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From Workers to Capitalists in Less Than Two Generations: A Study of Chinese Urban Elite Transformation Between 1988 and 2013

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  • , Stone Center

    (The Graduate Center/CUNY)

  • Yang, Li
  • Novokmet, Filip
  • Milanovic, Branko

Abstract

Economic and social transformation of China during the past 40 years is without precedent in human history. While the economic transformation was extensively studied, social transformation was not. In this paper, we use for the first time harmonized household surveys covering the period 1988-2013 to study the changes in the characteristics the richest 5 percent of China’s urban population. We find that the elite changed from being composed of high government officials, clerical staff, and workers in 1988 to professionals and small and large business owners in 2013. The educational level of the elite increased substantially. Membership in CCP has a positive (albeit small) effect on one’s income but is particularly valuable to large business owners. (Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality Working Paper)

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  • , Stone Center & Yang, Li & Novokmet, Filip & Milanovic, Branko, 2020. "From Workers to Capitalists in Less Than Two Generations: A Study of Chinese Urban Elite Transformation Between 1988 and 2013," SocArXiv enbxv, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:enbxv
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/enbxv
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    Cited by:

    1. Ranaldi, Marco, 2021. "Global Distributions of Capital and Labor Incomes: Capitalization of the Global Middle Class," SocArXiv 3g59r, Center for Open Science.

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