Evaluation of China’s Targeted Poverty Alleviation Policies: A Decomposition Analysis Based on the Poverty Reduction Effects
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The article presents an analysis of an interesting and socially important topic of poverty reduction policy in China and its real effects.
I highly appreciate the quality of the article for:
- embedding the problem in literature;
- valuable translation of the theory into a practical analysis of the undertaken social problem;
- very well described method and principles of conducting research;
- very well-chosen methods of quantitative analysis for social problems;
- interesting and practical research conclusions that were confronted with the literature; presenting authors' recommendations for policy;
- scientific wording of the article and a meticulous description of the research results.
A small remark relates to the lack of a clearly defined purpose, territorial and temporal scope of the research in the first part of the article.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer 1,
Re: Manuscript ID:1425860 and Title: Evaluation of China’s Targeted Poverty Alleviation Policies: A Decomposition Analysis Based on the Poverty Reduction Effects.
Thanks very much for taking your time to review this manuscript. I really appreciate all your comments and suggestions! Those comments are valuable and very helpful. We have read through your comments carefully and have made revisions. Please find our itemized responses in below and my revisions in the re-submitted files.
Point 1: The article presents an analysis of an interesting and socially important topic of poverty reduction policy in China and its real effects.
Response 1: Thanks very much for your summary and affirmation of this manuscript.
Point 2: I highly appreciate the quality of the article for:
- embedding the problem in literature;
- valuable translation of the theory into a practical analysis of the undertaken social problem;
- very well described method and principles of conducting research;
- very well-chosen methods of quantitative analysis for social problems;
- interesting and practical research conclusions that were confronted with the literature; presenting authors' recommendations for policy;
- scientific wording of the article and a meticulous description of the research results.
Response 2: Thank you very much for your positive comments on the literature, theory, research methods and conclusions of this manuscript.
Point 3: A small remark relates to the lack of a clearly defined purpose, territorial and temporal scope of the research in the first part of the article.
Response 3: Thank you for your careful review. We are grateful for the suggestion. To be more clearly and in accordance with your suggestion, we have added a more clearly defined purpose, territorial and temporal scope of the research between lines 68 and 75 in the first part of the resubmitted article.
Please see attachment for the document.
Thank you for your careful review. We really appreciate your efforts in reviewing our manuscript during this unprecedented and challenging time. We wish good health to you, your family, and community. Your careful review has helped to make our study clearer and more comprehensive.
Best Regards.
Very sincerely yours,
Xiaoning Li Lingling Li
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
- The research design, questions, hypotheses and methods could be more clearly stated.
- The previous and present theoretical background and empirical research on the topic could be improved.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer 2,
Re: Manuscript ID:1425860 and Title: Evaluation of China’s Targeted Poverty Alleviation Policies: A Decomposition Analysis Based on the Poverty Reduction Effects.
Thanks very much for taking your time to review this manuscript. I really appreciate all your comments and suggestions! Those comments are valuable and very helpful. We have read through your comments carefully and have made revisions. Please find our itemized responses in below and my revisions in the re-submitted files.
Point 1: The research design, questions, hypotheses and methods could be more clearly stated.
Response 1: Thank you for your careful review. We are grateful for the suggestion. To be more clearly and in accordance with your suggestion, we have added the research hypotheses between lines 215 and 222, and a figure of research design, questions and methods between lines 231 and 232 in the third part of the resubmitted article to state more clearly.
Point 2: The previous and present theoretical background and empirical research on the topic could be improved.
Response 2: We are deeply appreciate your efforts in reviewing our manuscript. Thank you for your suggestion. According to your suggestions, We improved the theoretical background and empirical research from the aspects of literature, theory and data analysis in the resubmission article.
Please see the attachment for the document.
Thank you for your careful review. We really appreciate your efforts in reviewing our manuscript during this unprecedented and challenging time. We wish good health to you, your family, and community. Your careful review has helped to make our study clearer and more comprehensive.
Best Regards.
Very sincerely yours,
Xiaoning Li Lingling Li
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
The beginning of the article resembles a party propaganda leaflet rather than a scientific article. Readers from European countries will find it difficult to determine what exactly is in the document indicated.
There is a lack of research hypotheses and a clear statement of the purpose of the research.
There is a lack of an in-depth literature review. There is a plethora of items on poverty worldwide. It is worthwhile to discern.
There is no need to repeat in Table 1 that each quantile is 20%.
There is a lack of definition of how the research fits into the global science and how it can be used by other countries.
The authors have not indicated that income growth can be associated simultaneously with an increase in inflation in the country. It is important that this income growth goes hand in hand with economic growth.
There is a lack of definition of poverty. There are many ways of defining poverty in research. It should be pointed out that. Objective poverty, subjective poverty or relative poverty. What level of income separates the poor from the non-poor?
Author Response
Dear Reviewer 3,
Re: Manuscript ID:1425860 and Title: Evaluation of China’s Targeted Poverty Alleviation Policies: A Decomposition Analysis Based on the Poverty Reduction Effects.
Thanks very much for taking your time to review this manuscript. I really appreciate all your comments and suggestions! Those comments are valuable and very helpful. We have read through your comments carefully and have made revisions. Please find our itemized responses in below and my revisions in the re-submitted files.
Point 1: The beginning of the article resembles a party propaganda leaflet rather than a scientific article. Readers from European countries will find it difficult to determine what exactly is in the document indicated.
