Case Study:

International Political Economy

Li Jie 51-138242

The Effects ofRoad Infrastructure on
Poverty Reduction in Rural China

Li Jie,51-138242

Case Study:

International Political Economy

Li Jie 51-138242

Table of Contents
Research Question ....................................................................................................... 3
1

Literature Review and Research Objectives ...................................................... 3
Disputes over China’s “Linking All Villages” Projects ......................................... 3
Controversies in academic field ............................................................................. 3
Other poverty reduction theories ........................................................................... 4

2

Data and variables ................................................................................................ 5
Dataset.................................................................................................................... 5
Dependent variable ................................................................................................ 6
Independent variables ............................................................................................ 7

3

Results .................................................................................................................... 8

4

Discussion............................................................................................................. 11
Findings................................................................................................................ 11Internal Validity ................................................................................................... 11External Validity .................................................................................................. 125Case Study: rural road development in Yuechi County .................................. 13
Yuechi County profile .......................................................................................... 13
Rural road construction ........................................................................................ 14
Impact observation ............................................................................................... 15
Discussion ............................................................................................................ 18

6

Comparison with other poverty reduction alternatives .................................. 19
Dependent variable .............................................................................................. 20
Independent variable ............................................................................................ 20
Control variables .................................................................................................. 21
Regression model ................................................................................................. 21
Results and discussion ......................................................................................... 22

7

Policy Implications and scope of future research ............................................ 25

Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 26
References .................................................................................................................... 281

Case Study:

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Li Jie 51-138242

Introduction
The World Bank (WB) reported in its September 2012 report that there areabout 1.29 billion poor people who live below US$1.25 dollars a day. Two-thirds ofthe total (855 million) lives in South and East Asia. In China alone, in the year of
2009, people living below the line accounted for 153 million, 11.8% of its whole
population. This figure has been reduces due to the Chinese governments’ long lasting
poverty alleviation efforts during the past five years, but still hovered around 10% fornow(Merrell and Viveros 2013).
Despite being the second-largest economy in the world, the country's per
capita income is still par with countries like Angola, Jamaica and Tunisia. 1 As
evidenced by the WB survey in 2012, China consist almost half of the total poor in
the whole world. China's Government is presently taking strong measures to cascade
growth and development in the poor peripheral areas through investment on
infrastructure, education, health care and development programs.2
This research paper studies the effect of road infrastructure in reducing
poverty in rural China. The study aims to provide further empirical evidence on theimportance of building roads in poverty alleviation in China, in particular, Net per
Capita Annual Income of poor villages in rural China being the dependent variable
and road infrastructure as the key independent variable.
The research uses the 2002 World Bank data that conducted surveys in six
provinces around China. Research findings conclude that transportation infrastructure
has a positive impact on income of poor villages and serves as an important tool inpoverty alleviation in rural China. Research suggests that road infrastructure projects
merit higher priority complemented by other poverty alleviation reforms and
1
2

The Worldbank. http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GNP.PCAP.CD
International Fund for Agricultural Development. Rural Poverty in China.
http://www.ruralpovertyportal.org/country/home/tags/china

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mechanisms that provide basic public services to poor villages.
Research Question
Does road infrastructure development have significant influence on poverty
reduction in rural China?
1 Literature Review and Research Objectives
The motivation of this study lies on two parts: finding a solution to theongoing dispute over China’s rural infrastructure projects and testing the real effect ofroad construction to poverty alleviation based on controversial academic findings.
Disputes over China’s “Linking All Villages” Projects
Since the beginning of 2000s, Chinese government has significantly increased
the budget for poverty reduction. Most of the poverty reducing investment was spenton transport infrastructure as part of the “Linking All Villages” projects. During theperiod of 11th Five-Year-Plan (2006-2010), China invested approximately 954 billion
yuan (US$157 billion) in construction and improvement of about 1.87 million km
rural roads. Almost all the townships in China have accessible roads, about 97 percentof which are paved by asphalt or cement concrete; and 99.4 percent of theadministrative villages have accessible roads, about 84% of which are paved.
However, some public intellectuals doubt the investment on road construction
due to the lack of empirical evidence. They argue that many road projects were built
just for the sake of political achievements, because among a big number of
infrastructure projects such as electricity, telecommunication, water system, school
and clinics, road construction requires the least time and most obvious outcome. This
study aims to provide empirical results about the effect of transportation infrastructure
to the annual net per capita income of villages in rural China.
Controversies in academic field3

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In the academe, continuous controversy ensues over the effect of enhancing
transport infrastructure to alleviate poverty in rural China. Wang (2010) believes thatinvesting on infrastructure will alleviate poverty and enhance economic growth(Wang 2010). Kanbura and Rauniyar (2010) conducted a more in-depth analysis ontransport infrastructure development and suggest that policy should focus on (1)improving road connections within rural areas and (2) improving road connections
between rural and urban areas (Ravi and Ganesh 2010).
However, many scholars argue that the relationship between infrastructure andeconomic growth is nuanced. The Department for International Development (DFID)
in UK (2002) suspects the effectiveness of infrastructural assistance for two reasons.
First, though important for economic growth, infrastructure investment had little
relevance to poverty reduction. Second, actual benefits from infrastructure weresignificantly less than anticipated (DFID 2002). This research aims to test whether
transportation infrastructure development has significant effects in rural China.
Other poverty reduction theories
According to a study of the World Bank, poverty in China is concentrated in
the Western provinces of the country, of which townships are mostly remote andmountainous. Causes of poverty in rural China involve lack of access to natural
resources, health care, infrastructure, credit and labor. The study then concludes that
China’s Government is urged to focus policy in providing improved access to basic
education, health, credit, water, supply, roads, and other basic infrastructure (World
Bank, 2000).
In another study, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) concluded the same thatpoor need greater access to education, health services, water, sanitation, employment,
credit, and markets (ADB 1999; Ali and Pernia 2003), while McKague and Oliver4

Case Study:

