IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolet/v234y2024ics0165176523005049.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Workers’ income risk and the evolution of income inequality in China

Author

Listed:
  • Wang, Yan
  • Conesa, Juan Carlos

Abstract

We estimate the labor income process faced by Chinese workers in three distinct sectors. Agricultural workers experience the highest level of income risk and the lowest average income, whereas those in the private sector face significantly greater risk and lower average income compared to their non-private sector counterparts. We find a substantial increase in inequality across sectors, instead of increasing risk within sectors.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Yan & Conesa, Juan Carlos, 2024. "Workers’ income risk and the evolution of income inequality in China," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:234:y:2024:i:c:s0165176523005049
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2023.111478
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176523005049
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econlet.2023.111478?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thomas Piketty & Li Yang & Gabriel Zucman, 2019. "Capital Accumulation, Private Property, and Rising Inequality in China, 1978–2015," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(7), pages 2469-2496, July.
    2. Wang, Yan & Conesa, Juan Carlos, 2022. "The role of demographics and migration for the future of economic growth in China," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    3. Raül Santaeulàlia-Llopis & Yu Zheng, 2018. "The Price of Growth: Consumption Insurance in China 1989–2009," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(4), pages 1-35, October.
    4. Jonathan Heathcote & Kjetil Storesletten & Giovanni L. Violante, 2010. "The Macroeconomic Implications of Rising Wage Inequality in the United States," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 118(4), pages 681-722, August.
    5. Chamon, Marcos & Liu, Kai & Prasad, Eswar, 2013. "Income uncertainty and household savings in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 164-177.
    6. Yu, Jihai & Zhu, Guozhong, 2013. "How uncertain is household income in China," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 120(1), pages 74-78.
    7. Haiyan Ding & Hui He, 2018. "A Tale of Transition: An Empirical Analysis of Economic Inequality in Urban China, 1986-2009," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 29, pages 106-137, July.
    8. Richard Blundell & Luigi Pistaferri & Ian Preston, 2008. "Consumption Inequality and Partial Insurance," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(5), pages 1887-1921, December.
    9. Junsen Zhang, 2021. "A Survey on Income Inequality in China," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 59(4), pages 1191-1239, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Raül Santaeulàlia-Llopis & Yu Zheng, 2018. "The Price of Growth: Consumption Insurance in China 1989–2009," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(4), pages 1-35, October.
    2. Maksym Bryukhanov & Dmytro Hryshko, 2024. "Inequality in Russia over time and over the life cycle," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 126(2), pages 289-319, April.
    3. Chen, Yuanyuan & Yuan, Meng & Zhang, Min, 2023. "Income inequality and educational expenditures on children: Evidence from the China Family Panel Studies," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    4. Hanewald, Katja & Jia, Ruo & Liu, Zining, 2021. "Why is inequality higher among the old? Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    5. Niu, Geng & Wang, Qi & Li, Han & Zhou, Yang, 2020. "Number of brothers, risk sharing, and stock market participation," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    6. Da Zhao & Jingyuan Guo & Hong Zou & Ze Song, 2022. "From Price to Gain: The Evolution of Household Income Volatility and Consumption Insurance in Urban China," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 30(6), pages 113-136, November.
    7. Stefano Eusepi & Bruce Preston, 2009. "Labor Supply Heterogeneity and Macroeconomic Co-movement," NBER Working Papers 15561, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Andreas Fuster & Paul S. Willen, 2011. "Insuring Consumption Using Income-Linked Assets," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 15(4), pages 835-873.
    9. Greg Kaplan & Giovanni L. Violante, 2010. "How Much Consumption Insurance beyond Self-Insurance?," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(4), pages 53-87, October.
    10. Sushant Acharya & Keshav Dogra, 2020. "Understanding HANK: Insights From a PRANK," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(3), pages 1113-1158, May.
    11. Ortigueira, Salvador & Siassi, Nawid, 2013. "How important is intra-household risk sharing for savings and labor supply?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(6), pages 650-666.
    12. Jonathan Heathcote & Kjetil Storesletten & Giovanni L. Violante, 2009. "Quantitative Macroeconomics with Heterogeneous Households," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 1(1), pages 319-354, May.
    13. Doepke, M. & Tertilt, M., 2016. "Families in Macroeconomics," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & Harald Uhlig (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1789-1891, Elsevier.
    14. Elin Halvorsen & Hans A Holter & Serdar Ozkan & Kjetil Storesletten, 2024. "Dissecting Idiosyncratic Earnings Risk," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 22(2), pages 617-668.
    15. Brant Abbott & Giovanni Gallipoli, 2022. "Permanent‐income inequality," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 13(3), pages 1023-1060, July.
    16. Lance Lochner & Youngki Shin, 2014. "Understanding Earnings Dynamics: Identifying and Estimating the Changing Roles of Unobserved Ability, Permanent and Transitory Shocks," NBER Working Papers 20068, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Chan, Kenneth S. & Lai, Jennifer T. & Yan, Isabel K.M., 2014. "Consumption risk sharing and self-insurance across provinces in China: 1952–2008," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 66-85.
    18. Jonathan Heathcote & Kjetil Storesletten & Giovanni L. Violante, 2010. "The Macroeconomic Implications of Rising Wage Inequality in the United States," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 118(4), pages 681-722, August.
    19. Isaiah Hull & Or Sattath & Eleni Diamanti & Göran Wendin, 2024. "Quantum Technology for Economists," Contributions to Economics, Springer, number 978-3-031-50780-9, December.
    20. Kimberly A. Berg & Chadwick C. Curtis & Steven Lugauer & Nelson C. Mark, 2021. "Demographics and Monetary Policy Shocks," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 53(6), pages 1229-1266, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Income risk; China; Agriculture; Private sector; Non-private sector;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs
    • O5 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:234:y:2024:i:c:s0165176523005049. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolet .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.