Response 1: Thank you for your comments. We are grateful to you for pointing out this problem. Our reply is as follows: Based on China's national conditions, the introduction of the research policy background is inseparable from the elaboration of governing activities of the Communist Party of China(CPC). Therefore, at the beginning of the paper, the policies implemented by the CPC and its achievements in poverty governance are briefly introduced. In order to enable readers in Europe and around the world to understand the relevant policy documents more fully, links to the sources of the documents are provided in the form of notes in the resubmitted article.
Point 2: There is a lack of research hypotheses and a clear statement of the purpose of the research.
Response 2: Thank you for your careful review. We are grateful for the suggestion. To be more clearly and in accordance with your suggestion, we have added a more clear statement of the purpose of the research between lines 68 and 75 in the first part of the resubmitted article, and added the research hypotheses between lines 215 and 222 in the third part of the resubmitted article to state more clearly.
Point 3: There is a lack of an in-depth literature review. There is a plethora of items on poverty worldwide. It is worthwhile to discern.
Response 3: We are deeply appreciate your efforts in reviewing our manuscript. Thank you for your suggestion. According to your suggestions, we further read and added the literature related to poverty and improved the literature review in the second part of the resubmitted manuscript. And 20 references are added at the end of this article.
Point 4: There is no need to repeat in Table 1 that each quantile is 20%.
Response 4: Our deepest gratitude goes to you fo/r your careful review and suggestions. We agree with the comment. The extra 20% was deleted, leaving only one 20% per line in table 1 of the resubmitted article.
Point 5: There is a lack of definition of how the research fits into the global science and how it can be used by other countries.
Response 5: Thank you for your careful review. Thank you for this suggestion. We added the definition about how does this research apply to other countries and fit into global science between lines 589 and 599 in the last part of the resubmitted article.
Point 6: The authors have not indicated that income growth can be associated simultaneously with an increase in inflation in the country. It is important that this income growth goes hand in hand with economic growth.
Response 6: We deeply appreciate your suggestion. According to your comment, we make it clear that income growth is related to inflation in China, but due to data collection limitations, we point out the shortcomings and prospects of the research between lines 550 and 554 in the last part of the resubmitted manuscript.
Point 7: There is a lack of definition of poverty. There are many ways of defining poverty in research. It should be pointed out that. Objective poverty, subjective poverty or relative poverty. What level of income separates the poor from the non-poor?
Response 7: Thank you for your careful reading of our manuscript and your valuable advice. As suggested by you, We have clarified the definition of absolute poverty and the income differences between the poor and the non-poor between lines 170 and 177 in the third part of the resubmitted article.
Please see the attachment for the document.
Thank you for your careful review. We really appreciate your efforts in reviewing our manuscript during this unprecedented and challenging time. We wish good health to you, your family, and community. Your careful review has helped to make our study clearer and more comprehensive.
Best Regards.
Very sincerely yours,
Xiaoning Li Lingling Li
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 3 Report
Although the literature on the subject has been supplemented, I still believe that many important items are missing.
In line 173, the author indicated that absolute poverty has been eliminated - this is a gross misstatement. Perhaps reduced, but certainly not eliminated.
In line 178, the amount is given in yuan, which has no meaning for the European reader. It would be worth quoting in euros or dollars.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer 3,
Re: Manuscript ID:1425860 and Title: Evaluation of China’s Targeted Poverty Alleviation Policies: A Decomposition Analysis Based on the Poverty Reduction Effects.
Thanks very much for taking your time to review this manuscript. I really appreciate all your comments and suggestions! Those comments are valuable and very helpful. We have read through your comments carefully and have made revisions. Please find our itemized responses in below and my revisions in the re-submitted files.
Point 1: Although the literature on the subject has been supplemented, I still believe that many important items are missing.
Response 1: Thank you for your careful reading of our manuscript and your valuable advice. Thank you for this suggestion. We have added relatively important research literatures([8-14]) in poverty governance between lines 85 and 94 in the second part of the resubmitted article.
Point 2: In line 173, the author indicated that absolute poverty has been eliminated - this is a gross misstatement. Perhaps reduced, but certainly not eliminated.
Response 2: We are deeply appreciate your efforts in reviewing our manuscript. Thank you for your suggestion. According to your suggestion, we have changed the wording and provided note 1 to clarify China's achievements in poverty alleviation in lines 172 and 173 in the third part of the resubmitted article. The restatement is as follows, “Because the implementation of TPA policies has solved the problem of absolute poverty in China by February 25, 2021①. But relative poverty still exists.” The note ① is “Jinping Xi, Speech at the National Poverty Alleviation Summary commendation Conference. https://www.chinanews.com/gn/2021/02-25/9419272.shtml.”
Point 3: In line 178, the amount is given in yuan, which has no meaning for the European reader. It would be worth quoting in euros or dollars.
Response 3: Thank you for your careful review. We are grateful for the suggestion. To be more clearly and in accordance with your suggestion, we have converted the amount expressed in yuan into the amount expressed in euros at the average annual exchange rate for that year in line 178 in the third part of the resubmitted article. And we have also added the amounts in euros and the corresponding table note in Table 1 in the fourth part of the resubmitted article.
Thank you for your careful review. We really appreciate your efforts in reviewing our manuscript during this unprecedented and challenging time. We wish good health to you, your family, and community. Your careful review has helped to make our study clearer and more comprehensive.
Best Regards.
Very sincerely yours,
Xiaoning Li Lingling Li
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
