IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cdl/indrel/qt9jw2v939.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

China's Income Distribution Over Time: Reasons for Rising Inequality

Author

Listed:
  • Wu, Ximing
  • Perloff, Jeffrey M.

Abstract

We use a new method to estimate China’s income distributions using publicly available interval summary statistics from China’s largest national household survey. We examine rural, urban, and overall income distributions for each year from 1985-2001. By estimating the entire distributions, we can show how the distributions change directly as well as examine trends in traditional welfare indices such as the Gini. We find that inequality has increased substantially in both rural and urban areas. Using an inter-temporal decomposition of aggregate inequality, we determine that increases in inequality within the rural and urban sectors and the growing gap in rural and urban incomes have been equally responsible for the growth in overall inequality over the last two decades. However, the rural-urban income gap has played an increasingly important role in recent years. In contrast, only the growth of inequality within rural and urban areas is responsible for the increase in inequality in the United States, where the overall inequality is close to that of China. We also show that urban consumption inequality (which may be a better indicator of economic well-being than income inequality) rose considerably.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Wu, Ximing & Perloff, Jeffrey M., 2004. "China's Income Distribution Over Time: Reasons for Rising Inequality," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt9jw2v939, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
  • Handle: RePEc:cdl:indrel:qt9jw2v939
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/9jw2v939.pdf;origin=repeccitec
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shaohua Chen & Yan Wang, 2001. "China's growth and poverty reduction - trends between 1990 and 1999," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2651, The World Bank.
    2. Dennis Tao Yang, 1999. "Urban-Biased Policies and Rising Income Inequality in China," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(2), pages 306-310, May.
    3. D. Ormoneit & H. White, 1999. "An efficient algorithm to compute maximum entropy densities," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(2), pages 127-140.
    4. Perri, Fabrizio & Krueger, Dirk, 2002. "Does Income Inequality Lead to Consumption Inequality?," CEPR Discussion Papers 3583, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. Dirk Kreuger & Fabrizio Perri, 2002. "Does Income Inequality Lead to Consumption Inequality? Evidence and Theory," Working Papers 02-15, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics.
    6. Gastwirth, Joseph L & Glauberman, Marcia, 1976. "The Interpolation of the Lorenz Curve and Gini Index from Grouped Data," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 44(3), pages 479-483, May.
    7. T. Paul Schultz, 2003. "Human Resources in China: The Birth Quota, Returns to Schooling, and Migration," Working Papers 855, Economic Growth Center, Yale University.
    8. Simon Kuznets & Elizabeth Jenks, 1953. "Shares of Upper Income Groups in Income and Savings (1953)," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number kuzn53-1, October.
    9. Martin Ravallion & Shaohua Chen, 1999. "When Economic Reform is Faster Then Statistical Reform: Measuring and Explaining Income Inequality in Rural China," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 61(1), pages 33-56, February.
    10. T. Paul Schultz, 2004. "Human resources in China: the birth quota, returns to schooling, and migration," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(3), pages 245-267, October.
    11. Simon Kuznets & Elizabeth Jenks, 1953. "Shares of Upper Income Groups in Savings," NBER Chapters, in: Shares of Upper Income Groups in Income and Savings (1953), pages 171-218, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Burkhauser, Richard V. & Butler, J. S. & Feng, Shuaizhang & Houtenville, Andrew J., 2004. "Long term trends in earnings inequality: what the CPS can tell us," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 82(2), pages 295-299, February.
    13. Wu, Ximing, 2003. "Calculation of maximum entropy densities with application to income distribution," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 115(2), pages 347-354, August.
