Replication data for: Capital Accumulation, Private Property, and Rising Inequality in China, 1978–2015

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Thomas Piketty; Li Yang; Gabriel Zucman

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
AER-2017-0973-data			12/07/2019 08:08:AM
LICENSE.txt	text/plain	14.6 KB	12/07/2019 03:08:AM

Project Citation:

Piketty, Thomas, Yang, Li, and Zucman, Gabriel. Replication data for: Capital Accumulation, Private Property, and Rising Inequality in China, 1978–2015. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2019. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2019-12-07. https://doi.org/10.3886/E116194V1

Project Description

Summary: We combine national accounts, surveys, and new tax data to study the accumulation and distribution of income and wealth in China from 1978 to 2015. The national wealth-income ratio increased from 350 percent in 1978 to 700 percent in 2015, while the share of public property in national wealth declined from 70 percent to 30 percent. We provide sharp upward revision of official inequality estimates. The top 10 percent income share rose from 27 percent to 41 percent between 1978 and 2015; the bottom 50 percent share dropped from 27 percent to 15 percent. China's inequality levels used to be close to Nordic countries and are now approaching US levels.

Scope of Project

JEL Classification:
      D31 Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions
      E01 Measurement and Data on National Income and Product Accounts and Wealth; Environmental Accounts
      E23 Macroeconomics: Production
      O11 Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
      P24 Socialist Systems and Transitional Economies: National Income, Product, and Expenditure; Money; Inflation
      P26 Socialist Systems and Transitional Economies: Political Economy; Property Rights
      P36 Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions: Consumer Economics; Health; Education and Training: Welfare, Income, Wealth, and Poverty

Related Publications

Download this project

Published Versions

V1 [2019-12-07]

Export Metadata

Dublin Core

DDI 2.5

Report a Problem

Found a serious problem with the data, such as disclosure risk or copyrighted content? Let us know.

This material is distributed exactly as it arrived from the data depositor. ICPSR has not checked or processed this material. Users should consult the investigator(s) if further information is desired.