Measurement And Decomposition Of Income Polarization Of Chinese Residents

Since the application of China's reform and opening-up policy,with the transition of China's economic system from planned economy to market economy and the development and improvement of its market mechanism,the remarkable achievements deriving from high-speed development of economy and sustainable development have been attracted the attention around the world.Thanks to the social dividends brought by economic growth,the household income of the majority of residents has been significantly enhanced,and the quality of life of residents has been greatly improved.But in the process of high-speed economic development,some problems such as the rise of income inequality and the increase of gap between rich and poor have become barriers and potential flashpoints which hinder the economic development and social stability.At the same time,in recent years,some problems that can not be explained by inequality and income disparity,such as the frequent occurrence of regional mass incidents,the overall anxiety of the middle class and the hollowing out of the middle-income groups in the scale,caused some scholars' attention and research about polarization.In particular,the polarization has drawn widespread concern because the measurements have a positive theoretical significance in maintaining social structure stability,alleviating potential social contradictions and some other aspects.In order to understand the academic status of polarization in economic and social studies,to understand the essential connotation of income polarization,and to clarify the interaction between polarization and other economic concepts,based on the combing of the classical literature of income polarization,this paper define and expand the concept of polarization forming the broad and narrow concepts of income polarization.In addition,in this paper,the different types of income polarization are summarized and classified,so as to form the four different measures of the polarization index category.On the basis of determining the concept of polarization and type classification,this paper selects the important polarization measure index under different types of polarization index according to the principle of typicality and representative,and combing the development of the polarization index with the driving force of discrepancy between the demandof precise polarization measurement andunsatisfactory measurement accuracy of previous polarization index.And the construction principle,assumptions and measurement conditions of polarization measurement are discussed emphatically,which lay the foundation of applying the polarization index correctly.In addition,in order to find the factors influencing the changes in polarization and constitute factors,with which the related policies and measures for decreasing the polarization can be explored,this papercarry out related explorationfor the method and principle of polarization decomposition from the horizontal decomposition and dynamic decompositionof polarization.In this paper,the data of China Health and Nutrition Survey are used as the fundamental data.And based on the endogenous grouping and exogenous grouping,multiple polarization indexesare used to measure the true level of the internal dimension,the urban-rural interior,the geographic area and the coastal-inland internal polarization.The results of comparative analysis show that:(1)Under the condition of endogenous grouping,the polarization level and the Gini coefficient of the national level in the period of 1989-2000 are all positive while the growth rate of polarization is inferior to unequal growth rate in the same period.And polarization rose sharply during the period 2000-2006,whose amplificationexceeded the period of 1989-2000 and reached its maximum in 2006.However,comparing with the same period of inequality index,the polarization growth rate is less than the growth rate of inequality.Since 2006,the polarization and inequality displayed declining trendat the same time,and the declining extent of polarization is greater than that of inequality.(2)The measurement of the national polarization level by the exogenous group got basically the same results as that of the endogenous grouping national polarization measurement.(3)There areapparent differences in the polarization level between urban and rural areas,and similar results are also expressed between east-middle-west region and northeastern regions and between coastal regionand inland areas.The relationship between the main influencing factors and the intrinsic change of polarization change are analyzed by using the horizontal and dynamic decomposition method in polarization decomposition theory,and the results show that:(1)There is a positive correlation between the basic pattern of income structure and the polarization change under the corresponding income source.The ratio between operating income and wage income can explain the trend of polarization,which can be attributed to the transformation of the sense ofidentification and alienation between the working class and the merchant group.(2)Depend on the DER index,we can find that theidentification of each region is more stable and the degree of dispersion of polarization changes depends largely on the degree of discrepancy of alienation.(3)Polarization index with growth-redistribution effect decomposition reflects the different contribution of the economic growth and income distribution on the polarization.According to the empirical results above,the following policy recommendations are put forward:(1)do moreefforts to improve the size and proportion of middle-income groups and shrink the degree of polarization among different income groups;(2)Deepen the reform of income distribution system and pay more attention to the income structure in the process of income distribution;pursuesthe fairness of income distribution based on the basic pattern of stable income;(3)Take specific and differentiated policy measures on the income distribution areas to reducethe income inequality between urban and rural,and between inter-regional and coastal-inland so as to ensure the development of regional balance.This article has the following innovations:First,the relevant domestic and foreign literature,determine the basic concept of income polarization and intrinsic meaning.This paper summarizes the research and development trend of income polarization in China,and summarizes the existence of viewpoints,which is conducive to the following development of polarization methodology.Second,the rational system of income polarization is sorted out and expressed in mathematical language,which makes the axiomatic system and the measure framework of polarization more clear and guarantee the rigor and relative unity of the theoretical basis of polarization.Thirdly,we break down the classification criteria based on the income as the measure variable,incorporate the social variables on the basis of the traditional polarization index classification,expand the polarization index classification type,and carry out the more detailed classification of the polarization index.Fourthly,the construction principle and assumptions of various indexes are described in detail,and the advantages and disadvantages of various polarization indexes are scientifically reviewed to ensure the reliability and accuracy of the polarization index in the actual measurement.It is pointed out that due to the complexity of the polarization index and the non-uniqueness of the polarization decomposition,the polarization index of the finishing and review will inevitably appear unreasonable.In the empirical analysis of polarization,the socioeconomic polarization measure is limited by the availability of data,the selection of social indicators,the time cost and the calculation method,which leads to the poor operability of the measure index.And belongs to the socio-economic polarization index,and the simple income polarization or Bipolarization may exist is not comparable to the problem.In addition,the polarization measure is a very large area of research,this article is still a basic stage,the polarization problem to be further explored.