Income Mobility and Long-term Income Inequality in Rural China

Based on the five sets of panel data of rural household incomes extracted from the China Heath and Nutrition Survey,this article analyzes income mobility and long-term income inequality in rural China between 1989 and 2004.The major findings are:①Rural residents in China had a high level of income mobility.and the income mobility was larger between 2000 and 2004 than that in the period from 1989 to 1993,income mobility presented a tendency of decrease first and increase afterwards before and after 1997,which occurred for all rural resident groups.②The difference of income mobility between residents at different income levels in rural China was significant,mobility in the middle income group was higher than others.③The long-term income inequality of rural residents was lower than the signal year's,and it was mainly caused by the difference in wages paid to the farmers.Therefore,the radically improvement of long-term income inequality must start with improving the inequality of non-farm income.