The Role of Family Background for Earnings in Rural China

Tor Eriksson and Yingqiang Zhang
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Yingqiang Zhang: Beijing Jiaotong University, Postal: Beijing Jiaotong University

No 10-14, Working Papers from University of Aarhus, Aarhus School of Business, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper provides estimates of brother income correlations for rural China. Brother correlations are a parsimonious measure of the importance of family and community background as determinants of individuals’ economic status. We find internationally high levels of income similarity for brothers and siblings: 0.57 and 0.58, respectively. We show that compared with the 1990s, income correlations have decreased in more recent years, but remain high. Furthermore, we document virtually no differences between the coastal and interior provinces and by father’s education. The high brother correlations imply that the high level of income inequality in China is likely to persist.

Keywords: Family background; sibling correlation; income inequality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 J62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 18 pages
Date: 2010-01-01
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Journal Article: The Role of Family Background for Earnings in Rural China (2012)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:aareco:2010_014

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