Household Wealth in Contemporary China

• In Event: 367 - Regular Session. Affluence/Wealth

Abstract

A product of sustained and rapid economic growth over more than 30 years, private wealth has emerged as an important social phenomenon in contemporary China. Yet, little empirical research on wealth in China is available, due to the difficulty collecting reliable household wealth information. With new nationwide longitudinal survey data now available from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), we study the level, distribution, and composition of household wealth in contemporary China. We find that the wealth Gini coefficient of China was 0.73 in 2012. The richest 1% owned more than one-third of the total national household wealth, while the poorest 25% owned less than 2%. Housing assets, which accounted for over 70%, were the largest component of household wealth. Finally, the urban-rural divide and regional disparities played important roles in household wealth distribution, and institutional factors significantly affected household wealth holdings, wealth growth rate, and wealth mobility.

Authors

• Yu Xie, University of Michigan

• Yongai Jin, Renmin University of China