Satisfaction and comparison income in transition and developed economies

The main purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of different types of income comparison on subjective well-being in transition countries and developed European countries. The paper relies on the Life in Transition Survey (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development 2011), which was conducted in late 2010 jointly by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank. The emphasis of the paper is on income comparisons, specifically; local comparisons and self-ranking. The main findings reveal that comparisons have a significant impact on life satisfaction in transition countries, whereas the relationship between comparison and life satisfaction is ambiguous in developed European countries. In transition countries, the impact of comparisons is asymmetric: in most cases, under-performing one’s benchmark has a greater effect than out-performing it. In transition countries, both downward and upward evaluations have an impact on life satisfaction, while it is worthy of note that all upward evaluations have no effect on life satisfaction in developed European countries.     

收入增长和收入分配对城市减贫的影响

本文基于对贫困的分解,运用贫困弹性的动态特征,选取《中国统计年鉴》相关年份城市住户分组数据,深入分析收入增长和收入分配因素对中国1991-2009年间城市绝对贫困和相对贫困的影响。结果表明:(1)高速的经济增长对我国城市绝对贫困率下降起决定性作用,但收入分配恶化对城市相对贫困率上升有显著影响。(2)收入水平越高,则收入因素对城市减贫的促进作用越强,且分配因素所引起的贫困变动越大;收入分配越不平等,则收入因素对城市减贫的促进作用越弱,且分配因素所引起的贫困变动越小。因此,我国今后的城市减贫,应在继续保持经济较快增长的同时,以改善收入分配不平等为重点。     

Parental Wealth and the Black–White Mobility Gap in the U.S.

Utilizing longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), this paper examines the relationship between parental wealth and intergenerational income mobility for black and white families. I find that total parental wealth is positively associated with upward mobility for low‐income white families, but is not associated with reduced likelihood of downward mobility for white families from the top half of the income distribution. Conversely, I find that total parental wealth does not have the same positive association for low‐income black families, while home ownership may have negative associations with the likelihood of upward mobility for these families. However, for black families from the top half of the income distribution, home equity is associated with a decreased likelihood of downward mobility, suggesting a heterogeneous relationship between home ownership and mobility for black families.     

Life Course Perspective on Economic Shocks and Income Inequality Through Age-Period-Cohort Analysis: Evidence From Finland

Utilizing age-period-cohort analysis, this paper examines the development of income distribution across periodic economic fluctuations in relation to cohorts and age groups. The empirical analysis is based on the Finnish Income Distribution Statistics and Household Expenditure Surveys covering the period of 1966–2015. The findings suggest that the period and cohort effects can be identified as the main effects on relative income, while the age effects have no meaningful impact when the control variables are taken into account. This result reveals a connection between the effects of economic shocks and cohort placement on labor market entry. Additionally, absolute income analysis suggests that economic shocks create stagnation points in income development, which are especially detrimental to cohorts who are transitioning into labor markets. Additionally, middle-income attainment has not changed due to periodic shocks but rather is related to inter-cohort inequalities and relative income differences, where the baby boomer generation is a clear winner.     

绝对收入、相对收入与主观幸福感——来自中国城乡住户调查数据的经验分析

文章以我国住户调查数据为基础,经验性地讨论了收入与主观幸福感的关系.研究表明,绝对收入与主观幸福感之间具有显著的正向关联,即便控制了相对收入效应,绝对收入的影响仍较显著.因此无论是相对意义还是绝对意义,收入仍然是提升主观幸福感的重要因素.但是另一方面,主观幸福感与收入水平之间的相关程度并不高,主观幸福感决定中的非收入因素也值得进一步关注.     

劳动生产率相对变化的价格总水平效应——价值规律调节型价格总水平上涨

生产商品的劳动生产率的相对变化,即商品价值量的相对变化,会导致商品相对价格的变化。相对价格的变化(调整)是通过绝对价格的变化实现的,而在纸币体系中,绝对价格具有"向下刚性"。在纸币被动性膨胀的基础背景下,在相对价格调整过程中会出现"向上看齐",即向最偏高绝对价格看齐的行为,这种行为导致绝对价格提高,从而导致价格总水平上涨。这就是劳动生产率相对变化的价格总水平效应。这种价格总水平上涨称为价值规律调节型价格总水平上涨。在一般情况下,这类价格总水平上涨是温和的,但到达"加速转折点"就会产生恶性价格总水平上涨。对于这类价格总水平上涨,货币政策是失效的。     

