Keun Lee: This paper shows that the trend of worsening income distribution in China has recently reversed. The authors prove the robustness of this decline using five nationwide household survey and different inequality indicators. The paper then provides reasons for such reversals. In general, it represents a serious empirical research in terms of its rigor. My comments are mainly from a theoretical perspective, drawing from the Korean experience during the early phase of its economic growth.
The inverse U-shaped curve of increasing and then declining trend of inequality in China is reminiscent of a similar reversal in Korea. This reversal is noted by the steady decrease in Korea's Gini index of market income since the late 1970s as it passed the Lewis turning point (Lewis 1954) in the mid 1970s (Bai 1982). In the Korean experience, modern sectors in urban areas absorbed all surplus labor from the agriculture...