As China has experienced rapid economic growth, the study of household wealth distribution has become a pressing issue. This paper uses data from the 2012–2018 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) to examine the impact of demographic factors and urban–rural differences on household wealth distribution. The study finds that China’s household wealth Gini coefficient has increased significantly, with wealthier households accumulating wealth at a much faster rate than those at the bottom. In addition, negative wealth households, hand-to-mouth households, and indebted households have all shown an upward trend. Despite small marginal effects, demographic factors such as education, average household age, elderly numbers, and household size do not significantly affect the overall trend of the wealth distribution. Both rural and urban households at the top maintain high growth rates, but the average urban household experiences faster wealth growth than its rural counterpart. Asset allocation between rural and urban households also shows significant differences. This analysis underscores the importance of examining wealth distribution to promote equitable resource allocation and economic stability. Policymakers can use the findings of this study to reduce economic disparities and achieve the goal of common prosperity in China.
This paper examines the effects of political hierarchy on firms’ long-term total factor productivity using evidence from the elevation of Chongqing to provincial-level government in China. Using the elevation as an exogenous shock and the Sichuan-Chongqing border as a dividing line, we utilized the spatial regression discontinuity approach to identify the causal link. We found that before Chongqing’s elevation to a provincial-level municipality, the TFP of Chongqing firms was not significantly different from that of Sichuan firms, but after the elevation, the TFP of Chongqing firms near the border was significantly lower than that of Sichuan firms. The mechanism analysis shows that the land transaction price in Chongqing is significantly lower than that in Sichuan Province, which leads to an abundance of low-productivity firms and the “crowding out” of high-productivity firms. We also found that government intervention in Chongqing exacerbates the degree of resource misallocation at the firm level, which together lead to a decline in firm TFP.
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