    14. Golan, Amos & Judge, George G. & Miller, Douglas, 1996. "Maximum Entropy Econometrics," Staff General Research Papers Archive 1488, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    15. Milanovic, Branko, 1995. "Poverty, inequality, and social policy in transition economies," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1530, The World Bank.
    16. Mookherjee, Dilip & Shorrocks, Anthony F, 1982. "A Decomposition Analysis of the Trend in UK Income Inequality," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 92(368), pages 886-902, December.
    17. Dale W. Jorgenson, 1998. "Did We Lose the War on Poverty?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(1), pages 79-96, Winter.
    18. Kakwani, Nanak C & Podder, N, 1976. "Efficient Estimation of the Lorenz Curve and Associated Inequality Measures from Grouped Observations," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 44(1), pages 137-148, January.
    19. Keane, Michael & Prasad, Eswar, 2001. "Social Transfers and Inequality During the Polish Transition," MPRA Paper 54326, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Xin Meng, 2004. "Economic Restructuring and Income Inequality in Urban China," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 50(3), pages 357-379, September.
    21. Chang, Gene H., 2002. "The cause and cure of China's widening income disparity," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 335-340, December.
    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. Wu, Ximing & Perloff, Jeffrey M., 2005. "GMM Estimation of a Maximum Distribution With Interval Data," Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley, Working Paper Series qt7jf5w1ht, Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley.
    2. Zhongwei Zhao, 2006. "Income Inequality, Unequal Health Care Access, and Mortality in China," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 32(3), pages 461-483, September.
    3. Francesco Schettino & Alberto Gabriele, 2008. "Child malnutrition and mortality in China and Vietnam in a comparative perspective," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 41(1), pages 29-59, March.
    4. Ling, Davina C., 2009. "Do the Chinese "Keep up with the Jones"?: Implications of peer effects, growing economic disparities and relative deprivation on health outcomes among older adults in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 65-81, March.
    5. Khor, Niny & Pencavel, John, 2008. "Measuring Income Mobility, Income Inequality, and Social Welfare for Households of the People’s Republic of China," ADB Economics Working Paper Series 145, Asian Development Bank.
    6. Mitra, Pradeep & Yemtsov, Ruslan, 2006. "Increasing inequality in transition economies : is there more to come?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4007, The World Bank.
    7. Gu, Xinhua & Tam, Pui Sun, 2013. "The saving–growth–inequality triangle in China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 850-857.
    8. Broich, T. & Szirmai, A., 2014. "China's economic embrace of Africa: An international comparative perspective," MERIT Working Papers 2014-049, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    9. Staley, Mark, 2018. "The Knowledge-Diffusion Bottleneck in Economic Growth and Development," MPRA Paper 87255, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Alberto, Gabriele & Schettino, Francesco, 2006. "Child Mortality In China And Vietnam In A Comparative Perspective," MPRA Paper 3987, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Dec 2006.
    11. Dong, Xiao-Ying & Hao, Yu, 2018. "Would income inequality affect electricity consumption? Evidence from China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 215-227.
    12. Long KE, 2015. "A Study on China fs Social Safety Institution and Income Disparity," Public Policy Review, Policy Research Institute, Ministry of Finance Japan, vol. 11(1), pages 205-230, March.
    13. Coes, Donald V., 2008. "Income distribution trends in Brazil and China: Evaluating absolute and relative economic growth," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 359-369, May.
    14. James K. Galbraith & Ludmila Krytynskaia & Qifei Wang, 2004. "The Experience of Rising Inequality in Russia and China during the Transition," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 1(1), pages 87-106, June.
    15. Qin Gao, 2006. "Social Benefits in Urban China: Determinants and Impact on Income Inequality in 1988 and 2002," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2006-117, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

