Evaluate Solutions

With the rapid development of industrialization and urbanization in China, the government has facilitated residents from rural areas move into cities. As the decision maker thought, this policy has increased the supply of workers and thus kept efficient production. The Economist (2006) states that in lots of Chinese countryside, remittances from villagers who have found work in cities have helped to raise living standards considerably. This demonstrates that the solution indeed benefits those immigrants to a certain extent, which will gradually narrow the gap between urban and rural areas and therefore help with the equity. The mass migrations can be an achievable solution during a short period of time in terms of improving equity and efficiency; however, there are some negative effects which need to be noticed.

Although labors from villages could be more competitive than graduates as they require less payment, it is not practical for companies or factories to provide so many jobs in such a short time. Furthermore, as Feng,et.al (1999) points out that as a large portion of agricultural population moved into non-agricultural sectors, it has created difficulties for cities to conduct social control. This implies that as cities become more crowed, common concerns particularly the pollution problem may become more severe. Consequently, the environmental costs are dramatically high. Another disadvantage of this solution is it has depopulated rural areas and as a result of this, agriculture and rural development are threatened. It has been shown by Ravallion,et.al (2005) that when the prime part of a country's poverty is found in its countryside, it is acceptable that agricultural growth plays a significant role in poverty reduction.

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