各地大量發現的明清地籍資料，可以作為實證研究的小樣本，從而計算出基尼係數，證實了在傳統社會中南方的地權分配遠比北方分散。就以傳統社會的晚期而論，中國的地權分配比其他國家分散。主要的原因是日漸增大的人口壓力對土地市場有巨大影響，迫使地權趨於分散。

A large number of Ming and Qing land registration records have been discovered in different regions in China. These can be used as representative samples in calculating the Gini coefficients to show that land distribution in southern China was much more even than in the north. From a macroscopic view, the land distribution in late imperial China was also less centralized than in other countries. This is primarily due to the steady increase in population, which had a great effect on the land market and led to a more equal distribution of ownership.