Towards a Labour Market in China

John Knight is Professor of Economics in the University of Oxford, and Fellow and Vice-Principal of St Edmund Hall, Oxford. John has acted as an adviser to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security in China, World Bank, U.K. Department for International Development, ILO and WIDER.Dr. Lina Song is Reader in Chinese Economy and Society at Nottingham University. She was a founder-member of the Rural Development Study Group, formed in the early 1980s to advise the Chinese Government on rural economic reform. Most of her research projects have involved collaboration with Government agents, such as Chinese Ministry of Labour and Social Security, the State Committee of Trade and Industry, the State Council Office for Restructuring Economic System, and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. She has advised both British and Chinese governments.

'Based on an extensive and original survey work, this book constitutes an enlightening and comprehensive description of the evolution and the current state of the Chinese labour market, in urban as well as rural areas, on the side of individuals, households and firms...This book is of primary importance in the light of China's current growth and of the international concern about its impact on the world's economy, and because of the number of people involved.'

• INTRODUCTION ; 1. Setting the Stage ; 2. Labour Policy and Progress ; THE URBAN LABOUR MARKET ; 3. Increasing Wage Inequality ; 4. The Spatial Behaviour of Wages ; 5. Rural Migrants in Urban Enterprises ; 6. Redundancies, Unemployment and Migration ; 7. Immobility and Segmentation of Labour ; THE RURAL LABOUR MARKET ; 8. Rural Labour Allocation ; 9. The Imperfect Labour Market ; 10. Conclusion