REGIONAL ECONOMIC INTEGRATION AND ITS IMPACTS ON GROWTH, POVERTY, AND INCOME DISTRIBUTION: THE CASE OF INDONESIA

Indonesia continually tries to open its economy through free trade areas (FTAs) on bilateral, regional, and multilateral bases. This paper discusses the impacts of FTAs on the Indonesian economy, particularly for economic growth, poverty, and income distribution. By using a Global Computable General Equilibrium (GCGE) model, we conducted the simulation analysis by setting eighteen scenarios for the ongoing and potential FTAs of different frameworks. Indonesia is found to benefit from joining in FTAs, except for the FTA with India. It is also implied that FTAs increase rural household income at higher rates than they increase urban household income. Moreover, FTAs' impacts are more favorable for unskilled workers than for skilled ones, and also for relatively poor households more than for rich households, both in urban and rural areas. In brief, FTAs provide Indonesia with income redistribution effects.     

城乡炫耀性消费差异的根源探索

运用中国家庭追踪调查数据,研究发现:农村家庭的炫耀性消费支出比例显著高于城镇家庭,且这一结果随时间变化比较稳健。进一步研究发现,在考虑了家庭参照群体的平均收入之后,城乡炫耀性消费差异不再显著,且参照群体的平均收入对家庭炫耀性消费的影响显著为负。这很可能来源于家庭为寻求社会地位而消费的动机,更高的社会地位意味着更多的财富和带来更高的收益。炫耀性消费充当了家庭社会地位的信号,向其参照群体传递了自身的收入水平状况,参照群体的平均收入越低,消费者寻求社会地位的消费动机越强。农村家庭参照群体的平均收入较低,所以其寻求社会地位的动机更强、炫耀性消费水平更高。因此,寻求社会地位的消费动机是城乡炫耀性消费差异的主要原因。     

Commonality,macroeconomic factors and banking profitability

We study banks’ profitability in the US economy by means of dynamic factor models. Our results emphasize the importance of a few common cyclical market factors that greatly determine banking profitability. We conduct exhaustive regressions in a big data set of macroeconomic variables aiming to gain interpretability of our statistical factors. This allows us to identify three main macroeconomic factors underlying banking profitability: the financial burden of households and economic activity; household income and net worth and, in the case of ROA and ROE, stress in financial markets. We also provide an integrated perspective to analyse banks’ profitability dynamically and to inform policymakers concerned with financial stability issues, for which banks’ profitability is fundamental. Our models allow us to provide several rankings of vulnerable financial institutions considering the common market forces that we estimate. We emphasize the usefulness of such an exercise as a market-monitoring tool.     

Income risk, macroeconomic and demographic change, and economic inequality in Japan

Using an OLG model with heterogeneous households, we investigate the relationship among income risk, macroeconomic and demographic changes, and economic inequality between 1980 and 2000 in Japan. By decomposing the primary factors in earnings and consumption inequality into macroeconomic variables and the demographic variable, we find that our model replicates the evolution of economic inequality in Japan. By performing counterfactual simulations, we demonstrate that two factors—changes in time-varying macroeconomic factors and the unexpected decline in the total factor productivity growth rate—played important roles in the increase in earnings and consumption inequality in the 1990s.     

中国转轨时期宏观经济政策传导机制及政策效应的模拟分析

在中国从计划经济体制向市场经济体制的转变过程中，作为平抑经济周期波动、稳定经济发展的各项宏观经济政策发挥了不可忽视的作用。本文根据中国在转轨时期所具有的经济特点，构建了一个小型的宏观经济联立方程模型，并根据中国当前的经济形势，模拟了2003-2004年货币政策和财政政策对宏观经济的影响。得出的结论为，由于传导机制的不畅，导致我国当前货币政策的效果、旨在增加农村居民收入的减税政策的效果不明显，而扩大城镇居民消费的、提高职工工资的政策效果则比较显著。     

