IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/rjapxx/v22y2017i2p212-226.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Contribution of household income components to the level and rise of inequality in urban China

Author

Listed:
  • Satya Paul
  • Zhao Chen
  • Ming Lu

Abstract

This paper investigates how changes in the structure of household income have affected inequality in urban China during the reform period. We conducted an inequality decomposition analysis by income sources using the household-level data from the Chinese Household Income Project Surveys for 1988, 1995 and 2002. The analysis reveals that the contribution of wages and salaries to inequality has declined over the years. Business income, which served as the inequality enhancing component in 1988, has turned into an inequality reducing force in 1995 and 2002. The marginal analysis reveals that 1% increase in business income neutralises about two-thirds of the increase in inequality caused by an equivalent increase in wages and salaries. Some business issues and policy options are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Satya Paul & Zhao Chen & Ming Lu, 2017. "Contribution of household income components to the level and rise of inequality in urban China," Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(2), pages 212-226, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rjapxx:v:22:y:2017:i:2:p:212-226
    DOI: 10.1080/13547860.2017.1292767
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13547860.2017.1292767
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13547860.2017.1292767?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 search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paul, Satya, 2004. "Income sources effects on inequality," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 435-451, February.
    2. Meng, Xin & Kidd, Michael P., 1997. "Labor Market Reform and the Changing Structure of Wage Determination in China's State Sector during the 1980s," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 403-421, December.
    3. Chi, Wei, 2012. "Capital income and income inequality: Evidence from urban China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 228-239.
    4. John Knight, 2014. "Inequality in China: An Overview," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 29(1), pages 1-19.
    5. Graham Pyatt & Chau-nan Chen & John Fei, 1980. "The Distribution of Income by Factor Components," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 95(3), pages 451-473.
    6. Shorrocks, A F, 1982. "Inequality Decomposition by Factor Components," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(1), pages 193-211, January.
    7. John C. H. Fei & Gustav Ranis & Shirley W. Y. Kuo, 1978. "Growth and the Family Distribution of Income by Factor Components," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 92(1), pages 17-53.
    8. Gustafsson, Bjorn & Shi, Li, 2001. "The Anatomy of Rising Earnings Inequality in Urban China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 118-135, March.
    9. Brandt, Loren & Holz, Carsten A, 2006. "Spatial Price Differences in China: Estimates and Implications," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 55(1), pages 43-86, October.
    10. Lerman, Robert I & Yitzhaki, Shlomo, 1985. "Income Inequality Effects by Income," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 67(1), pages 151-156, February.
    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. Kanbur, Ravi & Wang, Yue & Zhang, Xiaobo, 2021. "The great Chinese inequality turnaround," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 467-482.
    2. Edgar J. Wilson & Kankesu Jayanthakumaran & Reetu Verma, 2022. "Urban poverty, growth, and inequality: A needed paradigm shift?," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(2), pages 941-961, May.
    3. Ren, Yanjun & Peng, Yanling & Campos, Bente Castro & Li, Houjian, 2021. "Higher minimum wage, better labour market returns for rural migrants? Evidence from China," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 34(1), pages 1814-1835.

    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. Yin Heng, 2008. "Fiscal Disparities and the Equalization Effects of Fiscal Transfers at the County Level in China," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 9(1), pages 115-149, May.
    2. Yunbo Zhou, 2009. "The factors that impact income inequality of rural residents in China: Decomposing the Gini coefficient from income components," Frontiers of Economics in China, Springer;Higher Education Press, vol. 4(4), pages 617-632, December.
    3. Jurkatis, Simon & Strehl, Wolfgang, 2014. "Gini decompositions and Gini elasticities: On measuring the importance of income sources and population subgroups for income inequality," Discussion Papers 2014/22, Free University Berlin, School of Business & Economics.
    4. Kimhi, Ayal, 2011. "Comment: On the Interpretation (and Misinterpretation) of Inequality Decompositions by Income Sources," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(10), pages 1888-1890.
    5. Simon Jurkatis, "undated". "Dos and Don'ts of Gini Decompositions," BDPEMS Working Papers 2013003, Berlin School of Economics.
    6. Michele Giammatteo, 2007. "The bidimensional decomposition of inequality: A nested Theil approach," LIS Working papers 466, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    7. Kimhi, Ayal, 2009. "Land Reform and Farm-Household Income Inequality: The Case of Georgia," Discussion Papers 54159, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Department of Agricultural Economics and Management.
    8. Yuwan Duan & Erik Dietzenbacher & Bart Los & Ruochen Dai, 2023. "Regional inequality in China during its rise as a giant exporter: A value chain analysis," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(1), pages 148-172, January.
    9. Cecilia García-Peñalosa & Elsa Orgiazzi, 2013. "Factor Components of Inequality: A Cross-Country Study," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 59(4), pages 689-727, December.
    10. Cecilia Garcia Peñalosa & Orgiazzi, E., 2011. "GINI DP 12: Factor Components of Inequality. A Cross-Country Study," GINI Discussion Papers 12, AIAS, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies.
    11. Wan, Guang Hua, 2001. "Changes in regional inequality in rural China: decomposing the Gini index by income sources," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 45(3), pages 1-21.
    12. Kanbur, Ravi & Wang, Yue & Zhang, Xiaobo, 2021. "The great Chinese inequality turnaround," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 467-482.
    13. Stéphane Mussard & Michel Terraza, 2009. "Décompositions des mesures d'inégalité : le cas des coefficients de Gini et d'entropie," Recherches économiques de Louvain, De Boeck Université, vol. 75(2), pages 151-181.
    14. Satya Paul, 2018. "Effects of Happiness on Income Generation and Inequality," Departmental Working Papers 2018-10, The Australian National University, Arndt-Corden Department of Economics.
    15. Kanbur, Ravi & Wang, Yue & Zhang, Xiaobo, 2021. "The great Chinese inequality turnaround," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 467-482.
    16. Daniele Checchi & Cecilia García-Peñalosa & Lara Vivian, 2016. "Are changes in the dispersion of hours worked a cause of increased earnings inequality?," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-34, December.
    17. repec:zbw:bofitp:2017_006 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Paul, Satya, 2004. "Income sources effects on inequality," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 435-451, February.
    19. I. Josa & A. Aguado, 2020. "Measuring Unidimensional Inequality: Practical Framework for the Choice of an Appropriate Measure," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 149(2), pages 541-570, June.
    20. Peter Lindner, 2015. "Factor decomposition of the wealth distribution in the euro area," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 42(2), pages 291-322, May.
    21. Jonathan Morduch & Terry Sicular, 2002. "Rethinking Inequality Decomposition, With Evidence from Rural China," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(476), pages 93-106, January.

    More about this item

    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:taf:rjapxx:v:22:y:2017:i:2:p:212-226. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/rjap .

    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.