On the Income Mobility of Rural and Urban Residents in China: 1988∼2008

This paper analyzes the characters of income mobility for both urban and rural residents in China from 1988 to 2008. As a whole, the trend in income mobility is rising for urban residents, but falling for rural residents. For high and low income groups, urban residents' immobility ratio is falling, but rural residents' ratio is rising. For middle income group, urban residents' immobility ratio is rising, but rural residents' ratio is falling. Although the improvement of the poorest and richest 10% group is pronounced both for urban and rural residents, the immobility ratio for the poorest 10% group in urban area and the richest 10% group in rural area is still too high.