Access to Markets and Rural Poverty: Evidence from Household Consumption in China
Posted: 14 Feb 2011 Last revised: 30 Apr 2014
Date Written: February 10, 2011
Abstract
This paper presents evidence on the effects of access to domestic and international markets on per capita consumption of households using data from rural China. The econometric analysis uses alternative identification schemes to address the potential endogeneity of access to markets. We use straight line distances to coastline and navigable river along with topography of the intervening counties as sources of exogeneous variations. We also use identification through heteroskedasticity which does not rely on standard exclusion restrictions. The results from alternative identification schemes show that (i) better access to both domestic and international markets has positive effects on per capita consumption, (ii) the domestic market effect is significantly larger in magnitude and (iii) there is complementarity between the access to domestic and international markets.
Keywords: Access to Markets, Household Consumption, Domestic Market, International Market, Rural Poverty, China
JEL Classification: O12, O16
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