Journal Archive

Home > Journal Archive
Cover Image
  • P-ISSN 2586-2995
  • E-ISSN 2586-4130
Cite

KDI Journal of Economic Policy. Vol. 39, No. 3, August 2017, pp. 19-41

https://doi.org/10.23895/kdijep.2017.39.3.19

× KDI Open Access is a program of fully open access journals to facilitate the widest possible dissemination of high-quality research. All research articles published in KDI JEP are immediately, permanently and freely available online for everyone to read, download and share in terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

China’s Consumer Market: Growth, Changes, and Korea’s Opportunities

JIN KOOK LEE

Author & Article History

Manuscript received 28 February 2017; revision received 03 March 2017; accepted 27 April 2017.

Abstract

This paper examines the aspects of changes in China’s consumer market since the mid-1980s. By comparing urban and rural residents’ expenditures, I find that the rural consumer market has exhibited extraordinary growth. Over the past decade, the consumption growth rate and average propensity to consume by rural residents have surpassed those of their urban counterparts, with the former’s consumption patterns becoming increasingly similar to the latter’s. Such a phenomenon prevails in rural areas which neighbor secondand third-tier cities where urbanization is progressing rapidly. These findings imply that Korean companies need to diversify their export goods in line with China’s expanding rural markets while further differentiating their product composition to satisfy the heterogeneous demands in urban areas. With regard to the government, efforts must be made to strengthen the export cooperative system so that it targets not only urban but also rural markets in China.

Keywords

China’s consumer market, Urbanization, Consumption expansion in China, Chinese economy

JEL Code

O12, O47, R11, R58

상단으로 이동

KDIJEP