我国城镇居民平均消费倾向与收入分配状况关系的实证研究

中国的有效需求不足现象近年来成为一个被普遍关注的问题,而居民消费需求不足更是成为关注的焦点。本文在前人研究的基础上,从标准的消费者预期效用最大化模型出发,推导出中国城镇居民的个体"短视"消费模型和总量消费模型;运用我国1985～2004年城镇居民消费、收入及其他相关数据,通过误差修正模型和对数线性模型分别对数据进行了计量分析,发现在我国现阶段,城镇居民收入分配差距的扩大引起了居民平均消费倾向的减小,且其长期影响尤为显著。在对计量结果进行分析的基础上,本文给出了若干政策建议。     

Trade Liberalization and Poverty in Ecuador: A CGE Macro-Microsimulation Analysis

Cross-country analysis of the aggregate growth-poverty link is likely to miss important country-specific detail and possible offsetting forces in the underlying labour market adjustment process. This paper combines a CGE model analysis with a microsimulations approach to analyse the effects of trade liberalization on poverty and income distribution in Ecuador. The CGE model enables us to disentangle the general equilibrium effects of various trade policy scenarios on sector output, employment, factor incomes and household consumption. However, as is typical of CGE models, this analysis only provides distribution results for fairly aggregated groups of workers and a reduced number of representative households. The microsimulations approach adds the full distribution to the analysis and allows simulation of the effects of trade reform on the job status and remuneration of individual workers and thereby on household income distribution and poverty. The macro- microsimulation results indicate that the trade opening in Ecuador induced mild aggregate welfare gains, but rising income inequality due to rising wage differentials between skilled and unskilled workers implies virtually no poverty-reducing effect from trade liberalization.     

我国城乡居民收入差距的数理经济模型及其实证研究

深化收入分配制度改革,增加城乡居民收入是我国改革的根本目标。改革开放以来,我国的经济持续快速发展,人民的生活水平得到了很大提高,但与此同时,我国也出现了严重的居民收入差距。文章在对收入分配的影响因素进行分析的基础上,建立一个回归模型分析所有制结构的演变与居民收入的关系,进而通过协整分析和格兰杰因果检验,对二元经济结构与城乡居民收入差距之间的数量关系进行了分析和检验。研究结论表明:转型期所有制结构的演变以及二元经济结构是我国居民收入差距呈扩大趋势的根本原因,二元经济结构与城乡居民收入差距具有单向的格兰杰原因。最后针对城乡收入差距扩大的趋势提出相应的解决对策。     

NATURE OF RURAL–URBAN INTERDEPENDENCIES AND THEIR DIFFUSION PATTERNS IN SOUTHERN GREECE: AN INTERREGIONAL SAM MODEL

A three-area interregional Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) model is used to analyze economic interdependencies and relevant diffusion patterns within and between rural-urban localities in Southern Greece: the rural areas of Archanes and N. Kazantzakis and the urban area of Heraklion. Both rural areas trickle significant economic benefits to the urban area, while the urban area has marginal linkages with them. Policy simulation analysis results have indicated that farm income support measures are important to Archanes, since reduced spending in farm income support creates significant negative impacts on firm and household income, and is not compensated by an equivalent increase in rural development policy spending. These findings do not hold for the diffusion of economic impacts towards N. Kazantzakis and Heraklion; results of this simulation show that positive economic benefits are still diffused to both the wealthier urban area and the adjacent poorer rural area of N. Kazantzakis.     