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Li Jie 51-138242(2012) added that supplementary access in market practices are also key to engage arange of market-oriented organizations to improve the prosperity of the poor（
McKague and Oliver 2012）.
Based on these researches, the study contributes to the literature by coming up
with empirical results of whether transport infrastructure development has significant
effect on increasing income of villages in rural China. In addition, the research tries tocapture the pure effect of transport infrastructure development to alleviating poverty
by including control variables like accessibility of villagers to education, health care,convenience in the collection of water, contribution of non-farm income and job
opportunities in non-farm sectors.
2 Data and variables
DatasetThe data in the research was collected from the Poverty and Development:
CCAP Village Survey in 2003, which was published in the China Survey Data
Network.3 The survey was conducted by a team lead by Professor Linxiu Zhang of
the Center for Chinese Agriculture Policy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Professor
Scott Rozelle of the University of California at Davis, and Professor Loren Brandt of
the University of Toronto. They made a multi-stage stratified sampling, choosing
2459 villages in six provinces, namely, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Gansu, Hebei and
Jilin. The provinces and villages are typical in China in terms of geographicaldistribution and economic development. With self-enumerated questionnaires, thesurvey collected a great deal of information about basic characteristics of villages,
public project investment and governance system. From the original dataset, we
extracted the sub-dataset of basic village information to test the influence of road3

China Survey Data Network. “Poverty and Development: CCAP Village Survey (2003),” accessed Nov 3, 2012, http://www.
chinasurveycenter.org /CSDN _EN /DownLoadChannel _new/ detail.aspx?ClassID=4&DataID=19#.

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infrastructure on the economic development of linked villages (See appendix I table1). The observation unit in the research involves the villages, at which all data arecollected at the village level.
With regard to the research objective, original data is further processed andconverted for the analysis with Stata statistical software. In order to examine theeffects of road infrastructure on poverty alleviation, the research only includes lowincome villages with annual per capital income less than 2000 Chinese yuan
(US$320), which is roughly the median of annual per capita income of rural
households in 2002.4 After excluding the missing data, the data included a total of1450 villages of observation in the research. At the same time, the researchers opted
to make some adjustments from the original data, such as rescaling some variables tomake the data more comprehensible. In total, seven variables are generated and areincluded in the following analysis. The definition and summary of variables can beseen in Table 1.
Dependent variable
In the research, we access the poverty situation of poor villages in rural China
by looking into the per capita net income of surveyed villages (netinc) in 2002.
Although poverty is defined by scholars from different perspectives, income poverty
measurement has been widely accepted and used in research and real work（Mowafi2012）. In low-income households, basic consumption such as foods and clothes
account for a large percentage of total expenditure. Accordingly, per capita income isa better measurement of poverty severity than per household income. Furthermore,
the dependent variable netinc is further converted into its logarithm form, which gives
more direct information about income changes and income gaps. The range of netinc

4

National Bureau of Statistics of China, China statistical yearbook 2003 (Beijing: China Statistics Press, 2003), 367.

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for the surveyed villages is from 100 yuan to 2000 yuan with a mean of 100.42 yuan.
Independent variables
The key interest variable labelled as roadpass is considered by the researcherswhich measures whether there is at least a paved road connected to the village. Whenthe villages are connected to the road network, it is given by roadpass equal to 1;otherwise it is equal to 0. In the study, 37 percent of the surveyed villages areconnected by at least a paved road.
Poverty is a complicated socio-economic problem with diverse causes. To
examine the pure effect of road infrastructure, other control variables are included in
the regression model (Table 3). According to the ADB study conducted in 2003,
education, health care and water source are important factors affecting poverty
reduction. To control the omitted variable bias, variables of propilliter (percentage ofilliteracy), ownclinic (clinics locate in the village) and distwat (distance to the water
source) are included in the regression model. To test whether the effects of roadpass
differ according to different levels of marketization, nonfarminc (percentage of nonfarm income) and ownentpriz (enterprises located in the village) are also included ascontrol variables.
Collected by self-enumerated questionnaires, the data encountered missing
values and limited quality. Fortunately, missing data only happened to few villages
and it does not have significant influence on the analysis and interpretation of results
after dropping the observations with missing data. With regard to data quality, we
have conducted prudent examination to predict the data’s potential influence on the
research and kept this in mind while interpreting the regression models. The
descriptive statistics of the variables are illustrated in Table 1.

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Table 1: Definition and Summary of variables: Poverty Causes Data
Variables

Definition

Samples
size

Mean

Std.
Deviation

Min.
valuesMax.
valuesnetinc

Net income per capital in
2002, unit: Chinese yuan

1540

1100.42489.51100

2000

roadpass=1 if there is a tarred roadpassing through the village,=0 otherwise

1540

0.37

-

0

1

propilliter

Percentage of illiterates
among total labor

1540

11.26

16.23

0

100

ownclinic=1 if there is at least one
clinic located in the village,=0 otherwise

1540

0.82

-

0

1

1540

3.85

9.28

0

100

1540

32.76

23.29

0

100

1540

0.23

-

0

1

distwatnonfarmincownentpriz

The distance to the mostcommon water-source in 100
meter
Percentage of non-farmincome in the net income percapital (%)=1 if there is at least one
enterprise located in thevillage,=0 otherwise

3 Results
After testing the correlation between variables in table 2, researchers trieddifferent regression models. We compared specifications 1 and 2 in table 3, andobserved that the two models have similar adjusted R2. We decided to consider
specification 2 as our basic regression model to examine the relationship between
income of villages and available road infrastructure since it is more convenient to
explain income changes and gaps. Accordingly, we added sequentially two blocks ofvariables to the equation which represented the accessibility to basic public service
and local marketization level. This ordering provided a means to observe how
accessibility of other basic public service and marketization changed the coefficient oftransport infrastructure. Our particular interest is to test how significant is the8Case Study:

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influence of road infrastructure on increasing income and reducing poverty.
Table 2: Coefficient between Variables
variables

netincome roadpass

propilliter ownclinic

distwatnonfarminc ownentpriz

netincome

1.0000

roadpass

0.13661.0000propilliter-0.2509-0.07311.0000ownclinic

0.09900.1279-0.1678

1.0000

distwat-0.1603-0.0855

0.0723-0.03421.0000nonfarminc 0.1756

0.1369-0.0230

0.1123-0.0185

1.0000ownentpriz 0.1595

0.2492-0.0895

0.1273-0.0664

0.19391.0000

Table 3 presents four hierarchical regression equations predicting average
income in villages. The first equation examines the relationship between income androad infrastructure in a linear model. The second equation reveals the relationshipbetween percentage change of income and road infrastructure. The third equation adds
basic public service variables.
We find out that the coefficient of road infrastructure decreased from 0.1474 in
specification 2 to 0.1069 in specification 3. This indicates that basic public services
are also important determinants of rural poverty. The fourth equation adds two morevariables about marketization, which also change the coefficient of road infrastructure
significantly. Based on specification 4, the influence of road infrastructure issignificant at the 5% significance level, while other variables except ownclinic havesignificant influence at the 1% significance level. Here we still include ownclinic,
which is significant at 10% significance level as a control variable in the regression
model. After comparing statistics such as adjusted R2, we choose specification 4 as
our prediction model.

