IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/streco/v57y2021icp251-264.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Polarization and the middle class in China: A non-parametric evaluation using CHNS and CHIP data

Author

Listed:
  • Schettino, Francesco
  • Gabriele, Alberto
  • Khan, Haider A.

Abstract

Since the 1990s, and until the beginning of the second decade of the XXIth century, record economic growth in the PRC has been inclusive (as virtually all social groups experienced sizeable well-being improvements in an absolute terms). Yet, it has been accompanied by an increase in both income inequalities and polarization.

Suggested Citation

  • Schettino, Francesco & Gabriele, Alberto & Khan, Haider A., 2021. "Polarization and the middle class in China: A non-parametric evaluation using CHNS and CHIP data," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 251-264.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:streco:v:57:y:2021:i:c:p:251-264
    DOI: 10.1016/j.strueco.2021.04.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0954349X21000369
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.strueco.2021.04.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jeffrey James & Haider A. Khan, 1998. "Technology Choice and Income Distribution," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Technological Systems and Development, chapter 6, pages 105-130, Palgrave Macmillan.
    2. Maria Grazia Pittau & Roberto Zelli, 2004. "Testing for changing shapes of income distribution: Italian evidence in the 1990s from kernel density estimates," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 415-430, May.
    3. Thomas Piketty & Li Yang & Gabriel Zucman, 2019. "Capital Accumulation, Private Property, and Rising Inequality in China, 1978–2015," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(7), pages 2469-2496, July.
    4. Fabio Clementi & Francesco Schettino, 2015. "Declining Inequality in Brazil in the 2000s: What is Hidden Behind?," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(7), pages 929-952, October.
    5. Joan Esteban & Carlos Gradín & Debraj Ray, 2007. "An Extension of a Measure of Polarization, with an application to the income distribution of five OECD countries," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 5(1), pages 1-19, April.
    6. Lawrence H Summers, 2014. "U.S. Economic Prospects: Secular Stagnation, Hysteresis, and the Zero Lower Bound," Business Economics, Palgrave Macmillan;National Association for Business Economics, vol. 49(2), pages 65-73, April.
    7. Thomas Piketty & Li Yang & Gabriel Zucman, 2017. "Appendix to "Capital Accumulation, Private Property and Rising Inequality in China, 1978-2015"," PSE Working Papers halshs-02659212, HAL.
    8. Céline Bonnefond & Matthieu Clément, 2012. "An analysis of income polarization in rural and urban China," Post-Print hal-00807218, HAL.
    9. Wang, Chen & Wan, Guanghua, 2015. "Income polarization in China: Trends and changes," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 58-72.
    10. Jean-Yves Duclos & Joan Esteban & Debraj Ray, 2004. "Polarization: Concepts, Measurement, Estimation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 72(6), pages 1737-1772, November.
    11. Zhang, Xiaobo & Yang, Jin & Wang, Shenglin, 2011. "China has reached the Lewis turning point," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 542-554.
    12. Fabio Clementi & Andrew L. Dabalen & Vasco Molini & Francesco Schettino, 2014. "The Centre Cannot Hold: Patterns of Polarization in Nigeria," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2014-149, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    13. Paul Andres Corral Rodas & Vasco Molini & Gbemisola Oseni, 2019. "No Condition is Permanent: Middle Class in Nigeria in the Last Decade," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(2), pages 294-310, February.
    14. Kanbur, Ravi & Zhang, Xiaobo, 2001. "Fifty Years Of Regional Inequality In China: A Journey Through Revolution, Reform And Openness," Working Papers 7236, Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management.
    15. Jeffrey James & Haider A. Khan, 1998. "Technological Systems and Development," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-26413-1, September.
    16. Ali Alichi & Mr. Kory Kantenga & Mr. Juan Sole, 2016. "Income Polarization in the United States," IMF Working Papers 2016/121, International Monetary Fund.
    17. Jacques SILBER & Meital Hanoka & Joseph Deutsch, 2007. "On the Link Between the Concepts of Kurtosis and Bipolarization," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 4(36), pages 1-6.
    18. Esteban, Joan & Ray, Debraj, 1999. "Conflict and Distribution," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 379-415, August.
    19. F. Clementi & A. L. Dabalen & V. Molini & F. Schettino, 2017. "When the Centre Cannot Hold: Patterns of Polarization in Nigeria," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 63(4), pages 608-632, December.
    20. Gustafsson, Björn & LI, Shi & Sato, Hiroshi, 2014. "Data for studying earnings, the distribution of household income and poverty in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 419-431.
