Print | Back

Skip to Content

Support functions

Publications

Table of contents

Estimating Income Inequality in China Using Grouped Data and the Generalized Beta Distribution

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 …
Publisher:
UNU-WIDER
Series:
WIDER Research Paper
Volume:
2006/134
Title:
Estimating Income Inequality in China Using Grouped Data and the Generalized Beta Distribution
Authors:
Duangkamon Chotikapanich, D.S. Prasada Rao, and Kam Ki Tang
Publication date:
2006
ISSN Web:
1810-2611
ISBN Web:
9291909181
ISBN 13 Web:
9789291909186
Copyright holder:
© UNU-WIDER
Copyright year:
2006
Keywords:
Gini coefficient, generalized beta distribution, urban and rural inequality
JEL:
D31, C13, C16
Project:
Inequality and Poverty in China
Sponsor:
The governments of Denmark (Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Finland (Ministry for Foreign Affairs), Norway (Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Sweden (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency-Sida) and the United Kingdom (Department for International Development).
Format:
online