资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

Substantial evidence exists that economic inequality in Asia has been growing, but the dimensions of this inequality and its growth are far less clear. We evaluate inequality in household incomes per capita across various demographic groups in income surveys from six middle- and high-income countries across Asia: the People’s Republic of China (PRC) (2002); India (2004); Japan (2008); Republic of Korea (2006); the Russian Federation (2004, 2007, and 2010); and Taipei,China (2005, 2007, 2010). We find that Japan; Taipei,China; and the Republic of Korea have very low degrees of overall income inequality by world standards, while India and the PRC have high levels. The Russian Federation has a medium degree of inequality, sluggishly improving over time. Rural/urban income gaps are evident across all evaluated countries, but they are particularly high in the PRC, India, and the Russian Federation.

Education gap is an important component in overall inequality across most countries, especially in the PRC and India. Employment gap is notably large among poor households in the Republic of Korea and Taipei,China, due to differential returns to household endowments, suggesting that non-employed individuals have similar skills as their employed counterparts, but markets and the welfare state do not bestow them with adequate compensation for their skills. Gender gaps are surprisingly small across the six countries—women appear to have a similar distribution of endowments as men, and returns to them are not significantly lower. Overall, education and returns to it, geographic location, and household composition are important drivers of economic inequality.

WORKING PAPER NO: 688