Factor Components of Inequality: A Cross‐Country Study

This paper uses data from the Luxembourg Income Study to examine some of the forces that have driven changes in household income inequality over the last three decades of the twentieth century. We decompose inequality for six countries (Canada, Germany, Norway, Sweden, the U.K., and the U.S.) into the three sources of market income (earnings, property income, and income from self‐employment) and taxes and transfers. Our findings indicate that although changes in the distribution of earnings are an important force behind recent trends, they are not the only one. Greater earnings dispersion has in some cases been accompanied by a reduction in the share of earnings which dampened its impact on overall household income inequality. In some countries the contribution of self‐employment income to inequality has been on the rise, while in others, increases in inequality in capital income account for a substantial fraction of the observed distributional changes.     

Does medicaid generosity affect household income?

Almost all recent literature on Medicaid and labor supply has used Affordable Care Act (ACA)-induced Medicaid eligibility expansions in various states as natural experiments. Estimated effects on employment and earnings differ widely due to differences in the scope of eligibility expansion across states and are potentially subject to biases due to policy endogeneity. Using a Regression Kink Design (RKD) framework, this paper takes a new approach to the identification of the effect of Medicaid generosity on household income. Both state-level data and March CPS data from 1980 to 2013 suggest that generous federal funding of state-level Medicaid costs have a negative effect on household income. The negative impact of Medicaid generosity on household income is more pronounced at the lower end of the household income distribution and on the income and earnings of female heads.     

CAN HOUSEHOLDS AND WELFARE STATES MITIGATE RISING EARNINGS INSTABILITY?

We compare the evolution of earnings instability in Germany and the United Kingdom, two countries which stand for different types of welfare states. Deploying data from the German Socio‐Economic Panel (SOEP) and the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), we estimate permanent and transitory variances of male income over the period 1984–2009 and 1991–2006, respectively. Studies in this literature generally use individual labor earnings. To uncover the role of welfare state and households in smoothening earnings shocks, we compute different income concepts ranging from gross earnings to net equivalent household income. We find evidence that the overall inequality of earnings in Germany and the United Kingdom has been rising throughout the period due to both higher permanent earnings inequality and higher earnings volatility. However, taking institutions of the welfare state and risk‐sharing households into account, we find that the volatility of net household income has remained fairly stable. Furthermore, redistribution and risk insurance provided by the welfare state is more pronounced in Germany than in the United Kingdom.     

Accounting for United States Household Income Inequality Trends: The Changing Importance of Household Structure and Male and Female Labor Earnings Inequality

Using a shift‐share analysis on March CPS data, this paper estimates the degree to which changes in labor earnings, employment, and marriage patterns account for household income inequality growth in the United States since 1979. The factors contributing to the rapid rise in income inequality in the 1980s differ substantially from those contributing to its slower increase since that time. Unlike findings for the 1980s when changes in the correlation of spouses' earnings accounted for income inequality growth, this factor is no longer a major contributor toward its continued increase. Additionally, the 2000s business cycle is the first full business cycle in at least 30 years where changes in earnings of male household heads accounted for declines in income inequality. Instead, the continued growth in income inequality in the 2000s was accounted for primarily by increases in female earnings inequality and declines in both male and female employment.     

Spain is different: Falling trends of inequality

In this article we characterize the evolution of inequality in hourly wages, hours of work, labor earnings, household disposable income and household consumption for Spain between 1985 and 2000. We look at both the Encuesta Continua de Presupuestos Familiares and the European Household Community Panel. Our analysis shows that inequality in individual net labor earnings and household net disposable income has decreased substantially. The decreases in the tertiary education premium and in the unemployment rate have been key ingredients to understand this falling trend. Public transfers have played a crucial role in smoothing out the inequality arising in the labor market, but instead the Spanish family does not seem to have been an important insurance mechanism. Regarding household consumption, inequality has fallen much less than inequality in household net disposable income, with the decrease mostly concentrated in the second half of the eighties. This suggests that the reduction in income inequality has affected the sources of permanent differences between households only during the second half of the eighties. Our estimates of the earnings process for the period are consistent with this view.     

