THE BUILT-IN FLEXIBILITY OF INCOME AND CONSUMPTION TAXES IN NEW ZEALAND

This paper provides estimates of individual and aggregate revenue elasticities of income and consumption taxes in New Zealand, based on the 2001 tax structure and expenditure patterns. Using analytical expressions for revenue elasticities at the individual and aggregate levels, together with a simulated income distribution, values for New Zealand were obtained. Results using equi-proportional income changes suggest that the aggregate income and consumption tax revenue elasticities are both fairly constant as mean income increases, at around 1.3 and 0.95 respectively. This latter estimate assumes that increases in disposable income are accompanied by approximately proportional increases in total expenditure. If there is a tendency for the savings proportion to increase as disposable income increases, a somewhat lower total consumption tax revenue elasticity, of around 0.9, is obtained for 2001 income levels. However, non-equiproportional income changes are more realistic. Allowing for regression towards the geometric mean income reduces these elasticities, giving an elasticity for income and consumption taxes combined that is only slightly above unity. Examination of the tax-share weighted expenditure elasticities for various goods also revealed that, despite the adoption of a broad based GST at a uniform rate in New Zealand, the persistence of various excises has an important effect on the overall consumption tax revenue elasticity, especially for individuals at relatively low income levels.     

When is market incompleteness irrelevant for the price of aggregate risk (and when is it not)?

In a standard incomplete markets model with a continuum of households that have constant relative risk aversion (CRRA) preferences, the absence of insurance markets for idiosyncratic labor income risk has no effect on the premium for aggregate risk if the distribution of idiosyncratic risk is independent of aggregate shocks and aggregate consumption growth is independent over time. In equilibrium, households only use the stock market to smooth consumption; the bond market is inoperative. Furthermore, the cross-sectional distributions of wealth and consumption are not affected by aggregate shocks. These results hold regardless of the persistence of idiosyncratic shocks, even when households face tight solvency constraints. A weaker irrelevance result survives when we allow for predictability in aggregate consumption growth.     

收入再分配对我国居民总消费需求的扩张效应

本文研究我国收入再分配与居民总消费需求的关系。文章利用分组的家庭户数据,用三种方法度量居民消费支出,估计了各收入组的边际消费倾向差异。研究中还将变量间的长期动态关系和通货膨胀因素纳入分析范围。研究结果表明,中国的收入分配显著影响了居民消费。根据本文的模拟计算,即使中低收入阶层的收入份额只有微弱的提高,也可以增加数百亿元的居民消费需求。因此,缩小居民收入差距,加大居民收入再分配的力度,壮大中等收入者的队伍,提高农民收入,对刺激我国居民消费需求具有积极作用。     

简论收入分配差距在消费层面的表现

从我国居民消费与分配差距间实证关系、居民的消费倾向、年底人民币储蓄余额和最终消费支出等几个方面,表述了收入分配差距在消费层面存有不"和谐"因素.认为收入分配差距过大,对经济增长的影响主要表现在有效需求上,即当前我们所抓的国内需求上;而有效需求,尤其是有效需求中的消费需求,也从一个侧面体现着收入分配差距状况.     

Convergence of consumption patterns during macroeconomic transition: A model of demand in Ireland and the OECD

This study uses country-level panel data on consumption in Ireland and seven other OECD countries to examine the evolution of Irish consumption patterns as Ireland underwent rapid macroeconomic growth. Consumption levels obviously increased due to substantially higher incomes, but it is less clear how the shares of different types of goods purchased have changed or whether Ireland's consumption mix has converged with that of other high-income countries. Rankings based on a simple distance measure of consumption similarity suggest that Ireland moved from a “low-income” pattern similar to Portugal or Greece to a “high-income” pattern like that of Canada between 1995 and 2003. Using static and dynamic Almost Ideal Demand System models, we first estimate long- and short-run Irish price and income elasticities for nine categories of commodities between 1976 and 2003. These results provide evidence of substantial habit formation in aggregate consumption. We then estimate a long-run cross-country model covering six aggregate commodity groups between 1975 and 2003. The analysis shows that Ireland's demand parameters remain more similar to those of Greece than to higher-income OECD countries in the sample. Although Ireland has overtaken most other OECD countries in per capita income, it is still converging to a higher-income consumption pattern. We foresee further convergence of Irish expenditure patterns towards a pattern typical of high-income countries.     

MEASURES OF TOTAL HOUSEHOLD CONSUMPTION

By expenditure on education, health, housing and other public services, governments provide many goods and services which are alternatives to, or additional to, household expenditure on consumption. In most Western national accounts, the two forms of consumption are rigidly separated. Yet the combination of the two–the concept of total household consumption–has obvious importance for the measurement and comparison of living standards and for the formulation and analysis of policy. This concept is recommended as an additional aggregate in the revised SNA. It is displayed in the UN International Comparison Project (ICP). It is used as a major aggregate ("total consumption of the population"), although hitherto generally excluding nonmaterial services, in the Material Product System. Yet it is rarely shown explicitly in Western national accounts. One reason is the slow progress in the analysis by purpose of government expenditure.
This paper shows how far figures of total household consumption, and of its division between collective and private consumption, can in fact be derived, for the advanced countries, from the data provided to the UN Yearbook of National Accounts , supplemented b y the ICP. The results show first the wide national variations in the relation between the two forms of consumption but, secondly, the gaps in information on this crucially important topic. The relation between direct government expenditure for collective consumption and transfer payments to households ("social income") is also examined. High and low levels of these two forms of State support to consumption reinforce each other almost as often as they offset each other. But, again, the data provided by national accounting statistics are very incomplete.
This paper was prepared for the 16th General Conference of the IARIW, August 1979.     

