Infant mortality,relative income and public policy

Do health outcomes depend on relative income as well as on an individual's absolute level of income? We use infant mortality as a health status indicator and find a significant and positive link between infant mortality and income inequality using cross-national data for 93 countries. Holding constant the income of each of the three poorest quintiles of a country's population, we find that an increase in the income of the upper 20% of the income distribution is associated with higher, not the lower infant mortality. Our results are robust and not just caused by the concave relationship between income and health. The estimates imply a decrease in infant mortality by 1.5% for a one percentage point decrease in the income share of the richest quintile. The overall results are sensitive to public policy: public health care expenditure, educational outcomes, and access to basic sanitation and safe water can explain the inequality–health relationship. Thus, our findings support the hypothesis of public disinvestment in human capital in countries with high income inequality. However, we are not able to determine whether public policy is a confounder or mediator of the relationship between income distribution and health. Relative deprivation caused by the income distance between an individual and the individual's reference group is another possible explanation for a direct effect from income inequality to health.     

Institutional Quality Mediates the Effect of Human Capital on Economic Performance

This paper considers the relationship between institutional quality, educational outcomes, and economic performance. More specifically, we seek to establish the linkages by which government effectiveness affects per capita income via its mediating impact on human capital formation. Our empirical approach adopts a two‐stage strategy that estimates national‐level educational production functions that include government effectiveness as a covariate, and uses these estimates as instruments for human capital in cross‐country regressions of per capita income. Our results identify a significant and positive effect of human capital on per capita income levels, and partially resolves the inconsistency between macro‐ and micro‐level studies of the effect of human capital on income. The results remain robust to alternative specifications, extension to a panel setting, subsamples of the data and fully endogenous institutions.     

Child survival,height for age and household characteristics in Brazil

"The impact of household characteristics on child survival and height, conditional on age, is examined using household survey data from Brazil. Parental education is found to have a very strong positive effect on both outcomes and this is robust to the inclusion of household income and also parental heights, which partly proxy for unobserved family background characteristics. We find that income effects are significant and positive for child survival but insignificant for for child height although the latter depends on identification assumptions. Parental height has a large positive impact on child height and on survival rates even after controlling for all other observable characteristics."     

Population increase,economic growth,educational inequality,and income distribution: some recent evidence

The relationship between population increase, economic growth, education and income inequality was examined in a cross-section study based on data from 26 developing and 2 developed countries. As other studies have noted, high population growth is associated with a less equal income distribution. A 1 percentage point reduction in the rate of population growth tends to raise the income share of the poorest 80% in the less developed world by almost 5 percentage points and is associated with a 1.7 percentage point increase in the income share of the poorest 40%. The relationship between short-run income growth and equality, on the other hand, is strong and positive. Estimates suggest that a 1 percentage point increase in the short-run rate of growth of the gross domestic product (GDP) increases the income share of the bottom 80% by about 2 percentage points and that of the poorest 40% by almost 1 percentage point. Although higher mean schooling appears to be a mild equalizer, educational inequality does not appear to have an adverse effect on income distribution. Overall, these results challenge the widely held belief that there must be a growth-equity trade-off. Moreover, they suggest that the impact of educational inequality on income distribution may be different from that observed in earlier studies, implying a need for caution in using these earlier results as a basis for educational policy development.     

Import prices,income, and inequality

We compare three theoretical explanations for the positive empirical relationship between importer income per capita and traded goods prices. A first explanation is that consumers with higher incomes demand higher quality goods with higher prices. A second explanation is that wealthier people exhibit an increased willingness to pay for necessary goods as more goods enter the consumption set in a hierarchic demand system, and can thus be charged higher markups. A third explanation is that consumers with higher incomes are more finicky regarding their preferred variety in an ideal variety framework and can thus be charged higher markups. We discriminate between these three theories by focusing on the effect of income inequality on trade prices. Based on a large dataset with bilateral HS6 level data on 1260 final goods categories from more than 100 countries between 2000 and 2004, we find a highly significant negative effect of income inequality on unit values. This contradicts both the demand for quality and finickyness theories, while providing support for the increased willingness to pay theory linked to hierarchic demand. These findings on income inequality do not falsify the quality expansion model and the ideal variety model per se. However, the results do argue for place of importance of hierarchic demand.     

农民工的社会网络与职业阶层和收入:来自深圳调查的发现

本文利用2005年"深圳外来农村流动人口调查"数据,定量研究了社会网络对农民工职业阶层和收入的影响.研究发现,求职关系网络的规模、关系构成对农民工职业阶层的提升和收入的提高有正向影响,而求职网成员的职业阶层趋同性则有负向影响.本研究表明,尽管个体因素和流动因素对农民工求职结果有重要影响,但是社会网络在中国社会转型期对农民工求职具有不可忽视的作用.     

How Does FDI Affect Health?

This paper investigates the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on population health using panel data for up to 179 countries for the period between 1980 and 2011. Our main finding is that the relationship between FDI and health is nonlinear, depending on the level of income: FDI has a positive effect on health at low levels of income, but the effect decreases with increasing income, then changes sign and becomes increasingly negative at higher levels of income.     

