Top incomes in China: Data collection and the impact on income inequality

Using data on top incomes collected from different sources, we combine the samples of top incomes with a household survey (HS) to investigate changes in income distribution with and without top incomes. The Gini coefficient of income inequality using HS data is 0.464 for 2016 and jumps to 0.646 after including the samples of top incomes, which demonstrates the importance of top incomes in estimating income inequality.