China To Release "Wealth Gap" Study

The wealth gap, a fuel behind the Occupy Wall Street movement and a push by the Administration to rise taxes for the rich, is not just an American concern. The Chinese government worries about the amount made by urban dwellers compared to those in rural areas. The migration of people to large cities to add to the manufacturing labor base continues in the People’s Republic. A global recession could halt that, and bring down employment, and possibly wages, among the urban middle class.

The China Daily reports

Urban and rural income surveys will be standardized amid plans to publish an internationally accepted measure of how wealth is distributed, a leading statistician said.   “The nationwide survey, which will provide basic data for China’s Gini coefficient calculation, will cover about 140,000 urban and rural households, and the gathering and use of data will conform to international standards,” Xie Hongguang, deputy chief of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), said.

The integrated urban-rural income data is scheduled to be published in 2013 to pave the way for the publication of a national Gini coefficient that can measure income inequality, Xie said.

The survey will be part of the Sino-Canadian statistics cooperative program. Statistics Canada has shared its experiences in collecting and processing data, Xie said.