    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. Ximing Wu & Jeffrey M. Perloff, 2005. "China's Income Distribution, 1985-2001," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(4), pages 763-775, November.
    2. Fei Yan, 2018. "Urban poverty, economic restructuring and poverty reduction policy in urban China: Evidence from Shanghai, 1978–2008," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 36(4), pages 465-481, July.
    3. Thomas Blanchet & Juliette Fournier & Thomas Piketty, 2022. "Generalized Pareto Curves: Theory and Applications," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 68(1), pages 263-288, March.
    4. Golan, Amos & Perloff, Jeffrey M. & Wu, Ximing, 2001. "Welfare Effects of Minimum Wage and Other Government Policies," Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley, Working Paper Series qt0gb7h58q, Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley.
    5. Jesse Tack & Ardian Harri & Keith Coble, 2012. "More than Mean Effects: Modeling the Effect of Climate on the Higher Order Moments of Crop Yields," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 94(5), pages 1037-1054.
    6. Wu, Ximing & Perloff, Jeffrey M. & Golan, Amos, 2002. "Effects of Government Policies on Income Distribution and Welfare," Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley, Working Paper Series qt74r4h1fc, Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley.
    7. Thanasis Stengos & Ximing Wu, 2010. "Information-Theoretic Distribution Test with Application to Normality," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(3), pages 307-329.
    8. Gordon Anderson & Tongtong Hao & Maria Grazia Pittau, 2019. "More unequal yet more alike, the changing patterns of family formation, generational mobility and household income inequality in China: a counter-factual analysis," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 17(3), pages 359-378, September.
    9. Jochen O. Mierau & James Rockey, 2015. "Inequality in an Equal Society: Theory and Evidence," Discussion Papers in Economics 15/23, Division of Economics, School of Business, University of Leicester.
    10. A. B. Atkinson, 2003. "Income Inequality in OECD Countries: Data and Explanations," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo, vol. 49(4), pages 479-513.
    11. Piketty, Thomas & Bozio, Antoine & Garbinti, Bertrand & Goupille-Lebret, Jonathan & Guillot, Malka, 2020. "Predistribution vs. Redistribution: Evidence from France and the U.S," CEPR Discussion Papers 15415, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    12. Haichao Fan & Xiang Gao, 2017. "Domestic Creditor Rights and External Private Debt," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 127(606), pages 2410-2440, November.
    13. Thomas Blanchet & Bertrand Garbinti & Jonathan Goupille-Lebret & Clara Martínez-Toledano, 2018. "Applying Generalized Pareto Curves to Inequality Analysis," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 108, pages 114-118, May.
    14. Facundo Alvaredo & Anthony Atkinson & Lucas Chancel & Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez & Gabriel Zucman, 2016. "Distributional National Accounts (DINA) Guidelines : Concepts and Methods used in WID.world," Working Papers halshs-02794308, HAL.
    15. Dirk Krueger & Fabrizio Perri, 2004. "On the Welfare Consequences of the Increase in Inequality in the United States," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2003, Volume 18, pages 83-138, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Schultz, T. Paul, 2010. "Population and Health Policies," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Dani Rodrik & Mark Rosenzweig (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 4785-4881, Elsevier.
    17. Dennis Fixler & Marina Gindelsky & David S. Johnson, 2020. "Distributing Personal Income: Trends over Time," NBER Chapters, in: Measuring Distribution and Mobility of Income and Wealth, pages 589-603, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Patrizio Pagano & Massimo Sbracia, 2014. "The secular stagnation hypothesis: a review of the debate and some insights," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 231, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    19. Claudia Goldin & Robert A. Margo, 1992. "The Great Compression: The Wage Structure in the United States at Mid-Century," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 107(1), pages 1-34.
    20. Bauluz, Luis & Bukowski, Pawel & Fransham, Mark & Lee, Annie Seong & López Forero, Margarita & Novokmet, Filip & Breau, Sébastien & Lee, Neil & Malgouyres, Clément & Schularick, Moritz & Verdugo, Greg, 2023. "Spatial wage inequality in North America and Western Europe: changes between and within local labour markets 1975-2019," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 121290, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    JEL 015; 018; 053;
    All these keywords.

    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:cdl:indrel:qt9jw2v939. 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: Lisa Schiff (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/irucbus.html .

    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.