IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jstats/v8y2025i1p13-d1582322.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Measurement and Decomposition Analysis of Occupational Income Inequality in China

Author

Listed:
  • Jing Yuan

    (Department of Statistics, Shandong Technology and Business University, Yantai 264005, China)

  • Teng Ma

    (Penglai Sub-Branch, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited Company, Yantai 264005, China)

  • Yinghui Wang

    (Department of Statistics, Shandong Technology and Business University, Yantai 264005, China)

  • Zongwu Cai

    (Department of Economics, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA)

Abstract

Using the China CFPS database, this paper measures the degree of intra-occupational inequality in China with the Pareto coefficient and uses the generalized entropy index to decompose the top income gap by region as well as by industry. The empirical results show that, firstly, the degree of income inequality between occupations in China has increased significantly in recent years. The provinces with a higher degree of income inequality between occupations are mostly located in the more economically developed regions in the central and eastern parts of the country, while the degree of inequality between occupations in the western part is lower. Secondly, the highest-income occupations are mainly in the manufacturing industry, with relatively high levels in the construction industry, the education sector, the wholesale and retail trade, and public administration and social organizations, while the levels in other occupations are relatively low. Lastly, the top income gap primarily originates from within industries. However, the contribution rate of the top income gap between industries is gradually increasing, while the contribution rate of the top income gap within industries is gradually decreasing.

Suggested Citation

  • Jing Yuan & Teng Ma & Yinghui Wang & Zongwu Cai, 2025. "Measurement and Decomposition Analysis of Occupational Income Inequality in China," Stats, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-26, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jstats:v:8:y:2025:i:1:p:13-:d:1582322
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2571-905X/8/1/13/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2571-905X/8/1/13/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shorrocks, A F, 1980. "The Class of Additively Decomposable Inequality Measures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(3), pages 613-625, April.
    2. Jiwei Chen & Zhigang Xu, 2024. "Minimum wages and household income distribution: Evidence from China," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(4), pages 1572-1601, November.
    3. Patrick Ward, 2014. "Measuring the Level and Inequality of Wealth: An Application to China," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(4), pages 613-635, December.
    4. Thomas Blanchet & Juliette Fournier & Thomas Piketty, 2022. "Generalized Pareto Curves: Theory and Applications," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 68(1), pages 263-288, March.
    5. Alvarez-Pelaez, Maria J. & Diaz, Antonia, 2005. "Minimum consumption and transitional dynamics in wealth distribution," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 633-667, April.
    6. Shorrocks, Anthony F, 1984. "Inequality Decomposition by Population Subgroups," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(6), pages 1369-1385, November.
    7. Shi Li & Haiyuan Wan, 2015. "Evolution of wealth inequality in China," China Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(3), pages 264-287, September.
    8. Fabio Braggion & Mintra Dwarkasing & Steven Ongena, 2021. "Household Inequality, Entrepreneurial Dynamism, and Corporate Financing [The colonial origins of comparative development: An empirical investigation]," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(5), pages 2448-2507.
    9. Emmanuel Saez & Gabriel Zucman, 2016. "Editor's Choice Wealth Inequality in the United States since 1913: Evidence from Capitalized Income Tax Data," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(2), pages 519-578.
    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. Jing Yuan & Xiaomin Liu & Yinghui Wang & Zongwu Cai, 2024. "Impact of Minimum Wage Standard on Occupational Income Inequality and Common Prosperity in China," WORKING PAPERS SERIES IN THEORETICAL AND APPLIED ECONOMICS 202404, University of Kansas, Department of Economics, revised Feb 2024.
    2. Jing Yuan & Teng Ma & Yinghui Wang & Zongwu Cai, 2025. "Measurement and Decomposition Analysis of Occupational Income Inequality in China," WORKING PAPERS SERIES IN THEORETICAL AND APPLIED ECONOMICS 202502, University of Kansas, Department of Economics, revised Jan 2025.
    3. Alonso-Villar, Olga & del Río, Coral, 2010. "Local versus overall segregation measures," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 30-38, July.
    4. Tomoki Fujii, 2013. "Geographic decomposition of inequality in health and wealth: evidence from Cambodia," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 11(3), pages 373-392, September.
    5. Andonie, Costel & Kuzmics, Christoph & Rogers, Brian W., 2019. "Efficiency-based measures of inequality," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 60-69.
    6. Casilda Lasso de la Vega & Ana Urrutia & Oscar Volij, 2011. "An Axiomatic Characterization Of The Theil Inequality Order," Working Papers 1103, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Department of Economics.
    7. Thomas Blanchet & Bertrand Garbinti & Jonathan Goupille-Lebret & Clara Martínez-Toledano, 2018. "Applying Generalized Pareto Curves to Inequality Analysis," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 108, pages 114-118, May.
    8. Tugce, Cuhadaroglu, 2013. "My Group Beats Your Group: Evaluating Non-Income Inequalities," SIRE Discussion Papers 2013-49, Scottish Institute for Research in Economics (SIRE).
    9. Kanbur, Ravi & Zhang, Xiaobo, 2001. "Fifty Years Of Regional Inequality In China: A Journey Through Revolution, Reform And Openness," Working Papers 7236, Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management.
    10. Teixidó Figueras, Jordi & Duro Moreno, Juan Antonio, 2012. "Ecological Footprint Inequality: A methodological review and some results," Working Papers 2072/203168, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Department of Economics.
    11. Frank A Cowell & Emmanuel Flachaire, 2018. "Inequality Measurement and the Rich: Why inequality increased more than we thought," STICERD - Public Economics Programme Discussion Papers 36, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
    12. Lucia Quadrado & Henk Folmer & Sudha Loman, 2001. "Regional Inequality in the Provision of Health Care in Spain," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 33(5), pages 783-798, May.
    13. Thomas Blanchet & Emmanuel Saez & Gabriel Zucman, 2022. "Real-Time Inequality," NBER Working Papers 30229, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Anton I. Votinov & Samvel S. Lazaryan & Vyacheslav N. Ovchinnikov, 2019. "Regression-Based Decomposition of Income Inequality Factors in Russia," Finansovyj žhurnal — Financial Journal, Financial Research Institute, Moscow 125375, Russia, issue 5, pages 74-89, October.
    15. Camacho Cuena, Eva & Neugebauer, Tibor & Seidl, Christian, 2005. "Compensating justice beats leaky buckets: an experimental investigation," Economics Working Papers 2005-06, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Department of Economics.
    16. Nendel, Max & Streicher, Jan, 2023. "An axiomatic approach to default risk and model uncertainty in rating systems," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    17. Hu'e Sullivan & Hurlin Christophe & P'erignon Christophe & Saurin S'ebastien, 2022. "Measuring the Driving Forces of Predictive Performance: Application to Credit Scoring," Papers 2212.05866, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2025.
    18. Frankel, David M. & Volij, Oscar, 2011. "Measuring school segregation," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 146(1), pages 1-38, January.
    19. Stephen P. Jenkins & John Micklewright, 2007. "New Directions in the Analysis of Inequality and Poverty," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 700, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    20. Yosr Abid & Cathal O'Donoghue & Denisa Sologon, 2016. "Decomposing Welfare Inequality in Egypt and Tunisia: an Oaxaca-Blinder Based Approach," Working Papers 1015, Economic Research Forum, revised Jun 2016.

    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:gam:jstats:v:8:y:2025:i:1:p:13-:d:1582322. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.