Income Mobility In China

Since the Reform and Opening, China has made achievements in economy that were paid attention in the world. It has become one of the countries with higher inequality. The high inequality of income distribution is not conducive to the sustainability of economic growth. The problem of distribution has always been the focus of economic studies. A new perspective in distribution is the mobility which researches income inequality from one year to many years and even life cycle. Low-income groups maybe not composed by that were low-income in the past due to income mobility. It can provide a new perspective way that is different to the research on the gap of income distribution. Therefore, the research on income mobility can propose new references for income distribution policy.This paper studies the income mobility of urban and rural, and further analyses the factors. The conclusions are:(1)China's income mobility was increasing in the later of 20th century, but became smaller in the new century; (2)The Income mobility is conducive to the equalization of income distribution, but its role is reducing; (3)The income mobility is beneficial for social welfare improvements;(4)The share of wage in income, education, urbanization, have positive impacts on mobility, while the role of population dependency rate is negative. Finally, the paper provides several policies to promote income mobility according to the conclusions.