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Table 3: Regression model of the impact of road infrastructure
Dependent variable (Y): Per capita net income of surveyed villages in 2002.
Y

Ln(Y)

Ln(Y)

Ln(Y)

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

138.4018**

0.1474**0.1069**0.0686*(25.6017)(0.0273)(0.0264)(0.0269)-0.0076**-0.0075**(0.0009)(0.0008)

Ownclinic

0.0990*0.0705(1=owning clinic, 0=otherwise)(0.0388)(0.0381)

Distance to water source-0.0072**-0.0070**(in 100m)(0.0015)(0.0014)

Regressor
Roadpass(1=road passing, 0=otherwise)
Percentage of illiterates

0.0034**

Percentage of non-farm income(0.0006)

Ownentpriz

0.0899**(1=owning enterprise, 0=otherwise)(0.0302)1049.189**

6.8265**6.8737**6.7776**-15.5744-0.0176-0.0398-0.0423

Adjusted R2

0.01860.0177

0.09820.1260SER

485.090.53010.50780.4999

1540

1540

1540

1540

Constant
Summary Statistics

No of observations

Note: Standard errors are given in parentheses under coefficients. Individual coefficients are
statistically significant at the *5% level or **1% level.

The regression function is presented below:̂𝒍𝒏(𝒏𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒄)=6.7776+0.0686roadpass-0.0075propilliter+0.0705ownclinic-0.0070distwat+0.0034nonfarminc+0.0899ownentpriz(Adjusted

R2=0.1260,

SER=0.4999)
The coefficient of roadpass is 0.0686, which indicates that those villages
connected to at least a paved road are expected to have average income 6.86 percent
higher than other villages. More evidences and information is needed to judge thepractical importance of the influence of road infrastructure, such as the specificincome distribution in impoverished rural China and the difficulty to increase farmers’

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income in surveyed villages.
4 Discussion
Findings
Inferences can be made from the regression analysis cited above:
First, road infrastructure has statistically significant influence on poverty
reduction in underdeveloped rural China. The research presents empirical evidence forthe project of “linking all villages”, that building road infrastructure could be aneffective means for the Government to promote economic development and reducepoverty in rural villages. Road infrastructures according to this research mitigate“bottlenecks” to accessing development, education, health, water, among others.
Second, accessibility to basic public services also has significant influence on
increasing income. Providing public service is accepted to be alternative means of
reducing poverty.
Thirdly, on the issue of Governments facing budget limits, policy makers
should consider the practical importance and costs of various projects to decide policy
priority. Comparing the coefficients of roadpass (6.86%) to that of ownclinic (7.05%),both projects have similar influence on poverty reduction. Nonetheless, despite
roadpass having a slightly less impact, it is reasonable for the Government toprioritize transport infrastructure first because it is much easier to implement, morewelcomed by farmers, and provides better mobilization of incoming developments inhealth, education and water access in the long run. In addition, implementing betterroad infrastructure promotes marketization which contributes to the alleviation ofrural poverty based on the significant coefficients of the variables nonfarminc andownentpriz.
Internal Validity11

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Omitted variable bias
The researchers acknowledge that there are some factors that may have been

omitted as control variables to explain annual per capita rural income, in particular,
labor force ratio. Villages with higher labor force ratio earn higher per capita income.
In another, the ADB suggested the inclusion of the availability of the village toaccessible credit in the regression equation. However, these two omitted variables
have not been included as questions in the original survey.


Errors-in-variables bias
There may be some ambiguous questions resulting in inaccurate answers of

respondents to the questionnaire, for instance, questions like ‘what is the proportion of
non-farm income in your village?’ These surveys are roughly completed by village
officials, who may be less educated and having difficulties in understanding themeaning of non-farm income. Other issues also include the respondent’s intentionalmisreporting with some villagers understating their income due to the anticipation thatpolicy makers provide more fiscal support to poorer villages.


Reverse causality
In China, the government in certain areas asks villagers to donate some money

to supplement the budget for constructing roads. In this case, richer villages have thehigher likelihood of building more roads, which could bring reverse causality.
However, donation only accounts for a limited percentage in the total cost of building
roads, thus, the research is less likely to have significant reverse causality.
External Validity
The data is collected from 6 separately located provinces from west to east andnorth to south of China. The number of observations in the sample has good
representativeness to estimate the true population. However, since the sample size is12Case Study:

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limited within villages with net per capita income of 2000 yuan and below, thestatistical study is only applicable to poor rural areas and may not explain effects ofroad infrastructure development in richer urban areas. Moreover, the survey was
conducted in 2003 and may no longer be applicable to the current situation. In lieu of
this, the research would need to be reevaluated.
5 Case Study: rural road development in Yuechi County
This section introduces a case study on the rural road development in Yuechi
County, an agricultural county in Sichuan Province in western China, and analyzes its
impact on improving the living of the local villagers. By reviewing the changes taking
place before and after the paved-road construction project, we can have a clear idea ofthe benefits that villagers receive from rural road infrastructure.
Yuechi County profile
Yuechi is a county located in the east of Sichuan Basin, covering an area of
1457 square kilometers, and holding a population of 1.14 million. There are 46
townships and one management committee under its jurisdiction, with 861 villages
and 75.8 acres of arable land in total. Yuechi is a famous agricultural county in
Sichuan Province.
Located in northeastern Sichuan traffic arteries, Yuechi has the regional
advantages as it is close to the "Two Rivers New District”. However, with theadvancement of urban-rural integration, the network of rural roads became lag behindthe needs of local economic development. There was an urgent need to improve thequality of the road surface and the level of accessibility in the rural areas of Yuechi
County. From 2007, the county has launched a massive rural road construction andrehabilitation project. The original muddy trails have been rehabilitated to wide andmotorable paved roads. As of 2013, the county has basically achieved the “linking-all-13

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village" construction goal. It has now set up more than 40 regular buses that directly
connect the county center to each township.
Rural road construction
In recent years, Yuechi has given the priority to develop rural transportation
infrastructure as a tool for local economic development. It began a large-scale road
construction from 2007. Especially after 2010, it further increased the construction
fund. The length of newly-built road grew up to 300 kilometers each year. At the sametime, the traffic order was much improved and the operational level of ruraltransportation was greatly upgraded.


