SOSC 103D Social Inequality in HK

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SOSC 103DSocial Inequality in HK

• Lecture 1 Understand HKs Situation

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Types of Inequality

• Income and Wealth inequality
• Cultural inequality
• Political inequality
• Racial inequality/ inequality of ethnic origin
• Gender inequality
• Inequality of resources VS opportunities

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Statistics about Hong Kong

• Per capita GDP US 37,400 (year 2006)
• Median Household Income HK 19,000
• The Gini Coefficient of Income Distribution
  0.525 (year 2006)
• Ways to understand the statistics
• International/ Regional comparison
• Cross-sectional comparison
• Longitudinal comparison

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International Comparison

• Per capita GDP US 37,400 (year 2006)
• Rank 1st in Asia
• 8th 15th in the World
• The Gini Coefficient of Income Distribution
  0.525 (year 2006)
• Worst among developed nations/ areas
• Other e.g. China (0.403) Taiwan (0.326)
  Singapore (0.425)

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Cross-sectional Comparison

• Income differences within population
• Year 2001
• Median Household Income HK 18,704

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• The poorest 10 of households received less than
  1 of the total income.
• The richest 10 of households received 41.2 of
  the total.

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Cross-sectional Comparison

• Income inequality by gender
• In 2003, estimated earned income for female US
  19,593 For male US 35,037
• Ratio 0.56
• Inequality by Race and by Ethnic Origin

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Longitudinal Analysis
Year 1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001
Gini Coefficient 0.42 0.43 0.451 0.453 0.476 0.518 0.525
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Income Inequality in Hong Kong

• Relations between economic growth and income
  distribution
• Economic development
• Increase in living standard (absolute)
• Bring equality (relative)

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• Readings
• Lui, Hon-Kwong (1997) Income Inequality and
  Economic Development, Hong Kong City University
  of Hong Kong Press, ch.1-3