Book review of Invisible China: How the urban-rural divide threatens China’s rise

Publication Type

Book Review

Publication Date

4-2023

Abstract

In Invisible China, Scott Rozelle and Natalie Hell argue that a human capital crisis in China’s rural population threatens the continued development of the Chinese economy and is likely to cause China to stumble into the ‘middle-income trap’. The key theoretical insight underlying this argument is the ‘time inconsistency’ that middle-income countries face: the human capital requirements for their further advance must be built up decades in advance when there is no need for that in a low- to middle-income economy. This inconsistency is particularly heightened in China’s case. China’s rapid advance to middle-income status has left it no time to accumulate the broad-based human capital indispensable for the transition to a high-end service economy.

Discipline

Asian Studies | Sociology

Research Areas

Sociology

Publication

Journal of Development Studies

Volume

59

Issue

4

First Page

613

Last Page

614

ISSN

0022-0388

Identifier

10.1080/00220388.2022.2132709

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2022.2132709

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