    21. James Foster & Michael Wolfson, 2010. "Polarization and the decline of the middle class: Canada and the U.S," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 8(2), pages 247-273, June.
    22. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:4:y:2007:i:36:p:1-6 is not listed on IDEAS
    23. M. Grazia Pittau & Roberto Zelli, 2001. "Income distribution in Italy: A nonparametric analysis," Statistical Methods & Applications, Springer;Società Italiana di Statistica, vol. 10(1), pages 175-189, January.
    24. Joan Esteban & Debraj Ray, 2011. "Linking Conflict to Inequality and Polarization," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(4), pages 1345-1374, June.
    25. Satya R. Chakravarty, 2009. "Inequality, Polarization and Poverty," Economic Studies in Inequality, Social Exclusion, and Well-Being, Springer, number 978-0-387-79253-8, December.
    26. Satya R. Chakravarty & Amita Majumder, 2001. "Inequality, Polarisation and Welfare: Theory and Applications," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 1-13, March.
    27. C�line Bonnefond & Matthieu Cl�ment, 2012. "An analysis of income polarisation in rural and urban China," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(1), pages 15-37, June.
    28. Satya R. Chakravarty & Conchita D'Ambrosio, 2010. "Polarization Orderings Of Income Distributions," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 56(1), pages 47-64, March.
    29. Fernando Borraz & Nicolas González Pampillón & Máximo Rossi, 2011. "Polarization and the Middle Class," Documentos de trabajo 2011004, Banco Central del Uruguay.
    30. Clementi, Fabio & Dabalen, Andrew L. & Molini, Vasco & Schettino, Francesco, 2014. "The centre cannot hold: Patterns of polarization in Nigeria," WIDER Working Paper Series 149, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    31. Xiaolu Wang & Wing Thye Woo, 2011. "The Size and Distribution of Hidden Household Income in China," Asian Economic Papers, MIT Press, vol. 10(1), pages 1-26, Winter/Sp.
    32. Esteban, Joan & Ray, Debraj, 1994. "On the Measurement of Polarization," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 62(4), pages 819-851, July.
    33. Jenkins, Stephen P, 1996. "Recent Trends in the UK Income Distribution: What Happened and Why?," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 12(1), pages 29-46, Spring.
    34. Jeffrey James & Haider A. Khan, 1998. "The Employment Effects of an Income Redistribution in Developing Countries," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Technological Systems and Development, chapter 5, pages 87-104, Palgrave Macmillan.
    35. Xin Meng, 2012. "Labor Market Outcomes and Reforms in China," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 26(4), pages 75-102, Fall.
    36. Haider A. Khan, 2006. "Value, Social Capabilities, Alienation:The Right to Revolt," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-410, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
    37. Dong, Xiao-Yuan, 2005. "Wage inequality and between-firm wage dispersion in the 1990s: A comparison of rural and urban enterprises in China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 664-687, December.
    38. Jeffrey James & Haider A. Khan, 1998. "Technological Systems in Developing Countries," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Technological Systems and Development, chapter 1, pages 1-19, Palgrave Macmillan.
    39. Haider A. Khan, 1998. "Technology, Development and Democracy," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1247, December.
    40. Céline Bonnefond & Matthieu Clément, 2012. "An analysis of income polarisation in rural and urban China," Post-Print hal-00807210, HAL.
    41. James, M.J. & Khan, H., 1997. "Technology choice & income distribution," Other publications TiSEM 6f76a538-55bd-4a1b-bcbb-5, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    42. Arthur Alderson & Jason Beckfield & Francois Nielsen, 2005. "Exactly How has Income Inequality Changed? Patterns of Distributional Change in Core Societies," LIS Working papers 422, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    43. Gordon Anderson & Oliver Linton & Teng Leo, 2012. "A polarization-cohesion perspective on cross-country convergence," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 49-69, March.
    44. Pier Luigi Conti & Maria Grazia Pittau & Roberto Zelli, 2006. "Metodi non parametrici nell'analisi della distribuzione del reddito: problemi empirici ed aspetti metodologici," Rivista di Politica Economica, SIPI Spa, vol. 96(3), pages 195-242, May-June.
    45. X. Zhang & R. Kanbur, 2001. "What Difference Do Polarisation Measures Make? An Application to China," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(3), pages 85-98.
    46. Wolfson, Michael C, 1994. "When Inequalities Diverge," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(2), pages 353-358, May.
    47. Francois Bourguignon, 2004. "The Poverty-growth-inequality triangle," Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, New Delhi Working Papers 125, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, New Delhi, India.
