Income and Wealth Inequality in Hong Kong, 1981-2020: The Rise of Pluto-Communism?

This paper combines national accounts, household surveys, fiscal data, wealth rankings and election polls, in order to provide a comprehensive analysis of the evolution income inequality Hong Kong, as well its impact on political cleavages over 1981-2020 period. We find very large rise wage since 1981, especially Handover Kong China. Top 1% earners now receive much larger fraction total bill than bottom 50% earners, while opposite was true pre-Handover Kong. also observe an enormous increase capital share top (normalized by income) 2000. Today Kong’s (top 0.001%) is ranked at world. Finally, we that high-income professions (such executives managers) are more likely vote for pro-Beijing camp, 85% group, students lower-income professionals be pro-democratic.