Inclusive institutions,unequal outcomes: Democracy,state capacity,and income inequality

Although the relationship between democratic rule and income inequality has received important attention in recent literature, the evidence has been far from conclusive. In this paper, we explore whether the redistributive effect of democratic rule is conditional on state capacity. Previous literature has outlined that pre-existing state capacity may be necessary for inequality-reducing policies under democratic rule. In contrast to that intuitive view, this study argues that democratic rule and high state capacity combined produce higher levels of income inequality over time. This relationship operates through the positive effect of high-capacity democratic context on foreign direct investment and financial development. By making use of a novel measure of state capacity based on cumulative census administration, we find empirical support for these claims using fixed-effects panel regressions with the data from 126 industrial and developing countries between 1970 and 2013.     

A refinement of the relationship between economic growth and income inequality

There is mixed evidence in the literature of a clear relationship between income inequality and economic growth. Most of that work has focused almost exclusively on developed economies. In what we believe to be a first effort, our emphasis is solely on developing economics, which we classify as high-income and low-income developing countries (HIDC and LIDC). We make such distinction on theoretical and empirical grounds. Empirically, the World Bank has classified developing economies in this manner since 1978. The data in our sample are also supportive of such classifications. We provide theoretical scaffolding that uses asymmetric credit constraints as a premise for separating developing economies in such a way. We find strong evidence of a negative relationship between income inequality and economic growth in LIDC to be in stark contrast with a positive inequality–growth relationship for HIDC. Both correlations are statistically significant across multiple econometric specifications. Using international data from 1960 to 2010, this article explores the effect of income inequality on economic growth using dynamic panel technique, such as system generalized method of moments (GMM) that is believed to mitigate endogenous problem. These results are strikingly contrasting to the previous estimation results of Forbes (2000) displaying significant positive correlation between two variables in the short to medium term.     

对外贸易、进出口商品结构与我国城乡收入差距

笔者利用1978年～2008年期间的数据,对我国对外贸易和进出口商品结构对城乡收入差距的影响进行了实证研究。研究结果表明:对外贸易是影响我国城乡收入差距的重要因素;对外贸易总额、进口和出口对我国城乡收入差距的影响都表现为倒U型,符合库兹涅兹假说。目前,对外贸易总额、进口、出口与我国城乡收入差距的关系都表现为正相关,处于拐点之前;综合考虑直接影响和间接影响,出口商品结构优化缩小城乡收入差距的作用小于进口商品结构优化拉大城乡收入差距的作用,进出口商品结构优化的总效应表现为拉大城乡收入差距。因此,我国应该继续大力发展对外贸易,扩大进出口贸易规模,优化出口商品结构,以期实现对外贸易缩小城乡收入差距的新局面。     

转型期中国就业重构与城乡居民收入分配——基于省际面板数据的实证分析

笔者利用1992年～ 2009年的省际面板数据,就中国就业重构对城乡居民收入分配的影响进行实证分析与检验.结果表明,就业重构方向与城乡居民收入分配极化负相关,就业重构速度与城乡居民收入分配极化正相关；受城乡劳动力市场分割与城乡居民人力资本水平差异的约束,就业重构对城乡居民收入分配的极化效应大于平衡效应；在区域层面,就业重构对城乡居民收入分配的净极化效应由大到小的顺序分别为中部、西部和东部.     

农产品对外贸易促进农民增收的区域差异——基于中国省际面板数据的实证分析

运用中国1999—2008年29个省(直辖市、自治区)的面板数据,实证了中国农产品对外贸易促进农民增收的区域差异。结果显示:东、中部地区农产品进、出口依存度与农民收入增长正相关,且中部地区要明显强于东部地区;西部地区农产品进、出口依存度与农民收入增长负相关。在对实证结果进行讨论和解释的基础上,就中国农产品对外贸易促进农民收入增长提出了政策建议。     

基于VAR模型的我国农产品出口与农民收入的关系研究

基于VAR模型,采用1981-2007年我国年度数据,利用协整分析方法、脉冲响应函数和方差分解方法,对我国农产品出口与农民收入之间的关系进行了实证分析。结果表明:在长期内,我国农产品出口每增长1%将使农民收入增长0.6950%;在短期内,我国农产品出口对农民收入的影响不显著。脉冲响应和方差分解的结果表明:我国农产品出口对农民收入的冲击存在正向作用和递增趋势。因此,相对稳定的农产品出口政策有利于农民收入增长。     

Non-farm Income and Consumption Expenditures in Rural Bangladesh: Empirical Evidence from Multilevel Regression Modelling

This study examines the effects of non-farm income on household consumption expenditures in rural Bangladesh. A two-stage endogenous treatment effect model is built on data from a nationally representative Household Income Expenditure Survey (HIES) 2010 to control selection bias. The HIES follows a hierarchical data structure because the survey is based on two-stage stratified sampling. A multilevel mixed-effects linear regression model is used to capture the unobserved heterogeneity between clusters (PSUs) along with revealing important factors. Results reveal that non-farm income has a significant positive effect on household’s consumption expenditures and non-farm income recipient households spend about 29% more than their counterparts. In addition, higher level of per capita income, education, smaller family size and lower dependency ratio are found to be more effective in increasing consumption expenditures of rural households. Significant cluster-level variations are observed in the analyses. This study recommends that non-farm income generating activities should be encouraged among rural households as this would raise their consumption expenditures and hence, improve welfare and living standards among them.

