Fixing inequality in Hong Kong / Yue Chim Richard Wong.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wong, Y. C. Richard (Yue-chim Richard), 1952- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Equality--China--Hong Kong.

Equality.

China--Hong Kong.

Physical Description:

xvi, 298 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Hong Kong : Hong Kong University Press, 2017.

Summary:

When discussing inequality and poverty in Hong Kong, scholars and politicians often focus on the failures of government policy and push for an increase in social welfare. Richard Wong argues in Fixing Inequality in Hong Kong that universal retirement support, minimum wage, and standard hours of work are of limited effect in shrinking the inequality gap. By comparing Hong Kong with Singapore, he points out that Hong Kong needs a new and long-term strategy on human resource policy. He recommends more investment in education, focusing on early education and immigration policy reforms to attract highly educated and skilled people to join the workforce. In analyzing what causes inequality, this book ties disparate issues together into a coherent framework, such as Hong Kong's aging population, lack of investment in human capital, and family breakdowns. Rising divorce rates among low-income households have worsened the housing shortage, driving rents and property prices upwards. Housing problems have created a bigger gap between those who own housing and have the ability to invest in their children's human capital and those who cannot, thus adversely impacting intergenerational upward mobility. This is the third of Richard Wong's collections of articles on society and economy in Hong Kong. Diversity and Occasional Anarchy and Hong Kong Land for Hong Kong People, published by Hong Kong University Press in 2013 and 2015 respectively, discuss growing economic and social contradictions in Hong Kong and current housing problems and their solutions. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part 1 Introduction

1 Rekindling Hong Kong's Magic 13

2 The Population Numbers Challenge 20

3 The Population Quality Challenge 29

4 Human Capital Enhancement through Education and Immigration 36

5 Differential Growth Rates in Singapore and Hong Kong: Policy versus Human Capital 42

Part 2 Alleviating Poverty Is Hard

6 What Is Wrong with the Poverty Line 51

7 The Poverty Line and the Value of Public Rental Housing Subsidies to the Poor 61

8 Social Welfare Policy and an Income Subsidy Scheme 66

9 Social Programs, Third-Sector Competition, and Transparency 76

10 Policies for Addressing Near-Poverty 85

Part 3 Human Capital, Income Inequality, and Intergenerational Mobility

11 Human Capital, Poverty, Inequality, and Intergenerational Mobility 97

12 Education and Individual Income Inequality 105

13 Education, Divorce, and Household Income Inequality in Hong Kong 110

14 The Top 1% and Top 10% of Income Earners 116

15 Education and Earnings of the Bottom 99% 123

16 Upward Mobility in the United States and Hong Kong 129

17 Factors Critical for Improving Intergenerational Mobility 135

Part 4 The Family Matters

18 Why Family Savings and Investing in Children Matter to the Economy 143

19 Early Childhood Education: Unlocking the Secrets of Income Growth and Inequality 150

20 Growing up in Hong Kong before and after 1980: A Statistical Portrait of Education Opportunities 156

21 Growing up in Hong Kong before and after 1980: Housing and Divorce Matter 162

22 Divorce, Inequality, Poverty, and the Vanishing Middle Class 168

23 Divorce and Dynamic Poverty 173

Part 5 Housing and Land

24 Finding $3,336 Trillion in Housing Capital 181

25 The High Cost of Regulating Development 186

26 Building Codes and Postwar Reconstruction in Hong Kong 195

27 On Hong Kong's High Land Prices 202

Part 6 Business Strategy

28 Demographics and Business Entrepreneurship 209

29 New Strategies Needed as Third Industrial Age Unfolds 214

30 Attract Immigrants or Become Like Japan 218

Part 7 Fiscal Concerns

31 On Balancing Rising Long-Term Budgets for a Free Society 225

32 Health Care and Rising Public Budgets 231

33 Means-Tested Old Age Allowances versus Universal Retirement Schemes 240

34 Tackling Long-Term Budget Deficits in an Aging Society 248

35 Greece and Hong Kong: Fiscal Opposites, Same Politics 255

Part 8 Labor Market Measures That Don't Work

36 Minimum Wage Effects on Household Income Distribution and the Labor Market 261

37 The Value of Not Working and Long Working Hours 267

Part 9 What Is the Real Challenge

38 Demystifying the Rising Poverty Rate 279

39 Reflections on Old Age Poverty in Public Rental Housing Estates 284

40 The Challenge of Poverty Near-Poverty, and Inequality in 21st-century Hong Kong 289.

ISBN:

9888390627

9789888390625

9888390678

9789888390670

OCLC:

962005391