The increasing investment on rural road construction
Within the county district, Yuechi invested 7.9 million yuan on the

rehabilitation of one of its main stems, covering a length of 13.8 kilometer, resulting
in highly-promoted traffic smoothness. It invested 15 million yuan on a new tourist
road connecting the surrounding tourism resources with first level quality according
to national road construction standard. Another 20 million and 66 million yuan has
been invested on the renovation of obsolete roads with bad surfaces and therehabilitation and maintenance of 240 kilometers pitch road that connects more than
40 townships, which contributed to the achievement that every township is connectedto the county center by a pitch road.
With the development of rural economy and the new countryside construction,
Yuechi County continued to increase the construction fund for rural road. It invested
0.13 billion yuan to build village roads of more than 1800 kilometers, and achieved
the goal of “linking all village with paved road”. In 2011 alone, Yuechi received afiscal transfer payment of 0.11 billion yuan from upper government which was
specially utilized for the conversion of bad quality muddy trails into paved roads in

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remote villages, which greatly improved the integration of the rural network in thiscounty. In 2012, Yuechi further increased the construction fund and newly constructed
275 kilometer cerement roads in 32 townships and 48 villages. By that year, thelength of motorable road in the rural area has reached 1200 kilometers.


The growing quality of rural transport operation
Yuechi County selected a bunch of roads of good surface quality for the pilot

project of rural public transport. The county government invested 270 busses for the
regular transport services, benefiting more than 40 townships. Meanwhile, tostrengthen the safety awareness, Yuechi promoted a series of publicity and traffic
violation handling. In 2011, Yuechi invested 0.3 million on setting up traffic signal
light and warning board. It distributed 100 thousand pamphlets to the general public
to raise their safety awareness.
Impact observation
Yuechi is a typical agricultural county in the western part of China. In 2012,
Yuechi’s agricultural GDP (including farming, forestry, animal husbandry, side-line
production and fishery) reached 5.57 billion yuan, accounting for almost 40% ofregional total GDP. It was a 5.7 percent growth over last year. From 2007 onward,
there have been a growing number of roads newly built each year, averaging at 186.75
kilometers per year. At the same time, the famers’ net per capita income has been
increasing and more than doubled from 3611 yuan in 2007 to 7601 yuan by the end of
2012. The figures of regional GDP, the length of newly-built roads and rural per
capita income in Yuechi County is as follows:15

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Table 4: rural road construction and economic development inYuechi County from 2002-2012

Year
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012

Newly-built
road (km)
0
0
0
1.84
0
91.2
70.1
125.2
304.3
254.7
275

County GDP(million yuan)
3148
3620
4082
4651
5280
6393
7720
8500
10120
12930
14226

GDP
growth rate
12.8%
15.0%
12.8%
13.9%
13.5%
21.1%
20.8%
10.1%
19.1%
27.8%
10.0%

Rural per capita
income (yuan)
2040
2185
2532
2865
3100
3661
4314
4688
5311
6565
7601

Amount ofincrease (yuan)
128
145
347
333
235
561
653
374
623
1254
1036

Source: Yuechi government website http://www.scyc.gov.cn/
It is clear from the table that the development of Yuechi’s economy in the new
century can be divided into two phases: Phase 1 is from 2002 to 2006 when there wasmerely no newly built road. During those years, the amount of rural income increase
was less than 350 yuan, the county GDP annual growth rate was suppressed under 15
percent. Phase 2 begins with the massive rural road construction project in 2007; boththe GDP growth rate and per capita income received remarkable increases. The year
2007 is a significant watershed, after the launch of the massive road construction, theGDP growth rate strikingly increased from 13.5 percent in the previous year to 21.1
percent, a nearly 8 percentage point increase, and rural per capita income for the firsttime climbed up to 560 yuan. The positive relationship between rural road
construction, GDP growth and per capita income increase is further illustrated ingraphic lines in Figure 1.

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Figure 1: the trend of local economy with the development rural road network

Newly-built road (km)Rural per capita income (yuan)County GDP (million yuan)

350

16000
14000

300

12000

250

10000

200

8000
150

6000

100

4000

50

2000

0

0
2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

The interviews with local residents reflect the impact of rural road
construction on peoples’ living. A farmer in Lizi village of Shiyazi town reported thatthe paved road built in 2010 has attracted many tourists from outside to a lake sceneryspot near their village, which inspired his idea of doing business with these tourists by
opening a grocery store and selling food and drinks to them.
Another villager described the inconvenient situation before the project.
“When it rains, it is hard for me to send my children to school through the muddy way
because I have to should the little one on my back with the elder one hand in hand.
Though I wanted to start my own business, the marked access was very limited. Now
things have changed, I have decided to plant more vegetables and develop scale
breeding of pigs”5
Other villagers said the wide and unblocked cement road connected their small
village to everywhere, thus the transport cost of their agricultural products has been
5This villager was interviewed by journalist and the news is at http://www.gazx.org/content/20147/9/2014791044915700.htm

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greatly reduced, which has provided them more opportunities to sell the farm products
to outside markets.
At the same time, the establishment of rural public transport in Yuechi County
saved the villagers’ commute time to town and county centers. Villages recalled thetime when there were no busses; they had to ride motorbike on the bumpy country
trails if they wanted to go to townships. Now the bus directly brings the villagers to
the outside world. Every township and 44 percent of 861 villages now enjoy thetransport service. The easier access to urban areas has widened the farmers’ vision andinstilled vigor to the remote villages, which promotes the urban-rural integration
process. Today, the villages along the paved roads have experience significant change
from mud-brick houses to two-storey mansions, from ox carts and vehicles drawn by
man to cars and motorcycles.
Yuechi’s local economy is shaped by the development of rural road. Fourmodern agricultural production bases with an area 10400 hectares have been set up
for large scale fruit, cash crop and timber production, and the beautiful rural views
have been utilized to establish new ecotourism. villagers believe that the wide roads
will lead them to wealth and comfort.
Discussion
In 2012, Yuechi upgraded its agricultural industry by rebuilding several
vegetable and dried fruit production bases and establishing seven modern agricultural
demonstration zones, the reconstruction area reached up to 13000 hectares. With thesupport of the road networks, these agricultural products could be easily transported
to vast market inside and outside Sichuan Province, which effectively contributed to
local economy development. In 2012, Yuechi’s agricultural GDP increased by 5.7
percent over last year. The villages with significant achievements in road construction

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received highest growth rate.
The circulation of agricultural goods, rural human resources and lands has
been escalated by the massive rural roads construction in Yuechi County. It promoted
the commercialization of the elementary agricultural product and rural lands andactivated rural economy. The integration of rural road network will not only specialize
the production function and promote scale economy, which eventually raises the
production efficiency, but also reduce the transport cost and expand the market reach,
therefore increase the transaction efficiency.
The rural road construction has changed local agricultural economy from
homegrown to commercialization. Now villages in Yuechi County have greater ability
to attract capital, technology and human resources, which enhanced the planting andbreeding industry and created new space for tourism. This remarkable change has
upgraded farmers’ living standard, expanded their employment chances and promoted
the urbanization and marketization in the area.
6 Comparison with other poverty reduction alternatives
The case study on Yuechi County’s rural road development reinforces the empiricalfindings in section 3 that road infrastructure has positive impact on poverty reduction
and living standard improvement. However, building road is not the sole solution topoverty reduction.

