The correction of the urban-rural wealth Gini coefficient of China

Pingsheng Dai and Zhaohui Jin

PLOS ONE, 2026, vol. 21, issue 4, 1-18

Abstract: Due to the lack of top wealth records in household surveys, many scholars believe that China’s wealth Gini coefficient is seriously underestimated. Based on data from CFPS (China Household Panel Survey), this paper corrects the urban-rural wealth Gini coefficient of China in combination with the Hurun Rich List. The study finds that real estate accounts for more than 75% of total assets, and financial assets account for less than 20% of total assets. Housing inequality contributes more than 75% to wealth inequality. The urban-rural decomposition of the wealth Gini coefficient shows that the contribution rate of urban-rural wealth inequality to the total wealth Gini coefficient is more than 50%. After the correction based on data from the Rich List, the urban wealth Gini coefficient of China is at the level of 0.70, and the urban-rural wealth Gini coefficient of China shows an inverted U-shaped change.

Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0346669

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0346669

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