Some tests for money illusion and distribution effects in the aggregate consumption function

The hypothesis that the aggregate consumption displays money illusion in the sense that consumers mistake an increase in nominal incomes for an increase in real incomes and thus consume more out of given real incomes in response to a rise in the price level and the hypothesis that the aggregate consumption depends on the distribution of income are tested using Finnish annual and quarterly data. The money illusion hypothesis is rejected by annual data, while it meets success with quarterly data. The hypothesis of distribution effects in the aggregate consumption is supported by annual data. Particularly, equalizing the distribution of income would increase the aggregate consumption. In view of the quality of data on personal income distribution this conclusion cannot be regarded as more than tentative.     

Taylor rules: Consequences for wealth and income inequality

This paper compares the consequences of “active” vs. “passive” Taylor rules for wealth and income inequality. Since the distinction is operative only along transitional paths, we compare the implications for two forms of government expenditure that generate such transitions. Our results confirm that the contrasting effects obtained previously for the aggregate economy have significant distributional consequences. For an active Taylor rule, whether the government increases its expenditure on consumption, or productively, wealth inequality will increase. Expenditure on the two public goods yields divergent paths for income inequality. Government consumption expenditure raises income inequality; productive government expenditure reduces it. If the Taylor rule is passive, an increase in either form of government expenditure reduces wealth inequality initially and over time. Income inequality initially increases, but declines over time, although remaining above its previous steady-state level.     

The income–pollution relationship and the role of income distribution: An analysis of Swedish household data

The main purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship between pollution and income at household level. The study is motivated by the recent literature emphasizing the importance of income distribution for the aggregate relation between pollution and income. The main findings from previous studies are that if the individual pollution–income relationship is non-linear, then aggregate pollution for, say, a whole country, will depend not only on average income, but also on how income is distributed. To achieve our objective we formulate a model for determining the choice of consumption of goods in different types of household. Furthermore we link the demand model to emission functions for various goods. The theoretical analysis shows that without imposing very restrictive assumptions on preferences and the emission functions, it is not possible to determine a priori the slope or the curvature of the pollution–income relation. The empirical analysis shows that, given the model used, the pollution–income relation has a positive slope in Sweden and is strictly concave for all three pollutants under study (CO₂, SO₂, NO_x), at least in the neighbourhood of the observed income for an average household. We also show that altering the prevailing income distribution, holding average income constant, will affect aggregate emissions in the sense that an equalization of incomes will give rise to an increase in emissions. One implication is then that the development of aggregate pollution due to growth depends not only on the income level, but also on how growth is distributed.     

中国的消费不振与收入分配:理论和数据

本文根据消费理论的最新发展对收入分配与总需求关系的认识 ,结合中国的具体国情 ,建立了一个用于解释中国消费不振的理论框架 ,并较好地说明了其它理论所不能解释的一些消费特征。最后提出政策建议。     

EVALUATING THE DISTRIBUTION OF PUBLIC EXPENDITURE*

This article evaluates the distribution of public expenditure on subsidized goods and services over income categories. It is argued that undifferentiated application of usual measures of dispersion must be rejected when judging the distribution of these expenditures, because there are hardly any subsidized goods and services for which the government aims at equal consumption. Such an application requires a normative distribution of expenditure. The normative distribution of expenditure is derived from a normative distribution of consumption and the distribution of normative charges. Central elements are needs of consumers and their financial capacity. The normative distribution of consumption is based on government intentions with respect to the goods and services under consideration.     

广东省城镇居民人均消费影响因素研究

笔者通过建立广东省城镇居民人均消费性支出的计量经济模型,对影响广东省城镇居民消费支出的可能因素进行分析,发现城镇居民人均收入、城镇居民消费价格总指数及城镇居民收入差距对广东省城镇居民人均消费性支出,具有重要的影响.而利率因素因受目前我国宏观经济运行环境及居民消费心理惯性等因素的影响,对城镇居民消费行为并未产生预期的影响.     

Government spending and growth in second-best economies

This paper extends public spending-based growth theory along three directions: we assume a logistic trajectory for the ratio of government expenditure to aggregate income, self-limiting population change, and exogenous technological progress. By focusing on the choices of a benevolent social planner we find that, if the inverse of the intertemporal elasticity of substitution in consumption is sufficiently high, the ratio of consumption to private physical capital converges towards zero when time goes to infinity. Depending on the form of the underlying aggregate production function and on whether, for given production function, technological progress equals zero or a positive constant, our model may or may not yield an asymptotically balanced growth path (ABGP) equilibrium. When there is no exogenous technological progress, an equilibrium where population size, the ratio of government spending to aggregate income and the ratio of consumption to private physical capital are all constant does exist and the equilibrium is a saddle point. In case of positive technological progress numerical simulations show that the model still exhibits an ABGP equilibrium.     

