IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/socarx/b3jze.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Anti-Corruption Campaign in China: An Empirical Investigation

Author

Listed:
  • Yang, Li
  • Milanovic, Branko
  • Lin, Yaoqi

Abstract

We create a database of officials who have been found guilty of corruption in China in the period 2012–21 with their personal characteristics and the amount of embezzled funds. We use it to investigate the correlates of corruption, estimate the effects of corruption on inequality, and find the expected increase in officials’ income due to corruption and the gain in income distribution ranking. We find that the amount of corruption is positively associated with education, administrative (hierarchical) level of the official, and years of membership in the Communist Party. The sample of corrupt officials belongs to the upper income ranges of Chinese income distribution even without corruption. But corruption is a significant engine of upward mobility. While only one-half of the corrupt official would be in the top 5 percent of urban distribution without illegal incomes, practically all are in the top 5 percent when corrupt income is included. (Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality Working Paper)

Suggested Citation

  • Yang, Li & Milanovic, Branko & Lin, Yaoqi, 2023. "Anti-Corruption Campaign in China: An Empirical Investigation," SocArXiv b3jze, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:b3jze
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/b3jze
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/64343d8848245635fdb48550/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31219/osf.io/b3jze?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. Thomas Piketty & Li Yang & Gabriel Zucman, 2017. "Appendix to "Capital Accumulation, Private Property and Rising Inequality in China, 1978-2015"," Working Papers 201707, World Inequality Lab.
    3. Junsen Zhang, 2021. "A Survey on Income Inequality in China," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 59(4), pages 1191-1239, December.
    4. 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.
    5. Ni, Shawn & Van, Pham Hoang, 2006. "High corruption income in Ming and Qing China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(2), pages 316-336, December.
    6. Dong, Bin & Torgler, Benno, 2013. "Causes of corruption: Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 152-169.
    7. Wu, Na & Wang, Qunyong, 2018. "Wage penalty of overeducation: New micro-evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 206-217.
    8. Hucker, Charles O., 1951. "The Traditional Chinese Censorate and the New Peking Regime," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 45(4), pages 1041-1057, December.
    9. Andris Zimelis, 2020. "Corruption research: A need for an integrated approach," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 23(3), pages 288-306, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Yang, Li & Milanović, Branko & Lin, Yaoqi, 2023. "Anti-corruption campaign in China: An empirical investigation," ZEW Discussion Papers 23-052, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    2. 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.
    3. Kumar, Rishabh, 2019. "The evolution of wealth-income ratios in India 1860-2012," SocArXiv sj6h2, Center for Open Science.
    4. Sean Higgins & Nora Lustig & Andrea Vigorito, 2018. "The Rich Underreport their Income: Assessing Bias in Inequality Estimates and Correction Methods using Linked Survey and Tax Data," Working Papers 1808, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    5. Filip Novokmet & Thomas Piketty & Gabriel Zucman, 2018. "From Soviets to oligarchs: inequality and property in Russia 1905-2016," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 16(2), pages 189-223, June.
    6. Zheng, Yanqiao & Zhang, Xiaoqi & Zhu, Yu, 2021. "Overeducation, major mismatch, and return to higher education tiers: Evidence from novel data source of a major online recruitment platform in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    7. Chen, Yuanyuan & Yuan, Meng & Zhang, Min, 2023. "Income inequality and educational expenditures on children: Evidence from the China Family Panel Studies," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    8. Branko Milanovic, 2022. "After the Financial Crisis: The Evolution of the Global Income Distribution Between 2008 and 2013," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 68(1), pages 43-73, March.
    9. Thomas Blanchet & Ignacio Flores & Marc Morgan, 2022. "The weight of the rich: improving surveys using tax data," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 20(1), pages 119-150, March.
    10. Pawel Bukowski & Filip Novokmet, 2017. "Inequality in Poland: Estimating the whole distribution by g-percentile 1983-2015," Working Papers halshs-02797780, HAL.
    11. Ravallion, Martin & Chen, Shaohua, 2022. "Fleshing out the olive? Observations on income polarization in China since 1981," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    12. Filip Novokmet, 2018. "The long-run evolution of inequality in the Czech Lands, 1898-2015," PSE Working Papers hal-02878212, HAL.
    13. Pawel Bukowski & Filip Novokmet, 2018. "Inequality in Poland: Estimating the whole distribution by g-percentile 1983-2015," LIS Working papers 731, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    14. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/3bhpicpe2q8a090eu5p3dvakb6 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez & Gabriel Zucman, 2018. "Distributional National Accounts: Methods and Estimates for the United States," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 133(2), pages 553-609.
    16. Matthieu Crozet & Laura Hering & Sandra Poncet, 2018. "Looking for the Bright Side of the China Syndrome: Rising Export Opportunities and Life Satisfaction in China," Working Papers 2018-14, CEPII research center.
    17. Facundo Alvaredo & Lydia Assouad & Thomas Piketty, 2019. "Measuring lnequality in the Middle East 1990–2016: The World’s Most Unequal Region?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 65(4), pages 685-711, December.
    18. Xing Li & Xiangyu Ge & Wei Fan & Hao Zheng, 2021. "Research on Spatial Correlation Characteristics and Their Spatial Spillover Effect of Local Government Debt Risks in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-32, March.
    19. 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.
    20. Nitin Kumar Bharti, 2018. "Wealth Inequality, Class and Caste in India, 1961-2012," Working Papers hal-02878149, HAL.
    21. Zhao, Da & Wu, Tianhao & He, Qiwei, 2017. "Consumption inequality and its evolution in urban China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 208-228.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:osf:socarx:b3jze. 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: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://arabixiv.org .

    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.