Contemporary Income Distribution Ideological Evolution

Income distribution has always been an important aspect of the economic theory. Since China introduced the reform and opening up policies, a great numbers of researchers have investigated the income distribution issues from various perspectives, putting forward a wide variety of views and propositions. However, their research focuses mainly on the empirical aspects of income distribution, with little, if any, attention paid to the evolution of the thought on income distribution.This study attempts to provide a systematic analysis of the evolution of the thought on income distribution since the introduction of the reform and opening up policies from the perspective of the history of economic thought and trace the course of its development. The contemporary Chinese thought on income distribution is the outcome of the application of Marxist income distribution theories, in combination with western economic theories, to the practice of China' economic reform, and is being constantly improved and developed with the economic development of China.Based on modern western economic theories, the contemporary Chinese income distribution theories are a development and extension of the Marxist income distribution theory. This study gives an overview of the Marxist income distribution theory and the relevant western theories on income distribution. The following chapters deals respectively with the thought on labor-based income distribution under the command econcomy, the implementation of principles of labor-based distribution, the combination of labor-based income distribution and other ways of income distribution, the combination of labor-based income distribution and income distribution based different productive factors, and income disparity and efficiency and equality. Despite the varied views and propositions on income distribution in the different of stages of economic reform, there has been, as is discovered by the author, a thread of change and continuity that are braided together and traces its way through the evolution of the contemporary Chinese thought on income distribution.