Other types of infrastruature projects such as irrigation, drinking

warter, electricity and telecommunications (especially cell phones) also have beenshown to have positive effect on villages (World Bank, 1994; Songco 2002, Don,
Ricardo & Moinul 2000). Besides, government services that would enhance humancapital such as elementary education and basic healthcare are also proved to beeffective both empirically and practically. (Lasker, Weiss & Miller, 2001; Gomes &Câmara, 2004; Hegtvedt Willson 1984). When it comes to practice, should the19Case Study:

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policymaker prioritize road infrastructure over other infrastructure projects, or theother way around? This section compares the degree of impact of road with all rural
infrastructures ranging from irrigation, drinking water, electricity, telecommunication
to school and clinic, by running a multiple regression using ordinary least square(OLS) estimator. Therefore, a preliminary regression model would be:
Poverty reduction indicator = f (policy initiative of interest; control variables)
Dependent variable
Poverty reduction can be estimated by various indicators such as income or
expenditure per capita, inequality measures such as Gini index or other measurement
such as literacy or infant mortality rate. For the sake of consistency, this section stilluses the logarithm form of per capita net income (lognetinc) as the dependent variable.
Independent variable
The independent variable contains all the police initiative of interest; in otherwords, it is the measurement of public projects such as road, irrigation, drinking water,electricity, telecommunication and school and clinic. In order to compare the impactof road with these policies at the same scale, we extracted another sub-dataset which
describes the development projects that had been implemented since 1998 (Seeappendix I table 2). Per capita income was merged into this dataset by village ID. The
dataset was further modified by setting dummy variables to record each project
received by villages. If the village had received a particular project, school or
irrigation for instance, it is marked as 1, otherwise it would be 0. There are 2453
observations in this sample cohort.
In this study, road is the key independent variable, and others are considered as
supplementary independent variables. The bunch of independent variables are named
as HasRoad (road project built after 1998), HasIrri (irrigation project built after 1998),

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HasWater (domestic water project built after 1998), HasElc (electricity project built
after 1998), HasTlcm (telecommunication project built after 1998), HasSchool (school
built after 1998), and HasClinic (clinic built after 1998).
Control variables
Likewise, control variables are selected the same as the previous regressions,
namely, propilliter (percentage of illiteracy), ownclinic (clinics locate in the village)and distwat (distance to the water source), nonfarminc (percentage of non-farmincome) and ownentpriz (enterprises located in the village). However, as in thisregression, we incorporate an independent variable HasClinic, which is hightly
correlated with ownclinic, hence ownclinic is dropped from control variables.
Regression model
After defining the dependent, independent and the control variables, theregression model is constructed as follows,
Specification 1:
lognetinc = c+α1*HasRoad
Specification 2:
lognetinc = c+α1*HasRoad+ β1*propilliter + β2*distwat+ β3*nonfarminc+
β4*ownentpriz
And, Specification 3:
lognetinc = c+α1*HasRoad+ α2* HasIrri + α3* HasWater + α4* HasElc + α5*
HasTlcm+ α6*HasSchool+ α7* HasClinic+ β1*propilliter + β2*distwat+
β3*nonfarminc+ β4*ownentpriz

The reason for constructing three specifications is we want to test the pure
impact of road by incorporating all other public project, these project can be grouped
as joint independent variable. By comparing the change in the coefficient of α1 before

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and after these variables, we can see the pure effect of road construction on increasing
per capita income and compare it with other policy alternatives.
Results and discussion
The regression result is presented in Table 5. In specification 1, the coefficientof the key interest independent variable HasRoad is positive and significant at 1%
level, meaning that if the village had received road project since 1998, the net percapita income would be expected to increase by 18.8% than those who had not.
Control variables are needed to mitigate the omitted variable bias. By incorporatingthese variables in specification 2, we see a remarkable decrease in the coefficient from
0.1880 to 0.0455, suggesting that the villages with road built actually received only 4%higher per capita income than those without. Meanwhile, the significant level also
decreases to 5% level.

The adjusted R square increases obviously from 0.0167 to

0.2809, implying a better degree of fitting in regressions in specification 2.
To compare the impact of road with other public projects, we ran a third roundof regression, and the result is illustrated in speciation 3. The coefficient of HasRoad
is still positive, however, it is not significant at 5% level any more6. Among the
supplementary independent variables, only HasIrri, HasElec, HasSchool and
HasClinic are statistically significant. As is summarised in Table 6, the clinic

construction has the greatest impact on poverty reduction, villages with this project
implemented would receive 25% higher income. It is understandable as village clinics
provide healthcare services to the local villagers, whenever they get sick, they can betreated immediately and recover soon, which is beneficial to maintain productivity.

6

Though the coefficient of HasRoad is still significant at 1% level, in statistics, this level is primarily
not accepted22Case Study:

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Table 5: Regression Models of the impact of other public projects
Dependent variable (Y): Per capita net income of surveyed villages in 2002.
Regressor

HasRoad(1: has road project, 0:otherwise)
HasIrri(1: has irrigation project, 0:
otherwise)
HasWater(1: has demostic water project, 0:
otherwise)
HasElec(1: has electricity project, 0:
otherwise)
HasTlcm(1: has telecommunication project, 0:
otherwise)
HasSchool(1: has school project, 0: otherwise)
HasClinic(1: has clinic project, 0: otherwise)

Ln(Y)

Ln(Y)

Ln(Y)

Specification 1

Specification 2

Specification 30.1880**0.0455*0.03422(0.0287)(0 .0253 )(0.0254)0.0601*(0.0270)-0.0367(0.0262)0.1071**(0.0312)
0. 0113(0.0243)-0.1364**
0 .02430.2554**0.0404

propilliter(Percentage of illiterates)-0.0139**-0.0135**(0.009)(0.0008)

distwat(Distance to water source in 100m)-.0052**-0.0045**(0.0001)(0.0016)

nonfarminc(Percentage of non-farm income )0 .0063**

0.0060**(0.0005)

0.0005Ownentpriz(1:owning enterprise, 0:otherwise)

0.3764**0.3570**(0.0273)(0.0274)

7.176**

7.0198**6.9738**(0.0222)(0.0294)(0.0416)

Adjusted R2

0.01670.28090.3038SER

0.69810.5974

0.5886

No of observations

2453

2453

2453

Constant
Summary Statistics

Note: Standard errors are given in parentheses under coefficients. Individual coefficients are statisticallysignificant at the *5% level or **1% level.

