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China's Income Distribution, 1985-2001

Author

Listed:
  • Ximing Wu

    (Texas A&M University, Berkeley)

  • Jeffrey M. Perloff

    (University of California, Berkeley)

Abstract

We employ a new method to estimate China's income distribution using publicly available interval summary statistics. We examine rural, urban, and overall income distributions from 1985 to 2001. We show how the distributions change directly, and we examine trends in inequality. Using an intertemporal decomposition of aggregate inequality, we determine that increases in inequality within rural and urban sectors and the growing rural-urban income gap have been equally responsible for the growth in overall inequality over the last two decades. However, the rural-urban gap has played an increasingly important role in recent years. We also show that the urban consumption inequality rose considerably. © 2005 President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
  • Handle: RePEc:tpr:restat:v:87:y:2005:i:4:p:763-775
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    Cited by:

    1. Gordon Anderson & Tongtong Hao & Maria Grazia Pittau, 2016. "Income Inequality, Family Formation and Generational Mobility in Urban China," Working Papers tecipa-563, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    2. Guido Cozzi & Fabio Privileggi, 2009. "The fractal nature of inequality in a fast growing world: new version," Working Papers 2009_30, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow.
    3. Gholamreza Hajargasht & William E. Griffiths & Joseph Brice & D.S. Prasada Rao & Duangkamon Chotikapanich, 2012. "Inference for Income Distributions Using Grouped Data," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(4), pages 563-575, May.
    4. Ximing Wu & Andreas Savvides & Thanasis Stengos, 2008. "The Global Joint Distribution of Income and Health," Working Paper series 25_08, Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis.
    5. Molero-Simarro, Ricardo, 2017. "Inequality in China revisited. The effect of functional distribution of income on urban top incomes, the urban-rural gap and the Gini index, 1978–2015," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 101-117.
    6. Jin, Hailong & Qian, Hang & Wang, Tong & Choi, E. Kwan, 2014. "Income distribution in urban China: An overlooked data inconsistency issue," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 383-396.
    7. Qu, Zhaopeng (Frank) & Zhao, Zhong, 2008. "Urban-Rural Consumption Inequality in China from 1988 to 2002: Evidence from Quantile Regression Decomposition," IZA Discussion Papers 3659, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Yi Chen & Frank A. Cowell, 2017. "Mobility in China," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 63(2), pages 203-218, June.
    9. Anderson, Gordon & Farcomeni, Alessio & Pittau, Maria Grazia & Zelli, Roberto, 2016. "A new approach to measuring and studying the characteristics of class membership: Examining poverty, inequality and polarization in urban China," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 191(2), pages 348-359.
    10. Gao, Li, 2015. "Evolution of consumption distribution and model of wealth distribution in China between 1995 and 2012," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 429(C), pages 76-86.
    11. Lars Osberg & Jiaping Shao & Kuan Xu, 2009. "The growth of poor children in China 1991–2000: why food subsidies may matter," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(S1), pages 89-108, April.
    12. Arslan Razmi, 2008. "Is the Chinese Investment- and Export-Led Growth Model Sustainable? Some Rising Concerns," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2008-09, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    13. Gholamreza Hajargsht & William E. Griffiths & Joseph Brice & D.S. Prasada Rao & Duangkamon Chotikapanich, 2011. "GMM Estimation of Income Distributions from Grouped Data," Department of Economics - Working Papers Series 1129, The University of Melbourne.
    14. Jin, Bohan & Li, Zheng, 2024. "Air pollution, healthcare use, and inequality: Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    15. Jin, Yanhong & Fan, Maoyong & Cheng, Mingwang & Shi, Qinghua, 2014. "The economic gains of cadre status in rural China: Investigating effects and mechanisms," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 185-200.
    16. Wenkai Sun & Xianghong Wang & Xiaoxi Zhang, 2015. "Minimum wage effects on employment and working time of Chinese workers——evidence based on CHNS," IZA Journal of Labor & Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-22, December.
    17. Hou, Xiaohui & Coyne, Joseph, 2008. "The emergence of proprietary medical facilities in China," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 141-151, October.
    18. Cao, Jing & Ho, Mun Sing & Li, Yating & Newell, Richard G. & Pizer, William A., 2019. "Chinese residential electricity consumption: Estimation and forecast using micro-data," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 6-27.
    19. Ivana Malá, 2013. "Použití konečných směsí logaritmicko-normálních rozdělení pro modelování příjmů českých domácností [The Use of Finite Mixtures of Lognormal Distribution for the Modelling of Household Income Distri," Politická ekonomie, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2013(3), pages 356-372.

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