生态环境、经济收入与公众健康的关系——基于我国29个省市区面板数据的经验研究

公众的健康水平受到其所处自然和社会环境的共同影响,文章利用我国29个省市区的面板数据,构建了同时包含生态环境与经济收入因素的公众健康影响模型,检验了生态环境污染、治理状况以及经济收入、收入不均对人口健康的影响。研究结果表明,环境污染已经威胁到人们的健康,而污染治理投入能缓解污染的危害,同时收入公平性比绝对收入水平对健康影响更大。最后,在此基础上指出走人与自然协调、社会公平发展道路的重要意义。     

行业收入差距的经济学解释

文章通过统计数据验证了我国行业收入的绝对差距逐渐扩大,相对差距持续高位的现实,并运用经济学的理论与分析方法论证了行业收入差距的产生与发展机理。首先,垄断企业的高利润获得机制决定其在劳动力市场中的决策主体地位;其次,行业市场分割与拥挤效应再现了垄断行业高利润与低就业的利己目标与社会效应的矛盾;最后,垄断行业存在的大量的隐性工资收入,即福利津贴等准固定劳动力成本,更加放大了行业收入的差距状况,使得民众感受的行业收入差距大于数据中的体现。这部分隐藏的非公平的社会感知,是政府决策者在缓解收入差距、促进社会公平的制度建设中应该重点解决的问题。     

收入差距、有效需求与自主创新

文章利用中国地区层面的面板数据,实证检验了收入差距与自主创新之间的关系。研究发现,收入差距与中国自主创新呈倒"U"形关系,收入差距既可以通过扩大创新产品的需求规模促进国家或地区的技术创新,又可以通过抑制消费结构升级最终阻碍国家或地区技术创新能力的提升;收入差距对技术创新的影响存在显著的区域差异性,在东部和中部地区其影响显著为正,而在西部地区其影响为负但不显著;当前,我国大部分地区的城乡收入比均处于倒"U"形曲线的上升阶段,对这些地区而言,适当的收入差距促进了其自主创新能力的提升。     

A Positive Theory of Income Redistribution

This article examines how redistribution of human capital expenditure can come about voluntarily. A model is developed in which, in the absence of redistribution, human capital expenditure is financed through tax revenue collected locally. However, circumstances are shown under which transfers of human capital expenditure across neighborhoods can take place voluntarily, even in the absence of interfamily altruism. These transfers can eliminate absolute inequality and reduce relative inequality. In addition, the effect on aggregate income of such human capital funding transfers across neighborhoods is evaluated. Empirical evidence supporting the model's implications for the impact of redistribution of human capital expenditure on the persistence of income inequality is presented     

Income,happiness, and the disutility of labour

We re-examine the claim that the income effect on happiness is downward biased because higher income demands more work effort. We find no evidence of an underestimation because the impact of working hours on happiness is rather small and hill-shaped.     

Income Heterogeneity in the Voluntary Provision of Dynamic Public Goods

This paper explores the effect of income inequality on the voluntary contributions to a dynamic public good. We find that income heterogeneity has a significant impact both on contributions and welfare. The results show that the often observed decay of cooperation does not carry over to the asymmetric environment considered in this study. Our results also suggest that subjects in each income class make different contribution amounts in an absolute sense and give the same percentage of their income. Moreover, we find that contributions of individuals with the same endowment are sensitive to how heterogeneous the environment is.     

初次收入分配与技术进步——基于马克思主义经济学的视角

生产力概念的深化对于马克思主义的发展非常重要,考察初次收入分配与技术进步之间的关系是一个可行的切入点。在税收收入占比保持不变的情况下,劳动收入占比的下降意味着资本收入占比的上升。劳动收入占比的下降缩小了消费市场规模而抑制技术进步(消费效应),资本收入占比的提高使得企业技术投资面临更少的融资约束而促进技术进步(融资效应),初次收入分配与技术进步之间可能呈现出无关、线性或者倒U型关系,其具体关系要视消费效应和融资效应的相对强弱而定。基于中国省际面板数据的实证分析发现,中国初次收入分配与技术进步之间的关系呈现出倒U型关系,存在一个最有利于技术进步的初次收入分配格局,意味着当前需要同时保护劳动和资本的权利。     

Income Shocks,Inequality, and Democracy*

In this paper, motivated by contradictory evidence on the effect of income on democracy, we investigate the hypothesis that it is income shocks – major income fluctuations relative to the trend – rather than marginal year‐on‐year variation in income levels that lead to non‐trivial changes in the quality of political institutions. Empirical results provide support for this hypothesis, and show how income inequality plays a crucial role in the effects of economic shocks on democracy. In particular, negative income shocks reveal a positive effect on democracy in countries with high inequality, and vice versa.     

