Odd Lots · Monday, July 27, 2026
Branko Milanovic observes a dramatic shift in the composition of China's elite income sources between 1988 and 2018. Initially, two-thirds of the elite's income came from state-owned enterprises, government jobs, and the Communist Party. By 2018, this trend had reversed, with two-thirds of elite income now originating from the private sector, including professional jobs in private companies. Milanovic compares this rapid transformation to a similar, but much slower, rise of capitalists in England over 150 years.
“And what you see in that elite nineteen eighty eight were the first eight to begin, is that two thirds, broadly two thirds of the income of the elite comes from state owned enterprises, government jobs, and jobs in the Communist Party.”
“Okay, well, go to day to twenty eighteen, and now we have data for twenty twenty three. Two thirds of total income from the elite in the elite for the elite comes from private sector jobs, professional jobs in private companies, and one third from state owned enterprises, Communist Party and government.”
“So what I called that extensive and intensive increase of capitalists. And in China it took forty years for that and in UK took one hundred and fifty. So the change in China is just at the level that we have not historically seen. So in that sense, I totally agree with you. It is something that in terms of size of the population and the speed, we do not have an equivalent case.”