Were Men Born Equal? The Long-term Influence Of Family Political And Economic Status On Children's Income

This paper examined the influence of historical socioeconomic status on the personal incomes currently in urban China.We found that,even though the entire social strata had been overturned during the "Land Reform" and the "Socialist Transformation",the income of the residents with "elite" origins were about 9%higher than those with "non-elite"backgrounds were.Furthermore,we find that there are significant differences in the transmission mechanisms of the intergenerational inheritance of the socioeconomic status between the offspring of "old elites"(socioeconomic elites before the establishment of PRC)and "new elites"(socioeconomic elites after the establishment of PRC).The phenomena above reveal that despite the reverse impact of the socialist revolution and social vicissitude,the intergenerational inheritance of families' socioeconomic status is still stable enough.This inheritance may work mainly through:1)"family culture" or gene advantage bringing the children with more personal capacity and the ability to adapt the market mechanism;2)the advantageous occupations and political resources inherited directly from the parents.The long-term succession and continuation of the socioeconomic status of the family put forward quite a few challenges to the efforts of narrowing the income gap,which means we should pay more attention to the equality of income distribution.