    48. Wan, Guanghua & Wang, Chen, 2015. "Income Polarization in the People’s Republic of China: Trends and Changes," ADBI Working Papers 538, Asian Development Bank Institute.
    49. Jenkins, Stephen P., 1995. "Did the middle class shrink during the 1980s? UK evidence from kernel density estimates," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 407-413, October.
    50. Satya R. Chakravarty, 2015. "Inequality, Polarization and Conflict," Economic Studies in Inequality, Social Exclusion, and Well-Being, Springer, edition 127, number 978-81-322-2166-1, December.
    51. Maria Grazia Pittau & Roberto Zelli & Paul A. Johnson, 2010. "Mixture Models, Convergence Clubs, And Polarization," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 56(1), pages 102-122, March.
    52. Haider A. Khan, 2007. "A Theory of Deep Democracy and Economic Justice in the Age of Postmodernism," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-468, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
    53. Shi Li & Chuliang Luo & Terry Sicular, 2011. "Overview: Income Inequality and Poverty in China, 2002-2007," University of Western Ontario, Centre for Human Capital and Productivity (CHCP) Working Papers 201110, University of Western Ontario, Centre for Human Capital and Productivity (CHCP).
    54. Daniel J. Henderson & Christopher F. Parmeter & R. Robert Russell, 2008. "Modes, weighted modes, and calibrated modes: evidence of clustering using modality tests," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(5), pages 607-638.
    55. Maria Grazia Pittau & Roberto Zelli, 2006. "Trends in Income Distribution in Italy: A Non-Parametric 90 and a Semi-Parametric Analysis," Journal of Income Distribution, Ad libros publications inc., vol. 15(3-4), pages 90-118, December.
    56. Zhuang, Juzhong & Li, Shi, 2016. "Understanding Recent Trends in Income Inequality in the People’s Republic of China," ADB Economics Working Paper Series 489, Asian Development Bank.
    57. Pittau, Maria Grazia & Zelli, Roberto & Johnson, Paul, "undated". "Mixture Models and Convergence Clubs," Vassar College Department of Economics Working Paper Series 91, Vassar College Department of Economics.
    58. Nanak Kakwani, 1993. "Poverty And Economic Growth With Application To Côte D'Ivoire," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 39(2), pages 121-139, June.
    59. Kakwani, Nanak, 1993. "Poverty and Economic Growth with Application to Cote d'Ivoire," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 39(2), pages 121-139, June.
    60. Juan G. Rodríguez & Rafael Salas, "undated". "Extended Bi-Polarization And Inequality Measures," Working Papers 10-03 Classification-JEL , Instituto de Estudios Fiscales.
    61. Haider A. Khan, 2004. "Interpreting East Asian Growth and Innovation," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-50353-3, September.
    62. Maria Socorro & Carlos C. Bautista & Dalisay S. Maligalig & Noli R. Sotocinal, 2013. "Income Polarization in Asia," Asian Economic Papers, MIT Press, vol. 12(2), pages 101-136, Summer.
    63. Shorrocks, A F, 1982. "Inequality Decomposition by Factor Components," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(1), pages 193-211, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ravallion, Martin & Chen, Shaohua, 2022. "Fleshing out the olive? Observations on income polarization in China since 1981," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    2. Vide Romana Korez & Zavrl Irena & Hunjet Anica, 2021. "Exploring Emerging Markets’ Demographic and Macroeconomic Dynamics and the Middle Class Growth: The Case of China and India," Naše gospodarstvo/Our economy, Sciendo, vol. 67(4), pages 33-55, December.
    3. Chiara Assunta Ricci & Sergio Scicchitano, 2021. "Decomposing changes in income polarization by population group: what happened during the crisis?," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 38(1), pages 235-259, April.
    4. Khan, Haider & Schettino, Francesco, 2018. "Income Polarization in the USA (1983-2016): what happened to the middle class?," MPRA Paper 85554, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Xuan Chen & Guoping Li, 2023. "Middle Class Vulnerability in China: Measurement and Determinants," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-16, April.
    6. Fleisher, Belton M. & McGuire, William H. & Su, Yaqin & Zhao, Min Qiang, 2018. "Innovation, Wages, and Polarization in China," IZA Discussion Papers 11569, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Schettino, Francesco & Khan, Haider A., 2020. "Income polarization in the USA: What happened to the middle class in the last few decades?," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 149-161.
    8. Zhang, Chen & Yu, Yangcheng & Li, Qinghai, 2023. "Top incomes and income polarisation in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    9. Bortolotti, Luca & Biggeri, Mario, 2022. "Is the slowdown of China's economic growth affecting multidimensional well-being dynamics?," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 478-489.
