Paying for Progress in China

Vivienne Shue is the Leverhulme Professor and Director of the Contemporary China Studies Programme at Oxford University.Christine Wong is the Henry M. Jackson Professor of International Studies at the University of Washington.

• Introduction: Is China Moving to a More Equitable Development Strategy? 1. Can the Retreat from Equality Be Reversed? An Assessment of Redistributive Fiscal Policies from Deng Xiaoping to Wen Jiabao 2. Has China Reached the Top of the Kuznets Curve? 3. Local Governance, Health Financing, and Changing Patterns of Inequality in Access to Health Care 4. Paying for Education in Rural China 5. Social Security in Transition 6. Investing in Rural China: Tracking China’s Commitment to Modernization 7. Who Receives Subsidies? A Look at the County Level in Two Time Periods 8. Local Governance, Policy Mandates and Fiscal Reform in China

'The well-presented studies provide a rich starting point, analysing China's current reform challenges from a variety of angles and disciplinary perspectives, opening up new research and policy questions for futher work, and demonstrating the value of collaboration across related fields of public finance, governance and welfare. Overall, the volume provides an excellent model of how a group of researchers can collectively focus on a core set of questions, using detailed empirical results to tell a powerful story.' - Sarah Cook, The China Quarterly, 191, September 2007'This volume should appeal to a broad audience of Chinese studies scholars and be a useful resource for graduate-level courses on contemporary Chinese politics' - SASCHA KLOTZBÜCHER, China Information, 2008; 22; 183'This book is sure to have an important impact, and all libraries, scholars and students of Chinese politics, society and economy would do well to read it' - William Hurst, The China Journal, January 2008"This volume should be a staple in any course on China's political economy, and it will also appeal to professional and policy audiences." - Kellee S. Tsai, Journal of Asian Studies