Share this page!

Branko Milanovic Profile picture
Twitter logo
Feb 3 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Some slides from today's discussion on China at Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
The Chinese elite (top 5%) moved from being associated with the government to being composed mostly of businessmen and professionals.
Educational level of the elite increased substantially: from only 12% with university education in 1988 to 44% in 2013.
The share of CPC members among the top 5% and the top 1% decreased.
Professionals are over-represented in both CPC (compared to their share in the urban population) and in the elite. The composition of the richest members of CPC increasingly diverges from the composition of overall CPC.
Based on the paper by Yang, Novokmet and Milanovic.
"From workers to capitalists in less than two generations: A study of Chinese urban top group transformation between 1988 and 2013"
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.111…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Branko Milanovic

Branko Milanovic Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @BrankoMilan

Branko Milanovic Profile picture
Jan 24
The problem is as follows. Since the end of communism, Western envoys in EE have behaved like Roman governors in conquered lands. In normal diplomacy, foreign representatives do not comment on domestic devt's. The French ambassador in the US does not comment on Georgia elections.
The change in behavior is due also to EEuropeans who have accepted this subaltern position of limited sovereignty. In part, because they were used to it, in part b/c they were at loggerhead with others around them, in part b/c they were not sufficiently aware of it.
And many countries have become members of the EU which obviously limits their domestic sovereignty. So the line btw domestic & foreign affairs became blurred.
But this attitude is against the rules of international conduct and formal equality of states.
Read 4 tweets
Branko Milanovic Profile picture
Jan 21
The topic called "income distribution" is used for very different things.
First, Blinder-type neoclassical models with agents who know their entire future, incl. their wages, discount rates, preferences etc. With zero real data. No social classes, no politics. No nothing.
Second, Staffian and Kaldorian abstract functional distributions which are just a wage/profit ratios in a theoretical model. With no real data, except as illustrations. Very vague relation to reality (as No 1 models).
Third, purely empirical exercises a la Atkinson that have lots of data but no underlying economic or political story (no parties, strikes, wars, technological change).
Read 5 tweets
Branko Milanovic Profile picture
Jan 14
In the past couple of days I reread this book (see pic) on the Soviet's side of the Cold War (up to 1964). I would strongly recommend it b/c it shows how things are similar (geopolitics did not change much).
US was then, as now, in a huge strategic advantage, USSR was always trying to catch up and (most important) to be taken seriously, as an equal partner.
In doing so, it precipitated crises like Berlin & Cuba. This was esp. the case w/ Khrushchev. Stalin was more cautious.
US policy is one of slow and deliberate increase of power, Soviet is a policy of stop-and-go, much more dependent on the leadership.
The authors in the concluding chapter single out absence of LT view on the Soviet side & of great personalities.
Read 4 tweets
Branko Milanovic Profile picture
Jan 10
I have tweeted several times my China book reviews and I cannot find them all (without some serious search).

Here are some without *any* order. (for @Noahpinion)

Hucker, Limits to autocracy
branko2f7.substack.com/p/limits-to-au…
Arrighi, Adam Smith in Beijing
branko2f7.substack.com/p/will-bourgeo…
Weber, How China Escaped Shock Therapy
branko2f7.substack.com/p/how-china-es…
Read 15 tweets
Branko Milanovic Profile picture
Jan 4
In the recent years, the knowledge of US income and wealth inequality over the long-term has dramatically improved thanks to Lindert and Williamson's "Unequal gains" and Ed Wolff's, "A century of wealth in America".
"Unequal gains" looks at US inequality since 1700. L & W create the first social tables for the United States ever, for 1744, 1850, 1860 and 1870. This is an *enormous* work. They dispel the myth that the US was always unequal.
On the contrary, they show that the 13 colonies in 1774 were the most (documented) equal part of the world at that time. They also address the contribution of slavery to inequality; differences between the N and the S, rural vs, urban inequality, Kuznets Ho. Great book.
Read 4 tweets
Branko Milanovic Profile picture
Jan 4
"[Rome] is the classic example of that kind of insincerity in both foreign and domestic affairs which permeates not only avowed motives but also probably the conscious motives of the actors themselves—of that policy which pretends to aspire to peace but unerringly generates war,
the policy of continual preparation for war, the policy of meddlesome interventionism. There was no corner of the known world where some interest was not alleged to be in danger or under actual attack. If the interests were not Roman. they were those of Roman allies;
and if Rome had no allies, then allies would be invented. The fight was always invested with an aura of legality. Rome was always being attacked by evil-minded neighbors, always fighting for a breathing space…
Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @BrankoMilan has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @BrankoMilan!

Read all threads by @BrankoMilan

:(