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

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