is becoming more concentrated over time.;Considering the specific components of household wealth---land, housing, fixed productive assets and financial assets---we find first that land remains the largest part of household wealth, contributing over 50 percent of the total value of household wealth in both years. Land also continues to exert an equalizing effect on the overall distribution of household wealth, with its concentration ratio in both years below the corresponding Gini coefficients. Perhaps most interesting, we find that land displays a "double movement," becoming more equally distributed in physical terms over the period, while more unequal in value terms.;We also find that fixed productive assets are more unequally distributed in 1995 than in 1988. The is due, in part, to the declining importance of traditional fixed assets such as livestock and tools. Despite their rise in inequality, however, fixed productive assets still serve as an equalizing force on overall wealth distribution, offsetting, in particular, inequalities in housing and financial asset holding. These interactions are all the more important, as financial assets have been the fastest growing element of household net worth, and remains a disequalizing force on overall wealth distribution. Similarly, housing value has grown respectably, and gotten more unequally distributed over the period. Housing also continues to exert a disequalizing effect on total wealth distribution. |
