The long-term evolution of national income inequality and rural poverty in China

Chuliang Luo, Shi Li () and Terry Sicular ()

China Economic Review, 2020, vol. 62, issue C

Abstract: Using the five waves of the China Household Income Project surveys conducted during 1988–2013, we investigate long-term changes in national income inequality and rural poverty in China. National income inequality rose markedly to 2007 and thereafter fell slightly. Income growth was widely shared, but inequality increased because the high-income percentiles had faster income growth than lower percentiles and because the gap between urban and rural household incomes widened. The fall in income inequality after 2007 reflects faster income growth among low-income percentiles and the impacts of newly introduced redistributive policies. The paper also finds a considerable, ongoing poverty reduction in rural China. A poverty decomposition analysis indicates that this rural poverty reduction was mostly due to income growth rather than redistribution.

Keywords: Income inequality; Poverty; Gini decomposition; GE decomposition; Poverty decomposition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 D63 I32 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (38)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:chieco:v:62:y:2020:i:c:s1043951x20300626

DOI: 10.1016/j.chieco.2020.101465

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