Urban Consumption Inequality in China: 1995-2013
This study uses 1995, 2002 and 2013 China Household Income projects data to investigate consumption expenditure inequality
Abstract
This study uses 1995, 2002 and 2013 China Household Income projects (CHIP) data to investigate the urban household consumption expenditure inequality. The overall inequality of urban household consumption expenditure measured by Gini coefficient slightly decreases from 0.33 in 1995 to 0.32 in 2002, but increases to 0.36 in 2013, which follows the same trend with that of urban income but is severer. However, the percentile ratio of p90/p10 shows that consumption inequalityincreases all the time.
Besides, the inequality of basic food consumption is much smaller than the overall consumption, its contribution to the overall consumption inequality decreases from 20% in 1995 and 2002 to 15% by 2013, and its share also decreases steadily from 34% in 1995 to 30% in 2002 and further to 24% in 2013, and finally its share steadily decreases as the overall consumption level moving up the distribution in each of the 3years. The inequality of housing consumption is much larger than overall consumption but decreasing over time, its contribution to the overall consumption inequality increases 35% in earlier two years to 40% by 2013, and its share also sharply increases from 23% in 1995 to 30% in 2002 and further to 38% in 2013, besides its share shows upward sloping as overall consumption level increases in each of the three years.
This work is part of the ‘Local government, economic growth and human development: Chinese lessons for Kenya and Uganda?’ project.
Citation
Xia, Qingjie & Li, Shi & Song, Lina, 2017. “Urban Consumption Inequality in China, 1995–2013,” IZA Discussion Papers 11150, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
Links
Urban Consumption Inequality in China: 1995-2013 (PDF, 690KB)