Fleshing Out the Olive? On Income Polarization in China / Martin Ravallion, Shaohua Chen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ravallion, Martin.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Chen, Shaohua.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w29383.

NBER working paper series no. w29383

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2021.

Summary:

In a rare example of an explicit national goal for income distribution besides reducing poverty, China's leadership has recently committed to expanding the middle-income share--moving to a less polarized "olive-shaped" distribution. Recognizing the potential trade-offs, the paper asks whether China's experience indicates that income-polarization was a by-product of past economic progress, including poverty reduction. The paper does not find robust time-series evidence of polarizing effects alongside either economic growth or population urbanization (including among those below the national median). There was strong co-movement between polarization and inequality. Larger urban-rural gaps in mean incomes are strongly polarizing in China.

Notes:

Print version record

October 2021.