The second comes to the electricity project with some 10% increase function
on income. Electricity is a fundamental infrastructure for rural production. The

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electricity network generates energy for farming and breeding as well as improvevillagers’ living standard. Irrigation also has a positive influence on local income,which is consistent with Songco (2002)’s finding.
Table 6: Summary of the impacts of other public projects
Project

CoefficientSignificance

Explanation

Road

0.03422

insignificant-

Irrigation

0.0601

5% level

6.01% increase in net per capita income
if the project was implemented

Domestic water-0.0367

insignificant

Electricity

0.1071

1% level

10.88% increase in net per capita
income if the project was
implemented

Telecommunication

0. 0113

insignificant-

School-0.1364

1% level

13.64% decrease in net per capita
income if the project was
implemented

Clinic0.2554

1% level

25.03% increase in net per capita
income if the project was
implemented

It is confusing in this test that School has a negative impact on poverty reduction. It
can be explained by a reverse causality. In fact, the village school construction project
was launched very early in the 1960s, and by 1990s, most villages had primaryschools in or nearby. Those who received the construction school project areconsidered to be really remote and poor. In addition, rather than clinic, electricity andirrigation, education is a long term project which cannot receive immediate utilization.
Resultantly, those who were originally poor were selected to have school project
implemented, and the income of these villages cannot be increased in short term fromthe construction year1998 to the survey year 2003, hence the negative coefficient of24

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HasSchool is comprehensible.
7 Policy Implications and scope of future research
Based on the results of the research, the following are the proposed implications
for evaluation of policy makers:
First, Given that the coefficient of roadpass is positive in the first regression
equation, and a strong evidence from the case study of Yuechi County’s rural roaddevelopment, China should continue the “Linking All Villages” project. Taking into
account the comparative costs and the villagers’ participation, building infrastructure
merits priority because it is easier to implement and more acceptable by the villagers.
Second, besides road construction, other infrastructure projects such as
electricity networks and irrigation system should be upgraded, as these projects exert
immediate and effective influence on improving the living standard and income levelof rural people. However, considering the cost of designing and implementation thecomplicated power and irrigation system, policy makers need to conduct a careful
cost-and benefit-analysis. Whether to prioritize road construction over the otherinfrastructure is subject to the context of specific projects in different development
phases. It should be cautiously examined case by case.
Third, with the provision of road connections to villages, the government
should also enhance basic public services of the following:Provide free education to poor households to reduce illiteracy and conduct
teacher training programs to enhance education quality;Establish clinics to safeguard villagers’ health and enable them to engage
more in livelihood projects to augment income; andCreate water supply systems along accessible roads to reduce villagers’
time and effort in obtaining water, a critical resource for both production25

Case Study:

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and living.
Last but not least, Government should promote marketization in
impoverished rural areas. For instance, the local government can formulate
preferential policies to stimulate non-farm economy, and provide specialized training
and privileges to local income-generating enterprises.
For future research, the regression model could include additional control
variables that measure access to credit, labor workforce ratios, among others. The
research could also involve looking on other benefits of building road infrastructures
such as the benefits of interconnecting villages that synergize output and economic
growth in poor villages in rural China. The research can further the study bycomparing between the effects of building road infrastructure in urban areas and rural
areas in China. Future researchers can also replace the dependent variable and suggest
variables that measure the social impact of building road infrastructures in the poorer
areas in China.
Conclusion
The study concludes that indeed, building road infrastructures have a positiveand significant effect on the annual net income per capita of villagers in rural China.
Projects that enhance road construction connecting rural areas of China deserve
Government’s attention and need priority. Other public projects, especially village
clinic, electricity and irrigation system also deserves policy makers’ consideration.
With limited budget, the prioritization of different public projects needs cautious
investigation and examination.
Although road is not the sole solution for poverty reduction, an integrated ruralroad network would enable higher economic growth by reducing transport cost andactivating local economy as villagers have more chances to see the outside world.

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Poverty reduction needs synergistic effect from various policy initiates, roadinfrastructure projects can be complemented with other poverty alleviation reforms
such as education, health, access to water systems, and access to market economy.

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References
Ali, Ifzal, and Emesto M. Pemia. (2003). "Infrastructure and Poverty Reduction—
What Is the Connection?" ERD Policy Brief Series No. 13Asia Development Bank:
Economics and Research Department.
China Survey Data Network. “Poverty and Development: CCAP Village Survey(2003),” accessed Nov 3, 2012, http://www. chinasurveycenter.org /CSDN _EN/DownLoadChannel _new/ det ail.aspx?ClassID=4&DataID=19#.
Don Richardson, Ricardo Ramirez, Moinul Haq, (2000), “Grameen Telecom’s Village
Phone Progamme in Rual Bangladesh: A Multi-Media Case Study”. CanadianDevelopment Agency
International Fund for Agricultural Development. Rural Poverty in China.
http://www.rural povertyportal.org/country/home/tags/china
Gomes, C. A., & Câmara, J. (2004). Training for rural development in Brazil:
SENAR. Rome & Paris: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations &International Institute for Educational Planning.
Hegtvedt-Willson, K. (1984). “A curriculum for the county”. Small School Forum,
6(1), 3-4.
Lasker, R. D., Weiss, E. S., & Miller, R. (2001). “Partnership synergy: A practicalframework for studying and strengthening the collaborative advantage”. The Milbank
Quarterly, 79(2), 179-205.
McKague Kevin, and Oliver Christine. (2012). “Enhanced Market Practices: Poverty
Alleviation for Poor Producers in Developing Countries”, University of California,
Berkeley, VOL. 55, No. 1
Merrell Tuck, and Viveros Alejandra. Poverty: Recent Estimates and Outlook. (2013).
The World Bank.
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:20040961~
menuPK:34480~pagePK:64257043~piPK:437376~theSitePK:4607,00.html
Mowafi Mona, “The Meaning and Measurement of Poverty: A Look into the Global
Debate,” accessed May 3, 2014,
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~dludden/Mowafi_Poverty_Measurement_Debate.pdf.
National Bureau of Statistics of China, China statistical yearbook 2003 (Beijing:
China Statistics Press, 2003), 367.
Ravi Kanbura, and Ganesh Rauniyarb. (2010)“Conceptualizing inclusive
development: with applications to rural infrastructure and development assistance”
Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Vol. 15, No. 4: 437–454
Rural Development and Natural Resources Unit, East Asia and Pacific Region. 2000.
China: Overcoming Rural Poverty. The World Bank. October,.

