Small Works: Poverty and Economic Development in Southwestern China

摘要

In Small Works, John Donaldson sets out to explain the curious fact that despite experiencing slower economic growth than neighbouring Yunnan Province, Guizhou has been more successful at reducing poverty. While Yunnan has outperformed Guizhou in the reform era in terms of GDP growth, net rural incomes in poor Yunnan counties have lagged significantly behind those in Guizhou. Yunnan's growth, in other words, has failed to "trickle down" to benefit the poor. After a systematic consideration of a raft of explanatory factors - demographic, cultural, economic, and political variables - Donaldson settles on four seemingly unrelated factors that nevertheless offer the most robust keys to understanding the puzzle of poverty reduction without economic growth. These are road types and densities, out-migration patterns, tourism development strategies, and coal mining.