From Communism to Capitalism: Private versus Public Property and Inequality in China and Russia

Abstract

This paper combines national accounts, survey, wealth, and fiscal data (including recently released tax data on high-income taxpayers) in order to provide consistent series on the accumulation and distribution of income and wealth in China and Russia over the 1978-2015 period. We contrast the different privatization strategies implemented in the two countries and observe their impacts on the evolution of inequality.