    10. Domenico Suppa, 2023. "Note bibliografiche: Schettino F. e Clementi F. (2022), Crisi, disuguaglianze e poverta'. Le iniquita' del capitalismo, da Lehman Brothers alla Covid-19, II edizione aggiornata, Napoli: La Citta' del ," Moneta e Credito, Economia civile, vol. 76(301), pages 107-110.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Schettino, Francesco & Khan, Haider A., 2020. "Income polarization in the USA: What happened to the middle class in the last few decades?," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 149-161.
    2. Khan, Haider & Schettino, Francesco, 2018. "Income Polarization in the USA (1983-2016): what happened to the middle class?," MPRA Paper 85554, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Fabio Clementi & Francesco Schettino, 2013. "Income polarization in Brazil, 2001-2011: A distributional analysis using PNAD data," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 33(3), pages 1796-1815.
    4. F. Clementi & A. L. Dabalen & V. Molini & F. Schettino, 2017. "When the Centre Cannot Hold: Patterns of Polarization in Nigeria," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 63(4), pages 608-632, December.
    5. Zhang, Chen & Yu, Yangcheng & Li, Qinghai, 2023. "Top incomes and income polarisation in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    6. Ravallion, Martin & Chen, Shaohua, 2022. "Fleshing out the olive? Observations on income polarization in China since 1981," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    7. Satya Chakravarty & Bhargav Maharaj, 2012. "Ethnic polarization orderings and indices," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 7(1), pages 99-123, May.
    8. Chiara Assunta Ricci & Sergio Scicchitano, 2021. "Decomposing changes in income polarization by population group: what happened during the crisis?," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 38(1), pages 235-259, April.
    9. Mariateresa Ciommi & Chiara Gigliarano & Giovanni Maria Giorgi, 2019. "Bonferroni And De Vergottini Are Back: New Subgroup Decompositions And Bipolarization Measures," Working Papers 439, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali.
    10. Clementi,F. & Fabiani,M. & Molini,V., 2018. "The devil is in the details : growth, polarization, and poverty reduction in Africa in the past two decades," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8494, The World Bank.
    11. Wang, Chen & Wan, Guanghua, 2015. "Income polarization in China: Trends and changes," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 58-72.
    12. Clementi, Fabio & Molini, Vasco & Schettino, Francesco, 2018. "All that Glitters is not Gold: Polarization Amid Poverty Reduction in Ghana," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 275-291.
    13. Ilaria Petrarca & Roberto Ricciuti, 2015. "Relative income distribution in six European countries: market and disposable income," LIS Working papers 629, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    14. Marta Pascual & David Cantarero & Paloma Lanza, 2018. "Health polarization and inequalities across Europe: an empirical approach," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 19(8), pages 1039-1051, November.
    15. Fabio Clementi & Francesco Schettino & Enzo Valentini, 2017. "Squilibri distributivi e criminalità nelle regioni italiane," Working Papers 48-2017, Macerata University, Department of Studies on Economic Development (DiSSE), revised May 2017.
    16. Michal Brzezinski, 2013. "Income polarization and economic growth," Working Papers 296, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    17. Chiara Gigliarano & Daniel Nowak & Karl Mosler, 2019. "A Polarization Index for Overlapping Groups," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 65(4), pages 712-735, December.
    18. Schettino, Francesco & Scicchitano, Sergio & Suppa, Domenico, 2024. "COVID 19 and Wage Polarization: A task based approach," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1398, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    19. Ricci, Chiara Assunta & Scicchitano, Sergio, 2021. "The role of Great Recession on income polarization by population groups," GLO Discussion Paper Series 766, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    20. Joan Esteban & Debraj Ray, 2005. "A Comparison of Polarization Measures," Working Papers 310, Barcelona School of Economics.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C14 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Semiparametric and Nonparametric Methods: General
    • F63 - International Economics - - Economic Impacts of Globalization - - - Economic Development
    • F68 - International Economics - - Economic Impacts of Globalization - - - Policy
    • N3 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy
    • N35 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Asia including Middle East

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:streco:v:57:y:2021:i:c:p:251-264. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/525148 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.