Status Identity of Private Entrepreneurs in Contemporary China: 1995-2014

Using age-period-cohort (APC) models fitted to survey data from the 1995 and 2014 Chinese Private Enterprises Survey Program Social Inequality module, this article examines how period and cohort shape pattern of status identity in transforming China. The results suggest that (1) The private entrepreneurs(PEs)’ economic status identity and social status identity were rising in the time period changes, but declining in birth cohort; (2) status inconsistency of politics-economy and politics-society dimensions had been strengthened in cohort effects from 2001 to 2014; (3) PEs’ education level and CPC membership had different influence on status identity in the years 1995-2014.