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Inequality in China

By The Economist
From The Economist
Published: January 07, 2013

A new survey illuminates the extent of Chinese income inequality.

Dec 15th 2012 | HONG KONG | from the print edition

THANKS to apartheid, broken job markets and monopolistic mining, South Africa is one of the most unequal countries in the world. The top 10% of households pocketed 58% of the income in 2008, according to researchers at the University of Cape Town. The country's Gini coefficient, which measures inequality on a scale of 0 to 1, was 0.7.

But South Africa's inequality may soon be equalled by an unexpected rival: communist China. According to a new survey, the top tenth of Chinese households took home 57% of the income in 2010. The country's Gini coefficient was 0.61, far higher than previous estimates (which ranged from 0.41 to 0.48).

The survey, known as the China Household Finance Survey (CHFS), was overseen by Gan Li of Texas A&M University and Southwestern University of Finance and Economics in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province. Modelled on the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances, which covers almost 6,500 American families every three years, the CHFS covers 8,438 households in China, excluding Tibet, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Hong Kong and Macau.

Surveying China's multitudes is a daunting task. Having randomly selected 320 neighbourhoods to visit, Mr Gan's team discovered that some had only half as many homes as the official data suggested, others had twice as many. Not everyone was willing to answer questions. The Southwestern students who carried out the interviews, which were done in 2011, had doors shut in their faces and insults hurled in their direction. They were obliged to try each household six times before giving up.

In rural Yunnan province the students travelled high into the mountains, where their questions about financial assets and rates of return were often met with incomprehension. One villager claimed he had no bank deposits. The interviewer assumed he was being evasive—until the villager retrieved a plastic bag with all his cash and began counting it.

Urban respondents were more recalcitrant: in the cities 16.5% of the original sample refused to take part, compared with only 3.2% in the countryside. Even so, these figures compare well with the 30% who refuse to take part in the Fed's survey. Indeed, the students' success in reaching households may explain why China's inequality appears so high. Other surveys may miss a greater percentage of the very poor or the very rich.

The survey confirmed that Chinese households have rather little debt. Their liabilities amount to less than 5% of their assets, compared with over 16% in America. Remarkably, the combined wealth of China's households (all their assets, minus their debts) came to $69.1 trillion in 2010. That is about 20% more than the net worth of American households.

from the print edition | Finance and economics

中國所得分配　嚴重不均

2012-12-26 天下雜誌 513期 作者：經濟學人

中國收入前一○％的家庭，擁有全國五七％的財富。其財富不均程度，直逼世上最不平等國——南非。

因為種族隔離政策、礦業壟斷，南非是世上最不平等的國家之一。

根據開普敦大學在○八年的統計，南非所得前一○％的家庭，擁有五八％的財富。

代表所得分配不均程度的吉尼係數，數值從○到一，愈高表示所得差距愈大。南非的吉尼係數高達○．七。

不過，南非的不平等，遇到意想不到的對手：中國大陸。

根據新的研究發現，一○年，中國收入前一○％的家庭，擁有全國五七％的財富，吉尼係數為○．六一，遠高於人們之前的預估（介於○．四一至○．四八之間）。

「中國家庭金融調查」，是由德州農工大學、成都西南財經大學的教授甘犁，所做的研究。

仿照美國聯準會的消費者財務狀況調查，每隔三年調查近六千五百個美國家庭，「中國家庭金融調查」則選擇西藏、新疆、內蒙古、港澳以外的八四三八個家庭，進行研究。

在中國調查，是艱鉅的任務。研究團隊隨機選擇了三二○個鄰里拜訪，不是每個人都樂於配合回答。西南財大的學生在執行訪談工作時，常吃閉門羹，受到百般阻撓。

塑膠袋就是銀行

團隊的學生也深入山區，前進雲南農村。當他們問到金融資產與報酬率的問題時，村民經常無法理解。

有村民宣稱他沒有銀行存款。原以為他是迴避敏感問題，只見村民扛出裝滿現金的塑膠袋，一張一張開始清點。

都市人反應更是頑固，有一六．五％的原始樣本，拒絕參加。鄉村僅有三．二％，即使如此，跟美國聯準會的研究，遭到三成民眾拒絕比起來，還是低得多。

學生成功深入家戶單位，可能也解釋了為何中國貧富不均如此嚴重。因為其他的調查，可能錯失了部份極貧或極富的人口。

這項調查結果證實，中國家庭的債務不高，佔資產的五％不到，美國則高達一六％。

值得注意的是，中國家庭的財富（資產減掉負債），在一○年時達到六九．一兆美元，比美國家庭淨資產，高出二○％。（陳竫詒譯）