Effects of residential relocation on household and commuting expenditures in Shanghai, China

Over the past three decades, China's cities have undergone massive spatial restructuring in the wake of market reforms and economic growth. One consequence has been a rapid migration of urban residents to the periphery. Some movers have been forced out either by rising urban rents or government reclamation of their residences. Others have relocated willingly to modernized housing or for other lifestyle reasons. This article examines the effects of relocation to the urban edge on household well-being. It explores the factors underlying changes in housing and transportation costs as households move to the periphery. The research also examines whether those who moved involuntarily are affected differently from those who moved by choice. Results show that, relative to those who moved by choice, involuntary movers are disproportionately and adversely affected in terms of job accessibility, commute time, housing consumption and disposable income. The findings also show that, compared with higher-income households, lower-income groups are disproportionately affected in relation to housing costs, accessibility losses, disposable income and household worker composition. These results indicate that relocation compensation for involuntarily relocated households should be expanded to include more than just housing value: it should encompass urban location changes, household needs and relocation costs.     

中国城乡居民住房不平等分析

随着中国城镇住房分配体制的转型，居民的居住条件在很大程度上依赖于家庭的收入水平，因此不断扩大的收入差距也在无形中影响着住房的不平等状况。基于2002年和2013年的城镇和农村的住户调查数据，本文从住房面积和房产价值两个角度分析中国农村和城镇居民住房不平等的总体状况。研究发现，在住房市场化体制建立和发展的过程中，虽然从财产所有权上的住房均等化有所提升，家庭居住面积有了很大的改善，但人均居住面积分布的不均等程度却进一步扩大。房产价值的不平等分析表明，虽然这一时期居民的住房财富高速增长，但城乡内部和城乡之间的房产差距都急剧扩大。基于回归分解的方法考察住房财富不平等的影响因素后发现，区域差异、收入差异和人力资本是造成居民房产价值分布差距不断扩大的重要因素。     

我国城乡居民收入差距过大的主要原因分析

中国近30年的经济体制改革,成绩有目共睹、不容置疑,但改革进一步深化、社会进一步发展所面临的矛盾也是很明显的。在众多的矛盾中,城乡居民收入差距作为矛盾中的焦点问题,更是引起了广泛的社会关注。过高的城乡居民收入差距,从眼前看将直接关系着改革的深入进行、经济的可持续发展以及社会和民心的稳定,从长远看则关系着全民小康社会的最终实现和现代化的成败。可以说,找出城乡居民收入差距过大的主要原因是很有必要的,这对缩小当前我国城乡居民收入差距具有重大的意义。     

我国居民收入差距成因分析及对策探讨

随着我国国民经济的持续快速发展和收入水平的普遍提高,收入渠道的多元化促进了居民收入格局的多样化,带来了经济利益在不同群体间的重新调整和社会收入差距的加剧.居民收入差距在城乡、行业、地区之间的扩大,已成为阻碍社会经济持续发展的不利因素.因此,深入分析我国居民收入分配状况,寻找相应的对策,逐步缩小居民收入差距,更具迫切性和现实意义.     

Neighbors’ income distribution: economic segregation and mixing in US urban neighborhoods

The paper describes within-neighborhood economic segregation in US metropolitan areas in 1985 and 1993. It uses the neighborhood clusters of the American housing survey, standardized by metropolitan area income and household size, to explore income distribution within neighborhoods at a scale much smaller than the census tract (a representative sample of households or ‘kernels’ and their 10 closest neighbors). Joint and conditional distributions portray neighbors’ characteristics conditional on the kernel’s housing tenure, race, and income. The paper documents both significant income mixing in the majority of US urban micro neighborhoods and the extent of income mixing within neighborhoods of concentrated poverty.     

An Income Tax Increase to Fund Higher Education: A CGE Analysis for Chile

An increase in income taxes to fund education was one of the demands made by the social movements that emerged in Chile in 2011. Currently, the Chilean Congress is enacting a tax reform to raise money for higher education. This study aims to show the dynamic effects on the general equilibrium of the Chilean economy under two alternative approaches: a subsidy to lower the price of higher education (public and private), and greater spending on public higher education to reduce household payments for education. The social accounting matrix (SAM) used to calibrate the computable general equilibrium (CGE) model has 38 economic sectors, including the production structure of private education and public education. The study mainly concludes that a subsidy policy has significant advantages over increasing higher public education spending, regarding its effects on variables such as GDP, investment, and household incomes, while both policies have a similar effect on poverty and income distribution.     