     

How County-Level Agricultural Loans and Fiscal Expenditure Impact Rural Residents’ Income in China——An Empirical Study of the Hierarchical Effect by Quantile Regression

Using cross-sectional data from 853 counties in 11 western China provinces, we employ quantile regression (QR) and instrumental variable quantile regression (IVQR) to investigate the hierarchical effect of fiscal expenditure and agricultural loan on rural residents’ income. We find: (1) the relationship between agricultural loan and income is consistent with the inverted U-shape (Kuznets curve); (2) the coefficient of quantile regression for rural residents’ loan gradually decreases; particularly, the impact on the high-income group is insignificant (at 0.90 quantile); (3) for 0.10 and 0.50 quantile, the increase of fiscal expenditure would hinder rather than promote income growth; (4) the restraining effect becomes more pronounced for the lower groups; in contrast, there is a significant positive relationship between income and fiscal expenditure for 0.90 quantile’s income group. Implications for government policy formulation are propounded accordingly.     

Spatial externalities and regional income inequality: Evidence from China’s prefecture-level data

Based on panel data of 282 prefectures in China from 1999 to 2004; we explore the relationship between market potential, employment density and per capita GDP by using a dynamic panel data approach. It is found that the externalities arising from market potential and employment density have a positive and significant effect on local income. Moreover, both absolute and standardized elasticity of market potential externalities are pronounced, which suggests that market potential has a greater impact on regional disparity.     

When income differences hurt or excite: The nonlinear effect of regional inequality on subjective wellbeing

Combining information from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions and the European Social Survey, we investigate the relationship between subjective well-being and income inequality using regional inequality indicators and individual data. We assume that inequality aversion and perception of social mobility affect the impact of regional inequality on subjective well-being in opposite directions. We find evidence of an inverse U-shaped effect of inequality, where inequality starts to have a positive effect on subjective well-being that becomes negative with a switch point before the average of the Gini index for the entire sample. The rationale for our nonlinear finding is that Hirschman's tunnel effect (and the positive effect of perceived social mobility) prevails for low levels of inequality, while inequality aversion and negative relative income effects are relatively stronger when inequality is higher. Robustness checks on different sample splits are consistent with the hypothesis of the two drivers.     

Intergenerational transmission of education in China: New evidence from the Chinese Cultural Revolution

This paper estimates the effect of parental education on children's education by using instruments generated by the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and further explores the mechanisms of this causal relationship. Several important findings stand out from our empirical analyses. We find a larger intergenerational persistence in education for higher level in urban areas but for a lower level of education in rural areas. The main results from instrumental variable estimation show that the nurture effect is larger and more significant for fathers than for mothers. A deeper investigation of the mechanism behind this nurture effect informs us that a father's education passes on to his children's education partly through the income channel. Another notable finding is that even after controlling for fathers’ income, parental education still has a significantly positive effect on children's education through the nurture effect. This indicates that beyond the income channel, there may exist other channels such as better home environment, which deserve to be explored in future research.     

INCOME-GENERATING FUNCTIONS IN A LOW INCOME COUNTRY: COLOMBIA

Income generating functions are statistical tools used to explain income inequality and other economic outcomes and behavior. These functions are often associated with a strict human capital framework, but they need not be. Instead, they may be viewed as a reduced form equation summarizing the relationship between income and various personal and locational characteristics. Following this latter interpretation, we develop the regression and analysis of variance approaches to income generating functions and estimate them empirically using micro-economic data from one low income country, Colombia. Proceeding to increasingly parsimonious specifications of income generating functions, insights are gained into the structure of incomes in Colombia.     

Fiscal policy,government debt,and economic growth in the Kaleckian model of growth and distribution

This article presents the Kaleckian model of growth and distribution that sets a budget deficit ratio as an indicator of fiscal policy and examines the short- and long-run effects of an increase in budget deficits and a rise in income tax rates on the economy. The key short-run outcomes are as follows. First, expanded budget deficits have a positive effect on the rate of capacity utilization. Second, the tax rate for wage income does not affect the rate of capacity utilization, whereas the tax rate for capital income has a favorable impact on it. This result implies that raising the tax rate for capital income can be an important policy instrument for stimulating the economy. Third, we find that the economy exhibits a wage-led aggregate demand in the short run. The main long-run results are as follows. First, the effect of expanded budget deficits on the growth rate is ambiguous, since a higher debt burden negatively influences the rate of capacity utilization and hence economic growth, despite the increase in demand caused by government borrowing. A higher budget deficit ratio thus raises the growth rate only if a certain condition is satisfied. Second, the tax rate for capital income has a positive impact on the growth rate. Third, the economy shows a wage-led growth in the long run.