一、城镇居民收入差距日益扩大 改革开放以来,伴随我国经济发展,城镇居民的收入状况有了很大改观:一方面,人民收入的绝对水平提高了;另一方面居民之间的收入差距也日益扩大。按国际上通常采用的基尼系数来衡量,从1982年到1994年城镇居民个人收入基尼系数一直呈递增态势(见表一)。另据中国人民大学社会学系在1994年夏进行的一次抽样调查,认为贫富差距严重的和比较严重的占被调查者总数的72.8％,认为一般的占12.6％,认为不严重的仅占7％,可以说城镇居民间的收入差距已经有目共睹。形成这种差距的主要原因按陈宗盛的假设可以解释为经济发展,但按收入差距变动的标准模型,在私有经济下只有在人均GNP达列600美元时收入差距基尼系数才会高于0.43。而我国在人均GNP只有400美元的1994年,基尼系数就已达到0.434。再以另一种国际通行的衡量收入差距的方法即最低20％人口占全部收入的比例来看,只有人均GNP达1000美元时最低20％人口全 I. Growing Income Gap between Urban Residents Since the reform and opening up, with the economic development in our country, the income status of urban residents has been greatly improved: on the one hand, the absolute level of people’s income has been raised; on the other hand, the income gap among residents has also been growing expand. According to the internationally adopted Gini coefficient, the Gini coefficient of personal income of urban residents has been increasing from 1982 to 1994 (Table 1). According to a sample survey conducted by the Department of Sociology of Renmin University of China in the summer of 1994, 72.8% of the total surveyed persons considered as having a serious and serious disparity between the rich and the poor consider 12.6% of the surveyed people as a non-serious 7%, we can say that the income gap between urban residents has been obvious to all. The main reason for this disparity is that economic growth can be explained by Chen’s assumptions. However, in the private economy, the Gini coefficient of income gap is only above 0.43 in the private economy when the per capita GNP reaches 600 U.S. dollars. In 1994, when the GNP per capita in our country was only 400 U.S. dollars, the Gini coefficient reached 0.434. And then another internationally accepted measure of income disparity, that is, the proportion of the minimum 20% of the total income, is only 20% of the population with a GNP per capita of 1000 U.S. dollars