MONETARY POLICY IN A NON‐REPRESENTATIVE AGENT ECONOMY: A SURVEY

It is well known that central bank policies affect not only macroeconomic aggregates, but also their distribution across economic agents. Similarly, a number of papers demonstrated that heterogeneity of agents may matter for the transmission of monetary policy to macro variables. Despite this, the mainstream monetary economics literature has so far been dominated by dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models with representative agents. This paper aims to tilt this imbalance towards heterogeneous agents setups by surveying the main positive and normative findings of this line of the literature, and suggesting areas in which these models could be implemented. In particular, we review studies that analyse the heterogeneity of (i) households’ income, (ii) households’ preferences, (iii) consumers’ age, (iv) expectations and (v) firms’ productivity and financial position. We highlight the results on issues that, by construction, cannot be investigated in a representative agent framework and discuss important papers modifying the findings from the representative agent literature.     

IMPACTS OF FOOD PRICES ON THE ECONOMY: SOCIAL ACCOUNTING MATRIX AND MICROSIMULATION APPROACH IN INDONESIA

This study investigated the impacts of increasing the prices of heavily protected food commodities in Indonesia on producer and consumer prices. It also evaluated the changes in household living expenses and poverty. The Indonesian Food Social Accounting Matrix was developed along with a price multiplier matrix–microsimulation approach that was used to analyze problems. Poor rural households were the most negatively affected by the increments in food prices. This result contrasted with the standard political argument stating that high rice prices will decrease poverty, particularly in rural areas where the poor live or work as farmers. Of all the food commodities observed, the changes in the rice prices had the most substantial impact on both producer and consumers price, as well as the households’ living cost, particularly low‐income households. Therefore, an increase of 25% in rice price will raise urban, rural, and national poverty levels by 0.13%, 0.10%, and 0.11%, respectively.     

物价上涨对不同收入群体消费支出的影响分析——以广东省为例

为了考察物价上涨对居民生活的影响,本文以广东省为例,从短期和长期两个方面对不同收入层城镇居民的消费支出变动情况进行了实证分析。结果表明,从短期看,物价上涨使城镇不同收入层居民的消费支出出现不同程度的增加,但低收入层居民消费性支出的增长幅度最大,普遍高于其他收入层居民。从长期看,物价上涨对城镇不同收入层居民消费支出的影响方向和程度不尽相同,其中使低收入户、中低收入户和高收入户的支出增加,而使中等收入户和中高收入户的支出减少。但是,无论是从长期还是从短期看,物价上涨对低收入户的影响最大,其消费性支出的增长幅度均高于其他收入群体的支出增长幅度。     

Mineral-led Economic Growth, Drought Relief, and Incomes Policy

Abstract . Some analysts have hypothesized that rapid mineral led economic growth and drought in the rural economy have led to a severe worsening of the plight of the rural population in Botswana, with rural household income collapsing and income inequality worsening pronouncedly. Contrary to these hypotheses, Botswana's income data show that income distribution remained stable, since rural household incomes did not experience significant decline as a result of drought conditions. The government's incomes policy, the direct and indirect benefits of rapid employment growth, and the government's comprehensive drought relief support are seen as explanatory factors in this macroeconomic policy success.     

Income class, modal choice, and urban spatial structure

This paper analyzes the impacts of urban transportation system changes and income changes on the welfare of people and on the urban spatial structure, in a setting where the income level differs between two groups, and two transportation modes compete with each other in a city. It is demonstrated that an improvement in some transport facility will not necessarily increase the welfare level of every household, and, at times decreases the welfare of some households. It also is argued that under particular situations, an improvement in a particular transport mode may produce a contraction in the city size rather than an expansion. Similarly, an increase in income of one group might have an adverse effect on the welfare of another income group as a result of competition in the land market.