On the Tendency of the Gini Coefficient between Chinese Rural and Urban Areas from 1978 to 2012

Abstract

By analyzing the Gini coefficient between rural and urban areas, we explore the general changing tendency of income inequality between rural and urban residents. In particular, we investigate Chinese rural-urban income disparity from1978 to 2012. The result shows that the growth of urban population led to the increase of urban-rural income disparity from 1978 to 2001 and tended to narrow urban-rural income inequality after 2001. 2005 to 2012 provincial data also indicated that the Gini coefficient decreased with the acceleration of the urbanization process.

Keywords: Gini, coefficient, urbanization, income inequality

JEL Classification: D31, D63, R12