Education, segregation and marital sorting: theory and an application to the UK

This paper presents a model of the intergenerational transmission of education and marital sorting. Parents matter both because of their household income and because their human capital determines the distribution of a child's disutility from making an effort to become skilled. We show that an increase in segregation has potentially ambiguous effects on the proportion of individuals that become skilled in the steady state, and hence on marital sorting, the personal and household income distribution, and welfare. We calibrate the steady state of our model to UK statistics. We find that an increase in the correlation of spouses in their years of education will bring about a small increase in the proportion of skilled individuals when the relative supply of skilled individuals is variable at the family level and a decrease when this supply is fixed. Ex-ante utility (of an unborn individual) increases in the first case and decreases in the second. The welfare effect of increased sorting is negative for unskilled individuals and positive for skilled individuals. Increased segregation always leads to an increase in welfare inequality between skilled and unskilled individuals.     

Reference Income Effects in the Determination of Equivalence Scales Using Income Satisfaction Data

We estimate household equivalence scales, i.e. the needs of additional adults and children relative to a single adult, using income satisfaction data from the German Socio‐Economic Panel. We extend previous studies applying this approach by taking reference income into account. This allows separating needs‐based from reference effects in the determination of income satisfaction. We show that this adjustment helps to overcome a bias causing an overestimation of adults’ and an underestimation of children’s needs‐based equivalence weights. Our results indicate that controlling for income comparisons substantially increases children’s equivalence weight relative to that of adults.     

Understanding Rising Income Inequality in Germany, 1999/2000–2005/2006

We examine the factors behind rising income inequality in Europe's most populous economy. From 1999/2000 to 2005/2006, Germany experienced an unprecedented rise in net equivalized income inequality and poverty. At the same time, unemployment rose to record levels, part‐time and marginal part‐time work grew, and there was evidence for a widening distribution of labor incomes. Other factors that possibly contributed to the rise in income inequality were changes in the tax and transfer system, changes in the household structure (in particular the rising share of single parent households), and changes in other socio‐economic characteristics (e.g., age or education). We address the question of which factors were the main drivers of the observed inequality increase. Our results suggest that the largest part of the increase was due to increasing inequality in labor incomes, but that changes in employment outcomes and changes in the tax system also contributed considerable shares. By contrast, changes in household structures and household characteristics, as well as changes in the transfer system only seem to have played a minor role.     

The labour market and the distribution of earnings: an empirical analysis for Italy

Using four waves of data from the Participation Labour Unemployment Survey, a database of information on the Italian labour market supply, we address the question of earnings dispersion by applying a ‘nested’ decomposition procedure of the Theil inequality measure, which combines into a unified framework the standard decompositions by population subgroups and income sources. The empirical evidence obtained points to the key role played by the self-employees in shaping labour income inequality, especially at the upper extreme of the earnings distribution, and the emergence of non-standard forms of employment as an important feature of the contemporary workplace.     

农户家庭收入流动水平的结构差异及其影响因素分析*——基于“远亲”与“近邻”的视角

本文实证分析了农民收入流动水平的结构差异及其影响因素。结果表明：低收入阶层的农户家庭收入流动较强,高收入阶层农户家庭稳固其地位的能力逐渐增强,其家庭收入固化趋势较为明显。流动效应是导致农户家庭收入流动水平差异的主要原因,而结构效应中家庭经营性收入流动水平是缩小差异的最大贡献者。从家庭亲属亲密程度和近邻便利程度的视角来看,“远亲”不如“近邻”的现象在农户家庭收入流动水平上表现明显。家庭亲属性质、亲属关系层级分别对家庭经营性收入和工资性收入流动性存在较强的显著影响。而近邻就业机会越高,组织程度越强,地区区位优势越好,越有利于农户家庭收入流动水平的提升。     

