ABSTRACT
Income distribution is a very important subsystem in the entire social and economic system. The status of income distribution affects not only production efficiency, but also people’s vital interests, and thus affects social harmony and stability. The urban and rural income gap is not only an economic problem but also a social problem, and it must arouse the attention of the whole nation. One trend simply attributes widening of the income gap and the problems that emerge to the economic reform itself; the other trend simply regards widening of the income gap as a price that the economic reform should pay. According to the survey conducted by the Project Team of the Institute of Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the most important three items of property for Chinese residents are house property, financial assets and land.
