Research On Economic Inequality In China

Since China's reform and opening up the speed of development has caught the attention of the world,people's living standards improve,but at the same time,the income gap of economic development,the gap is widening wealth gap and consumption,the eighteenth big points out: "has social principal contradictions of our country by the people's growing material and cultural needs with the contradiction between the backward social production,into the good life is people's increasing needs and unbalanced inadequate development of the contradiction between".At present,the main factor restricting the people's needs for a better life is the unbalanced and inadequate development of inequality,and economic inequality is its main form of expression.Stiglitz et al.(2009)proposed in the report of the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress that "the most relevant indicator to measure the distribution of material living standards may be based on the joint consideration of household or individual income,consumption and wealth status".Since then,economic inequality has not been confined to a single dimension of income,wealth or consumption,but to the combined inequalities among the three.Moreover,with the in-depth study of multidimensional nature in the field of welfare,more and more scholars apply multidimensional nature to the field of economic inequality,and comprehensively examine the issue of economic standard inequality from the three dimensions of income,wealth and consumption.At the same time,multidimensional economic inequality is not only a simple sum of all dimensions of inequality,but also considers the interaction between different dimensions of inequality,which is crucial in the problem of multidimensional economic inequality.Based on the data of CFPS survey from 2010 to 2018,this paper combines income,wealth and consumption to explore the degree of multi-dimensional economic inequality in China,the correlation among the three and the proportion of opportunity inequality in economic inequality.On this basis,it analyzes the effect of redistribution policy and individual characteristics on economic inequality through counterfactual method,so as to realize the improvement of economic inequality.The main content of this paper includes the following five parts:The first is the theoretical analysis of income inequality,wealth inequality and consumption inequality.Based on the Hypothesis of Life Cycle and the Hypothesis of Permanent Income,this paper analyzes the relationship among income,wealth and consumption,and deduces the relationship among income inequality,wealth inequality and consumption inequality according to the interaction among income,wealth and consumption.According to the actual situation,the paper analyzes the relationship between income inequality,property income and labor income Four aspects of the path of interaction between the three.The second is the measurement and decomposition of economic inequality.Firstly,this paper analyzes the distribution of income,wealth and consumption in a single dimension,two-dimensional and three-dimensional distribution.It is found that the inequality degree of income,wealth and consumption in three dimensions is higher than that in one dimension,and the concentration effect of wealth is obvious,which reflects the necessity of multidimensional economic inequality analysis.Secondly,different indexes and different weighting methods are used to measure the inequality from the perspective of single dimension inequality and multi-dimensional inequality,from the perspective of single dimension inequality index,the degree of income inequality has improved in 2010-2018,but its absolute value is still at a high position,while the degree of wealth inequality and consumption inequality has increased.Finally,from the perspective of multidimensional inequality index,no matter what kind of empowerment method is adopted,the change trend of multidimensional economic inequality is consistent,that is,multidimensional economic inequality is deteriorating.The third is the correlation analysis of economic inequality.Firstly,the contribution rate of the interaction among different dimensions of inequality to multi-dimensional economic inequality is obtained through the decomposition of tsui1 index,and the positive correlation between the dimensions is found.Secondly,the correlation between the inequality dimensions is further explored through the Oaxaca blinder decomposition method based on the regression equation and the RIF unconditional quantile regression equality and consumption inequality are important factors,and the value of income regression coefficient in each quantile of wealth and consumption distribution is different,which makes the aggravation of income inequality further worsen wealth and consumption inequality.On the other hand,because wealth itself is an important factor to explain income inequality and consumption inequality,and the value of wealth regression coefficient in each quantile of income and consumption distribution is different,the aggravation of wealth inequality will further worsen income inequality and consumption inequality.The fourth is the analysis of the causes of economic inequality.Based on Roemer's "environment and effort" binary analysis framework,this paper measures the degree of opportunity inequality in China's wealth inequality based on CFPS2018 data,and finds that opportunity inequality can explain 21.18% of the wealth gap.Among all the factors influencing inequality of opportunity,the contribution rate of household registration to the inequality of wealth opportunities is the highest,up to 54.66%.If the contribution rate of the highest education level and the highest education level of mothers is added,the contribution rate of parental education will reach 24.55%,which will become the second major factors besides household registration.At the same time,urban residents are faced with more serious opportunity inequality than rural residents in wealth accumulation.Men are faced with more serious opportunity inequality than women in wealth accumulation.The degree of opportunity inequality in the western region is more serious than that in the eastern and central regions.The inheritance group faces more serious opportunity inequality than the non-inheritance group in wealth accumulation,and the higher age group faces lower opportunity inequality There is more inequality of opportunity in the age group.In addition,environmental factors and effort variables are included in the wealth equation for regression estimation.The contribution of environment and effort variables under Roemer and Barry scenarios are calculated by variance decomposition method.It is found that environmental variables can not only directly affect wealth,but also indirectly affect wealth through acting on individual education,employment and income In order to reduce part of the inequality of opportunity caused by environmental factors.Fifth,explore ways to improve economic inequality.Using counterfactual analysis,this paper first analyzes the improvement effect under the adjustment of cash transfer payment,and finds that increasing the income level of low-income group is the most effective way to improve.Secondly,the paper analyzes the improvement effect of individual income tax adjustment,and finds that individual income tax can effectively adjust multi-dimensional economic inequality.Finally,the paper analyzes the improvement effect under the adjustment of no urban-rural differences and the improvement effect under the mediation of universal high school education.It is found that both no urban-rural differences and universal high school education can effectively improve the degree of multidimensional economic inequality.