Since the start of economic reforms in 1978, China has experienced the largest increase in Income inequality of all countries for which Comparable data are available. According to The World Bank (1997), China's Gini coeffi- Cent increased from 28.2 in 1981 to 38.8 in 1995 based on official survey data. Another study that used internationally standard defi- nitions for incomes estimated China's Gini ra- tio at 38.2 in 1988 and 45.2 in 1995, a level that already surpassed many developing econ- omies in Asia (Azizur Khan and Carl Riskin, 1998).
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