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Songco, J., (2002) “Do Rural Infrastructure Investments Benefit the Poor? ” WorldBank Working Paper 2796, Washington, DC
The World Bank. http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GNP.PCAP.CD
United Kingdom Government Department for International Development (DFID).
2002."Making the Connections: Infrastructure for Poverty Reduction." London.
Wang Jiguang.(2010) “Sustainable Development, Poverty Reduction, andInfrastructure in Western China” The Chinese Economy, vol. 43 : 6-30.
World Bank, 1994. World Development Report 1994: Infrastructure for Development.
Oxford University Press, New York.

Appendix I (see next page)29

2003 Rural Survey on World Bank Project Evaluation
Province：________County：________Township：_________Village：_________Name of respondent：_____________Tel.：_____________________
Table 1: Social and Economic Indicators of the Village
Unit
Basic information
1.

How many “small groups (xiaozu)” in your village?

2.

Total households

3.

Of which : Full-time farming household

4.
5.
6.

HouseholdHouseholdHouseholds who don’t farm at all

HouseholdHouseholds with family businessHouseholdTotal population

Person7.

Of which: Han people

Person8.

Net per capita income per year

Yuan

9.

Of which: proportion of off-farm income%

10. Distance between the two most further away small groups (xiaozu)

Km

Land information
11. Total arable land

Mu

12.

Mu

Of which 1: flat land13.

terraced land

14.

Of which 2: irrigated land

Mu

15.

Sown area of crops

Mu

16.

Mu

Of which: Grain crops

Mu

17. Area of orchard, tea, mulberryMu

18. Forest

Mu

19. Of which: economic forest, excluding orchard in forest

Mu

20. Grassland (including Grain for Green)

Mu

21. Water area (including fish pond)

Mu

Labor force informationMu

22. Total labor force

Person23.

Person24.
25.

Of which 1: Working off-farm inside the village
Daily commuters

PersonOut migrant

Person26.

During the SARS epidemic in 2003, how many people returned?

27.

Of which 2: Illiterate

28.

PersonPersonSenior high and above graduates

Person

29.
30.

1

2002

1997

Unit

Infrastructure
31. How many schools in your village?
32. When was the most recently built school built?

Year

33. How many clinics in your village?

Entries34.

Of which: How many clinics were built by the village/xiaozu(s)?

Entries

35.

When was the most recently built clinic built by thevillage/xiaozu(s)?

Year

36. How many households have access to electricity?

Household

37. How many households have access to tap water?

Household

38. How many households have telephone or cell-phone?

Households

Geographic information and Environment
39. Any tarred road passing thru your village? 1=yes; 2=no
40. The distance from the village committee seat to the nearest tarred roadKm

41. Type of tarred road
1=national; 2=provincial; 3=county; 4=town; 5=other (please specify)
42. Distance from village committee seat to township seatKm

43. Main vehicle to township seat by average villagers
1=on foot;2=bicycle; 3=tricycle; 4=motorbike; 5=passenger bus; 6=passenger ship;
7=other (specify)
44. Time to township seat by the main vehicle?

Hour

45. Of total arable land : Proportion of flatland

%

46.

%

Proportion of land steeper than 25 degrees

47. Extent of soil erosion
1=very serious; 2=serious; 3=slight; 4=none
48. Grassland quality
1=very good; 2=good; 3=fair; 4=poor; 5=very bad
49. Type of drinking water
1=tap water; 2=water cellar; 3=well;4=spring; 5=river, lake, reservoir; 6=other (specify)
50. Distance from village committee seat to the major drinking water source

Km

Other
51. How many fellow villagers working at township government?

Person52. How many fellow villagers working at county government or above?

Person53. How many secondary technical school and above graduates produced
since 1982?

Person54. Is the village committee in debt? 1=yes 2=no55. If yes, how much debt in your village?

10000yuan

28. Number of enterprises
29. Of which: village/xiaozu-run enterprises, excluding enterprises jointly run
by several households

2

2002

1997

Table 2 : Public Project
Since 1998 (including 1998), has/does your village had/have any of the following public projects?
1
ProjectCode*

1=have2=have
not

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

Brief
description

Primary
purpose ofthis project

Start
year

Start
month

Finishyear

Finishmonth

Total
investment(includin
g
cash
and
material)Of
total
investment:
Loan

Of total
investme
nt:Villagematching
fund

Labor days
contributedbyvillage(excluding
paid
time
contribution)

How
many
Xiaozubenefit?

How
manyhouseholds
benefit?

Project
cover
age

Source(s)of fundWho
actually
carriedout theproject?

10,000 yuan

10,000yuan

10,000 yuan

XiaozuHousehold

1=world bank2=otherinternational
agency(specify)3=poverty
alleviation
office4=developme
nt office
5=ministrial
channel
6=foodforwork
7=village
8=others(specify)

1=village
committee
2=townshipgovernment
3=county
level
government
agency4=project
office5=others(specify)

1=increase
farmers’
income2=improve
farmers’ living
status3=improve/pro
tectenvironment
4=generate job
opportunities
5=increase
villagerevenue
6=others(specify)

Project code*: 11=Build road or bridge; 12=Build school; 13=Build clinic; 14=Drinking water; 15=Irrigation system; 16=Drainage system; 17= Electricity; 18= Telephoneline; 19=Radio/TV cable; 20= Land improvement; 21=Watershed management; 22=Terracing; 23=Downtown planning and improvement; 24=Logging ban and foresting;
25= Eco-forest; 26=Grain for green; 27=Building pasture; 28=Activity and recreation room3

Table 3: Development Project
Since 1998 (including 1998), has/does your village had/have any of the following development projects?
1
ProjectCode*

1=have2=havenot2
Brief
description

3Primary
purpose of
thisproject

1=increase
farmers’
income2=improve
farmers’ living
status3=improve/pro
tectenvironment
4=generate job
opportunities
5=increase
villagerevenue
6=others(specify)

4
Start
year

5
Start
month

6
Finishyear

7
Finish
month

8
Total
investment(includi
ng cashandmaterial)
10,000 yuan

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

Of
total
investment:
Loan

Of total
investme
nt:Villagematching
fund

Labor
days
contributedbyvillage(excluding
paid
time
contribution)

How
many
Xiaozubenefit?