河南省城乡收入差距的实证分析

选取2003--2012年数据,通过人均可支配收入、人均消费、基尼系数等指标对河南省城乡居民收入差距进行测度,并分析河南省各地区城乡收入差距状况。河南省城乡居民人均收入和人均消费的绝对差距都在持续加大,其相对差距呈缩小趋势;全省收入分配差距较大,城镇内部和农村内部的收入分配相对合理,但农村内部的贫富差距大于城镇。最后,对缩小城乡收入差距提出相关对策与建议。     

Life satisfaction and economic conditions in East and West Germany pre- and post-unification

Economic disruption in East Germany at the time of unification resulted in a noticeable drop in life satisfaction. By the late 1990s East Germany's life satisfaction had recovered to about its 1990 level, and its shortfall relative to West Germany was slightly less than that before unification. In West Germany life satisfaction was fairly constant before unification, but subsequently trended moderately downward, with Turkish life satisfaction declining noticeably relative to Germans. Changes in life satisfaction in East and West Germany both for Germans and foreigners are most closely associated with relative income variables, not absolute income.     

Income Mobility and Income Inequality in Rural China

The economic literature has argued for a long time that income mobility could attenuate the degree of cross-sectional inequality by offering people opportunities to improve their socio-economic position. Using the longitudinal data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) from 1989 to 2011, we measure income mobility as the degree to which longer-term incomes are distributed more or less equally than yearly income. Five main results are emphasized. First, there is strong income mobility in rural China that partly offsets yearly income inequality. Second, income mobility has decreased since the 2000s, indicating that income distribution is becoming more rigid. Third, mobility is mainly associated with transitory income fluctuations, particularly in the two tails of the distribution. Fourth, income mobility has an equalizing effect on income distribution. Fifth, we show that non-agricultural income mobility has substantially increased over the period and that its equalizing nature has also recently increased. While the development of the non-agriculture sector in rural China was a crucial factor in explaining the increase in rural inequality until the mid-2000s, we suggest that the large-scale generalisation of such non-agricultural opportunities partly accounts for the decline in rural inequality observed since the mid-2000s.     

Housing and Income Inequality in Europe: Distributional Effects of Non-Cash Income From Imputed Rents

This article uses survey data to estimate non-cash income from imputed rents, using a consistent methodology for all countries to assemble comparable statistics that allow for a valid inter-country comparison. We can confirm a significant impact of non-cash income and find an inequality-decreasing effect for the unconditional income distribution which highly correlates with the proportion of owner-occupiers in the respective countries. However, aggregated inequality measures are not suited to analyze the increase in the conditional income inequality between owner-occupiers and renters, who do not obtain income from imputed rents by definition. Therefore, we apply a reweighting decomposition that controls for the heterogeneous housing characteristics among European countries and allows us to decompose the distributional changes into a part that is explained by the proportion of tenure types and household size and a remaining part that reflects the relative dispersion of imputed rents along the income distribution.     

中国出口贸易利益测算与行业差异分析——基于出口收入指数的方法

本文以出口收入指数方法为基础构建出口收入份额指标,计算和分析了2001-2009年期间中国出口的相对贸易利益及其分行业状况。中国在世界平均出口收入指数中的相对份额虽然呈现出一定的上升趋势,但主要是在低技术行业依靠出口规模而获取贸易利益,在高技术行业中国获得的市场份额和贸易利益都很少。面板数据计量检验显示,中国制造业各行业出口收入份额与技术投入、资本和劳动要素投入比例呈现较弱的正相关关系,与外资进入以及参与产品内分工的程度呈现较显著的正相关关系。中国欲摆脱以代工方式加入全球价值链而赚取低廉代工费的现实处境,须致力于物质资本和人力资本积累,提高自主创新能力,从而形成以技术为主导的竞争优势。     

Income distribution and redistribution through taxation: An international comparison

Income tax progressivity is studied with Generalized Entropy measures of inequality. Luxembourg Income Study data sets for nine countries are used for international comparison and analysis. progressivity indices are generated by using the Generalized Entropy family as well as Atkinson measures. We further our understanding by examining pre-tax and post-tax measures of inequality based respectively on gross and disposable household incomes. The decomposition property is shown to be desirable for enhancing our knowledge of income inequality and the redistributive effect of income taxes. Thus decomposition based on family size and number of earners is conducted. We learn that countries vary in their emphasis regarding redistributive effects of income taxes.