| Summary/Abstract |
In a rare example of a national goal for income distribution besides reducing poverty (for which there is a broad consensus), China's leadership committed in 2021 to attaining a less polarized “olive-shaped” distribution. The paper argues that the Foster-Wolfson polarization curve and index are well suited to quantifying this goal. New estimates indicate that polarization has been on a rising trend since 1981, but with a de-polarizing reversal emerging around 2009. There is no robust time-series evidence of polarizing effects of economic growth, poverty reduction or population urbanization. Larger urban-rural gaps in mean incomes have been strongly polarizing.
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