How
manyhouseholdsbenefit?

Project
coverage

Source(
s)
of
fund

Who
actually
carriedout theproject?

10,000yuan

10,000 yuan

XiaozuHousehold1=worldbank
2=otherinternationalagency(specify)
3=poverty
alleviation
office4=develop
ment
office5=ministri
al channel
6=food forwork
7=village
8=others(specify)

1=village
committee
2=townshipgovernment
3=county
level
government
agency4=project
office5=others(specify)

Project code*: 29=Grain crop; 30=Cash crop (including commercial vegetable); 31=Orchard; 32=Green house; 33=Economic forest; 34=Livestock; 35=Fishpond;
36=Family business; 37= Computer; 38= Micro credit
4Table 4: Information on Village leaders since 1998
1. When was the latest village election in your village?
3

4

5
Tenure from

Title

Term

Villageleader

First

Name

year

month

6

_______year
7

Tenure to

year

month

2. When was the Second latest village election in your village? __________year

8

9

10

11

12

GenderAge now

Education

Occupation before
taking the position

How did he/she get the position?

1=illiterate
2=primary
3=junior high4=senior high5=secondary
technical and above

1=full-time farmer
2=wage earner
3=self-employed
4=village/small
group cadres
5=retiredserviceman
6=other (specify)

1=male2=female

years

SecondThird
FourthFifth

Partysecretary

First
SecondThird
FourthFifth
5

1=General villagers election
2=village committee election
3=appointed by township or above
4=party branch election
5=other (specify)

6

Table 5: Farmer special technical association
带格式的: 项目符号和编号1、 Are there any villagers in your villages who are members of any farmers associations?
1=yes; 2=no (skip to 23)
2、 If yes，is the association run by your village, jointly by several villages?
1=this village；2=multi-villages；3=both
3、 How many households in your village are members of any associations？
(unit: households)
4

5

Name
of theassoc
iationEstabl Is
the Coverage of With whom did Which
Who initiatedthis association sector is the association?
ishing association
theyear run by your association register?
associationvillage only or
mainlyby jointly by
involved?
severalvillages?

year

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

thisHow many How

13

Dohouseholds
manyformalfrom your househol members
village are ds from of
this
your
associatio
formalmembers of village
n need to
this
are
pay
association? informal members
members hip fee?
of
thisassociation?
1=Some villages1=Not registered; 1=livestock
1=village committee;
1=yes
of this township; 2=Science
and2=plant
2=township or above
2=no
2=All across this technology
3=handicraft
government
3=don’tindustryknow
1=your villagetownship;commission;
3=social groups;
3=All across this3=civil(>>8)
affairs4=finance
4=enterprise,
including householdhouseho
2=multi-villages county；
5=other serviceleading enterprises;
bureau;ld
5=specialized households;
4=Some counties4=agricultural
sectorbysomein this province; bureau;
6=other (specify) 6=jointly
5=Across
5=commerce
farmers;
provinces
bureau;7=others (specify)
6=other(specify)

7

14

15

Does thisassociatio
n
have
any
constituti
on?

Does
this
associati
on hold
membermeetings
every
year?

1=yes
2=no
3=don’t
know

1=yes
2=no

16

17

18

19

20

21

theDoestheHow
areIs it oneIs thereIs the headDoes
major
person oneprofit oftheassociation association
decisions vote in thissharing association haveitsearn profit?
made in theassociation in thisgovernmentown
association ?
associati official orenterprise?
?
on?
villagecommittee
member?

1=joint
1=yes
decision by
2=noall
members 3=don’t
2=decisionbyboardknow
members oftheassociation
3=thebackboneofthe
association
4=governm
ent
5=other(specify)

1=yes
2=no

1=yes
2=no

1=yes
2=no

1=yes
2=no,
it’s
non-profit
3=no,
the
management
is not good
4=other(specify)

22. If there is any association in your village, are there any associations in other villages that predate theassociation in your village?
1=yes; 2=no; 3= don’t know
23. Has county or township government sent out any red title documents to your village specifically for the
purpose of promoting the development of association？
1=yes; 2=no; 3= don’t know
24. Has county or township government held any meetings (including experience sharing) specifically for the
purpose of promoting the development of association？
1=yes; 2=no; 3= don’t know
25. If there is no association in your village now, do other villages in this county have any association?
1=yes; 2=no; 3= don’t know

Table 6:village affair management

1、If a villager wants to convert his/her arable land into fishing pond，is it necessary for him/her to get a permit
from the township government?
1= yes, he/she must get a permit; 2=only notify；3=no2、If villager wants to establish a small-scale, say a cloth factory, how many days does it take to apply for abusiness license?

(unit：day)

3、How much money does it take a villager want to apply and get an private business license?
（unit：yuan）
4、 If the village wants to have major land reallocation in the village, is it necessary
to get approval from the township government?
1= yes, must；2=only notify ；3=no5、 In 2002, how many obligation labor days did your village provide as required by
the upper level government?
6、 In 2002, how many village cadre meetings were organized by the county and township governments?
(not including meeting about election)（unit：time）
7、 In the recent village election, how many village cadre meetings were organized by the county
and township government.
（unit：time）
8、In 2002, how many red title documents did your village get from the township government?
9、In the process of village election, do candidates need to be approved by the township government？
1=yes；2=only report；3=no10、What’s the attitude of upper level governments toward violation of the family planning policy?
1=absolutely not allowed；2=fine payment or other penalty；3=no measure
11、Can newly married-in women get arable land?
1. Yes, immediately; 2. yes, if there is land in the village; 3.Not until next adjustment;
4. No; 5.other (specify)
12、Can newly born child get arable land?
1. Yes, immediately; 2. yes, if there is land in the village; 3.Not until next adjustment;
4. No; 5.other (specify)

13、Can divorced women can keep her land?
1＝yes; 2＝it’s up to the family; 3＝no, land will be taken back by the village; 4＝other(specify)
14、In 2002, how many technical trainings was organized in your village?（unit：time）
15、In 2002, how many persons participate in those technical trainings?

1（unit：person times）