Uneven Human Capital Development in Contemporary China

Regional inequality is one of the most challenging issues facing China in the coming decade. Whilst this matter can be approached from different standpoints; mainstream scholars have tended to examine this issue by way of monetary measurement (e.g. GDP or income per capita). This study draws attention to the non-monetary aspect in order to shed new light on regional inequality. This book focuses on the gaps and trends of human capital development, a key non-monetary index proxying for regional inequality in transitional China. Taking education and health status as two key indicators, in particular, this book aims to trace the trends in regional inequality over the last two decades, investigate to what extent those two dimensions can help to identify and integrate factors behind regional disparities, and to analyse some profound policies and implications. The analysis of this study should be useful to professionals in educational and health economics as well as policy-makers on social development, or anyone else who may be interested in economic, political and social challenges in China posed by inequalities.