ABSTRACT
In Western countries, a trend towards concentration in production and the emergence of powerful trade unions have introduced monopolistic and oligopolistic elements into their labour markets and have brought about government intervention. In Hong Kong, government intervention in the labour market is kept to a minimum. In 1961, refugees and recent immigrants accounted for a large proportion of the labour force. Consequently the presence of a large contingent of new immigrants in the labour force tends to widen intra-sector income dispersion for any classification of households, whether by industry or by occupation or by educational attainment. Inasmuch as income distribution varies with the industry, the occupation and the employment status of the workers, changes in employment structure will have a predictable effect on income distribution. Comprehensive and reliable data on income distribution are available only for 1971. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