我国三峡库区移民家庭收入的微观影响因素

利用重庆市云阳县移民的调查数据,按移民类型和受教育程度对移民家庭收入进行统计分析。然后,按移民类型、受教育程度、年龄段进行分组,对影响移民家庭收入的微观因素进行回归估计。结果显示:移民家庭的经营土地对其家庭收入的贡献不大;劳动力对家庭收入的贡献最大;从年龄结构的角度看,31～45岁、46～60岁年龄段的劳动力对家庭收入的贡献最大;当劳动力的人均受教育年限达到大专水平时,家庭收入会随着劳动力文化水平的提高而增加;16～30岁年龄组中大专文化劳动力比例对家庭收入的贡献显著为正;31～45岁、46～60岁年龄组中初中文化劳动力比例对家庭收入的贡献显著为负;劳动力的非农业收入明显高于农业收入。最后提出:应鼓励移民从事非农业;鼓励青年和中年劳动力向工业和服务业发达的城市自愿流动;鼓励移民子女接受大专及以上教育;尽快健全城镇和农村移民的养老保险制度和最低生活保障制度。     

From internal imbalances to global imbalances: a survey on the causes of China’s export-led growth

There is a broad consensus that China’s export- and investment-led growth model is unsustainable and therefore needs to become more balanced. In the public debate, Chinese exchange rate interventions are mostly made (solely) responsible for this. But it is unclear whether and how much the Renminbi is undervalued, and if an exchange rate appreciation helps to reduce China’s current account surplus significantly. This survey reviews the international literature on China’s export-oriented growth model. Internal structural imbalances in the Chinese economy, resulting in an extremely low consumption-to-GDP share by historical and international standards, play hereby a central role. Related to this are: 1) the drop in household and wage income as a share of GDP and low employment growth, and its impact on consumption demand; 2) the increase in income uncertainty and inequality, and its impact on household savings; and 3) the role of government spending, i.e., high and increasing public surpluses. The central policy challenge is therefore to increase household incomes, and to reduce income inequality and uncertainty.     

Educational expenditure in urban China: income effects,family characteristics and the demand for domestic and overseas education

Analysing survey data from 32 selected cities across China in 2003, this article examines parents’ expenditure on their children's education from two aspects: factors affecting domestic education expenditure and factors affecting expenditure on overseas education. The main findings that emerge from this study are as follows. First, household income has significant effects on the magnitude of the domestic and overseas educational expenditures. Second, households where mothers have senior secondary school or college education, and fathers are working in professional occupations are likely to spend more on education for their children. Third, being in the highest income category, having a college-educated father, having a mother who is a cadre or middle professional and living in a coastal area significantly enhances the probabilities for the households sending their children overseas for education.     

Intergenerational Earnings and Income Mobility in Spain

This paper contributes to the large number of studies on intergenerational earnings and income mobility by providing new evidence for Spain. Since there are no Spanish surveys covering long‐term information on both children and their fathers' income or earnings, we deal with this selection problem using the two‐sample two‐stage least squares estimator. We find that intergenerational mobility in Spain is similar to that in France, lower than in the Nordic countries and Britain, and higher than in Italy and the United States. Furthermore, we use the Chadwick and Solon approach to explore intergenerational mobility in the case of daughters and we find similar results by gender.     

