LI Shi is Professor of Economics at the School of Economics and Business, Beijing Normal University. He has done research as a visiting scholar at the University of Oxford and Göteborg University, has taught as a professor at Hitotsubashi University and is the co-editor of China’s Retreat from Equality (M. E. Sharpe, 2001).Hiroshi SATO is Professor of Chinese Economy and Society at the Graduate School of Economics, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo. He is the author of The Growth of Market Relations in Post-Reform Rural China (Routledge, 2003).

• 1. Introduction Part 1: Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty 2. Labour Retrenchment in China: Determinants and Consequences 3. Unemployment Duration and Earnings of Re-Employed Workers in Urban China 4. Unemployment, Poverty and Income Disparity in Urban China 5. Economic Restructuring and Income Inequality in Urban China 6. Rising Poverty and its Causes in Urban China 7. Three Poverties in Urban China 8. Unemployment, Consumption Smoothing, and Precautionary Saving in Urban China Part 2: The Emerging Labour Market 9. From 'Work Unit Socialism' to a Stratified Labour Market 10. A Labour Market in Motion?: Job Mobility in Urban China 11. How Does Firm Profitability Affect Wages in Urban China? 12. The Role of Social Capital in the Labour Market in China 13. An Investment Model of Social Capital with Empirical Application to Women's Labour Market Outcomes in Urban China

'Based on a series of large-scale household surveys in a number of Chinese cities, this volume provides timely and informative studies on the issues of unemployment, inequality, poverty and their interrelationships... a collection of good quality empirical studies... this volume presents a rich and detailed profile of the urban poor in China.' - Shenjing He, China Information, vol. XXI, no. 3, 2007'This book broadens our understanding of the functioning of the Chinese urban labour market and new urban poverty in China. Scholars and policy makers will certainly appreciate the authors' hard work' - Mark Wang, University of Melbourne, IDPR, 2009