In search of the elusive Chinese urban middle class: An exploratory analysis

Céline Bonnefond, Matthieu Clément and François Combarnous

Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) from Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA)

Abstract: This paper aims to identify and characterize the Chinese urban middle class. We propose to improve the description of the middle class using an innovative approach combining an economic approach (based on income) and a sociological approach (based on education and occupation). The empirical investigations conducted as part of this research are based on the China Health and Nutrition Survey (2009). First, we define the middle income class as households with an annual per capita income between 10,000 yuan and the 95th percentile. On this basis, approximately fifty percent of urban households may be said to belong to the middle class. Second, we use information on employment and education to characterize the heterogeneity of the middle income class. Using clustering methods, we identify four groups: (i) the elderly and the inactive middle class, mainly composed of pensioners; (ii) the old middle class, composed of self-employed workers; (iii) the marginal middle class, composed of skilled and unskilled workers; and (iv) the new middle class, composed of highly educated wage earners in the public sector. We show that the different groups have distinctive features based on variables such as housing and household appliances and equipment.

Keywords: social stratification; income distribution; middle class; urban China; clustering methods. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O53 P25 P36 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lam, nep-ltv, nep-neu, nep-tra and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Related works:
Journal Article: In search of the elusive Chinese urban middle class: an exploratory analysis (2015)
Working Paper: In search of the elusive Chinese urban middle class: An exploratory analysis (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:grt:wpegrt:2013-19

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