China’s Pairing Poverty Alleviation Program: Insights from Xinjiang

This paper examined the pairing poverty alleviation policy implemented in Xinjiang, China, focusing on their impact across various poverty indicators. The research utilized difference-in-difference (DID), propensity score matching (PSM) and synthetic control method (SCM). We found that the combined efforts of poverty alleviation policies led to significant improvements in key economic metrics, such as GDP and GDP per capita, in the targeted regions of Xinjiang. Special attention was given to the effects on rural households. The study utilized county-level and province-level datasets from China spanning the years 2006 to 2015. Additionally, the pairing mechanism was scrutinized, revealing that the central government may have deliberately paired regions with similar economic sizes but differing levels of economic development.