Abstract: The reform of income distribution is an important part of the reform of economic system and critical concern of the whole society. Fair and equitable income distribution is an important guarantee for the optimal allocation of production factors, and efficiency and fairness of development of society and economy. To do a review and frontier analysis of income distribution research, bibliometric analysis is employed to analyze papers from Web of Science and CNKI. Statistical analysis, keyword networks and citation networks are conducted. The results are as follows: (1) Scholars from various fields such as economics, management and public policy have been attaching great importance to the research of income distribution and fruitful outcomes have been achieved. The United States and European countries are in a leading position while China develops fast in terms of the research of income distribution. (2) During the early time, researchers focused on the relationship between inequality of income distribution and economic growth, and the impact of production factors on income distribution. International income distribution, wage, resident income, the new normal of economy, influence of climate change become new research hot spots in recent years. (3) Production factors including labor, technology, capital and land present new characteristics, but their potential impact on income distribution has not been thoroughly explored. This study argues that education reform and vigorous development of online education, the emergence of new technologies, the development of financial industry and the land reform's impact on income distribution may become the focus of future researches. This research will be illuminating for further research of income distribution and provide reference for the policy making of income distribution reform in the new era.

Key words: income distribution, bibliometrics, keyword networks, citation networks, cluster analysis