社会资本累积与家庭收入分化

已有的研究表明,社会资本累积对经济增长和家庭收入增长会产生重要影响,居民家庭社会资本存量存在显著差异,但在其累积过程中却不存在明显的城乡差别,家庭居住地的经济环境和政府行为对家庭社会资本的累积无显著影响,社会资本累积对家庭收入的影响并不显著。     

Political aspects of household finance: debt,wage bargaining,and macroeconomic (in)stability

The recent literature has shown that income inequality is one of the main causes of borrowing and debt accumulation by working households. This article explores the possibility that household indebtedness is an important cause of rising income inequality. If workers experience rising debt burdens, their cost of job loss may rise if they need labor-market income to continue borrowing and servicing existing debt. This, in turn, will reduce their bargaining power and increase income inequality, inducing workers to borrow more to maintain consumption standards, and so creating a vicious circle of rising inequality, job insecurity, and indebtedness. We believe that these dynamics may have contributed to observed simultaneous increases in income inequality and household debt prior to the recent financial crisis. To explore the two-way interaction between inequality and debt, we develop an employment rent framework that explicitly considers the impact of workers’ indebtedness on their perceived cost of job loss. This is embedded in a neo-Kaleckian macro model in which inequality spurs debt accumulation that contributes to household consumption spending and hence demand formation. Our analysis suggests that (a) workers’ borrowing behavior plays a crucial role in understanding the character of demand and growth regimes; (b) debt and workers’ borrowing behavior play an important role in the labor market by influencing workers’ bargaining power; and (c) through such channels, workers’ borrowing behavior can be a decisive factor in the determination of macroeconomic (in)stability.     

Give and Take Between Households and the State: Development and Application of A Benefaction–Contribution Ratio

This study defines a “Benefaction–Contribution Ratio” (BCR), describing the extent to which households are net beneficiaries of or contributors to the economy in relation to income and consumption. Such issues are central to assessment and targeting of policies such as social welfare and taxation. We apply the ratio to 21,144 South African households. South Africa employs various taxation‐funded social grants and subsidized services. A central question is how such transfers affect real household income and consumption. We find that the constitution of social transfers as a function of tax adjusted earned income significantly augments household buying power. Furthermore, we hypothesize and find a negative curvilinear shape which has implications for design of taxation and welfare. This constitution and distribution of this ratio may be useful for international benchmarking and household planning, and as an economic predictor of outcomes such as job seeking, entrepreneurial behavior, family planning, migration, and tax evasion.     

收入差距、家庭可支配收入与商品房价格：基于广州市的实证研究

论文使用1998—2009年广州市商品房价格和城镇居民不同收入家庭可支配收入来分析房价与收入差距和家庭可支配收入之间的关系。实证检验发现,收入差距扩大为房价上涨的Granger原因,但是房价并不是收入差距的Granger原因。房价对低、中低收入户的家庭可支配收入有较大影响,而中、中高收入户的家庭可支配收入是房价上涨的主要推动力量,高收入家庭既促进了房价上涨同时也从中受益最大。政策制定应该依据房价与不同收入户的家庭可支配收入之间的关系而具体实施,不能一概而论。     

Why is child labor illegal?

We present a theory of the emergence of laws restricting child labor or imposing mandatory education that is consistent with the fact that poor parents tend to oppose such laws. We find that if altruistic parents are unable to commit to educating their children, child-labor laws can increase the welfare of higher-income parents in an ex ante sense. On the basis of an empirical analysis of Latin-American household surveys, we demonstrate that per capita income in the country of residence has the predicted effect on child labor supply, even after controlling for other household characteristics.     

自然灾害发生前后灾区农户收入影响因素的对比分析——以汶川为例

本文以汶川地震为研究背景,通过构建灾害发生前后灾区农户的收入模型,实证研究了灾前、灾后影响受灾地区农户收入的主要因素及其异同。除此之外,本文从高低收入组间差异角度,实证分析了灾害发生前后农户收入影响因素的组间差异。研究表明,无论是灾前还是灾后,外出务工对农户收入都具有显著的正向增长作用,且灾后这种影响比灾前有所扩大。地震发生后,家庭经营收入对农户收入的增长作用比灾前有所增加。地震对高低收入组农户外出务工情况产生了不同程度的负面影响,由此可能导致高低收入组间农户收入差距的进一步扩大。最后,本文提出了相应的政策建议。