Relative Deprivation in China

Relative deprivation (RD), also known as relative poverty1, an idea im-plicitly put forward by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations in 17762 and formally conceptualized by Runciman (1966), refers to the discontent people feel when they compare their positions to others and realize that others in the group possess something that they do not have. The issue of RD is important to the Chinese people as reflected in the traditional saying “it is better to be the head of a chicken than the tail of a phoenix”, which suggests that taking a rel-atively good position benefits people in the Chinese society. More importantly, RD is also a pressing issue in China. China has experienced unprecedented uneven growth during the last three decades of economic reform, which has been accompanied by worsening inequality. This entry briefly reviews the key Yale University, xi.chen@yale.edu. Copyright 2013 by Xi Chen. All rights reserved. Readers may make verbatim copies of this document for non-commercial purposes by any means, provided this copyright notice appears on all such copies. 1In contrast to absolute deprivation (or absolute poverty) that applies to all underpriv