Governmental Transition and Consumption Inequality in Urban China: 1988-2009

摘要

By summarizing the research data of urban households in S City in China, this thesis mainly studies the impact of governmental transition on consumption inequality and it finds that government transition have certain impacts on social inequality. Government role, in the process of transiting gradually from the economic construction-oriented government to service-oriented government, has increased spending on education, health, social security and other public welfares. Relative fairness in education and health spending among different units of the system helps to narrow the gap of social inequality. However, spending on social security did not play the role of reducing inequality through redistribution, but has exacerbated the social inequality.