The argument is that China had rapid GDP growth during both the 1980s and the 1990s but the welfare implications for the Chinese people during these two periods have been very different. During the entrepreneurial decade of the 1980s, fast GDP growth was accompanied by equally fast household income growth. During the state-led 1990s, fast GDP growth diverged from household income growth. In particular, rural income – the best measure of the welfare of the majority of the Chinese population – sharply declined in terms of its growth rates compared with the 1980s.
