Estimating income inequality in China using grouped data and the generalized beta distribution
Estimating income inequality in China using grouped data and the generalized beta distribution
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DOI：
10.1111/j.1475-4991.2007.00220.x
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发表时间：
2007-03-01
影响因子：
2
通讯作者：
Tang, Kam Ki
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Chotikapanich, Duangkamon;Rao, D. S. Prasada;Tang, Kam Ki
我国收入分配的数据来源主要有两类：住户调查数据和分组数据。住户调查数据通常是孤立年份和个别省份的数据。相比之下，汇总数据或分组数据通常更容易获得，而且通常覆盖全国。原则上，分组数据有助于调查较长、连续时期内不平等的变化情况，并查明更广泛区域的不平等模式。然而，分组数据的一个主要局限性是，只报告了五分之一或十分之一人口群体的平均收入和收入份额。直接使用以这种格式报告的分组数据相当于假设五分之一或十分之一组中的所有个人都有相同的收入。这可能会扭曲每个区域内不平等的估计。本文的目的是应用一种改进的计量经济学方法来研究中国的收入不平等问题。本文采用广义贝塔分布模型研究了中国不同时期、不同水平的收入不平等状况。广义贝塔分布比过去研究中使用的对数正态分布更普遍和灵活，也放宽了五分位数和十分位数人口组内收入均匀分布的假设。本文研究了1978年至2002年期间中国城乡不平等的性质和程度。然后，在整个中国的收入不平等建模使用的混合各省的具体分布。估计结果用于研究国家不平等的趋势，并根据经济改革，区域政策和中国经济的全球化讨论实证结果。
There are two main types of data sources of income distributions in China: household survey data and grouped data. Household survey data are typically available for isolated years and individual provinces. In comparison, aggregate or grouped data are typically available more frequently and usually have national coverage. In principle, grouped data allow investigation of the change of inequality over longer, continuous periods of time, and the identification of patterns of inequality across broader regions. Nevertheless, a major limitation of grouped data is that only mean (average) income and income shares of quintile or decile groups of the population are reported. Directly using grouped data reported in this format is equivalent to assuming that all individuals in a quintile or decile group have the same income. This potentially distorts the estimate of inequality within each region. The aim of this paper is to apply an improved econometric method designed to use grouped data to study income inequality in China. A generalized beta distribution is employed to model income inequality in China at various levels and periods of time. The generalized beta distribution is more general and flexible than the lognormal distribution that has been used in past research, and also relaxes the assumption of a uniform distribution of income within quintile and decile groups of populations. The paper studies the nature and extent of inequality in rural and urban China over the period 1978 to 2002. Income inequality in the whole of China is then modeled using a mixture of province-specific distributions. The estimated results are used to study the trends in national inequality, and to discuss the empirical findings in the light of economic reforms, regional policies, and globalization of the Chinese economy.