我国财政支出波动对居民消费波动的影响研究

利用1981—2010年我国27个省级地区的面板数据,在加入居民收入波动、金融发展水平、贸易开放度三个控制变量的基础上,综合运用固定效应模型及工具变量估计法,对我国财政支出波动与居民消费波动的关系进行探讨,结果表明:居民消费波动受财政支出波动的影响显著,两者呈正相关关系;金融发展水平及贸易开放度有助于减轻居民消费的波动程度;居民收入波动对消费波动的影响不显著。     

CHANGES IN CANADIAN FAMILY INCOME AND FAMILY CONSUMPTION INEQUALITY BETWEEN 1978 AND 1992

This paper uses Canadian cross-sectional income and expenditure data to examine changes in the distribution of family income and family consumption during the period 1978 to 1992. Family consumption data are analyzed because in the presence of intertemporal consumption smoothing, the cross-sectional distribution of consumption may characterize the distribution of lifetime wealth. I find that both Canadian family income inequality and Canadian family consumption inequality moved countercyclically. In addition, both Canadian family income inequality and Canadian family consumption inequality trended upward over the period; however, the change in family consumption inequality was much smaller than the change in family income inequality, suggesting that inequality in the distribution of lifetime wealth may have changed much less than is suggested by changes in the distribution of income.     

政府支出结构与税收分配比例的经济增长效应研究——财政分权体制下政府最大化社会福利机制推演

文章建立了一个结合两级政府、三种支出类型的内生增长模型,研究发现除了消费性支出对经济增长有负作用外,其他类型的政府支出以及财政分权(由政府间税收收入分配比例反映)对经济增长率影响的正负作用取决于支出的初始值和支出的相对生产率诸因素.最优的收入分配比例(指政府的净收入)应该与该级政府的生产性支出的相对生产率相对称,转移支付在其中所起的作用在于调整初始税收收入分配的不均带来的对这个标准的扭曲.每级政府消费性支出的比例越小越好,以维持政府能正常运转即可,而每级政府的生产性支出的比例应该与该种支出的相对生产率相对称.     

Inequality and the business cycle: evidence from U.S. survey data

ABSTRACT

We study the effects of macroeconomic shocks on measures of economic inequality obtained from U.S. survey data. To identify aggregate supply, aggregate demand, and monetary policy shocks, we estimate vector autoregressions and impose sign and zero restrictions on impulse response functions. We find that the effects of the macroeconomic shocks on inequality depend on the type of shock as well as on the measure of inequality considered. Contractionary monetary policy shocks increase expenditure and consumption inequality, whereas income and earnings inequality are less affected. Adverse aggregate supply and demand shocks increase income and earnings inequality, but reduce expenditure and consumption inequality. Our results suggest that different channels dominate in the transmission of the shocks. The earnings heterogeneity channel is consistent with the inequality dynamics after monetary policy shocks, but it appears to be less crucial when the economy is hit by either aggregate supply or aggregate demand shocks. Using variance decompositions, we find that although the macroeconomic shocks account for large shares of the variation in the macroeconomic variables, their contributions to the dynamics of the inequality measures are limited.     

收入代际分配结构与我国社会消费倾向——一个基于Diamond模型的社会消费总量模型分析

基于Diamond模型的社会消费总量模型显示收入代际分配结构影响社会消费倾向。产出对消费的影响通过工资和资产收益率两个渠道传递。我国青年人群收入占社会总收入的比重过大,消费对当期产出过度平滑,导致持续下滑的低消费率和国内有效需求不足。发展资本市场可以提高国内有效需求。     

Consumption in the shadow of unemployment

By how much do employed households reduce their consumption when the aggregate unemployment rate rises? In Spain during the Great Recession a one point increase in the unemployment rate was related to a strong reduction in household consumption of more than 0.7% per equivalent adult. This reduction is consistent with forward-looking agents responding to downward revisions of their expectations on future income growth rates: the shadow of unemployment. Using consumption panel data that include information on physical quantities we show that the drop in consumption expenditure was truly a reduction in quantities, and not a switch to cheaper alternatives.     

我国城镇卫生筹资公平性研究——基于医疗保健支出累进度的测算

文章利用1995-2006年城镇家庭收支调查数据,测算了我国医疗保健个人现金支出的累进度指数,包括Kakwani指数和Suits指数,并采用可支配收入、消费性支出和非食品消费支出衡量支付能力,分别计算相应的累进度指数.研究结果表明:城镇职工基本医疗保险推行以来,我国个人现金卫生累退程度不断增加,这主要归咎于医疗保险覆盖不广泛以及分布不公平.这一结论对进一步改革我国社会医疗保险制度有着重要的政策含义.