Economic growth and income inequality in the Asia-Pacific region: A comparative study of China,Japan, South Korea,and the United States

This paper builds an inequality-growth-redistribution nexus, and applies the Engle–Granger two-step ECM approach to estimate the long-run and short-run relationships between inequality and growth for four economies: China, Japan, South Korea, and the United States. Our estimation results support the S-shaped curve hypothesis relating GDP per capita to inequality with different starting points for the four economies. For the reverse relationship, we find a positive causal relationship for China, Japan, and the United States, indicating that increased income inequality spurred economic growth. In addition, we find mixed results on the effect of trade openness on inequality and growth. Trade openness reduced inequality in the United States and Japan, worsened it in China and had no significant effect in South Korea. In the inequality-GDP per capita relationship, exports provided an impetus to economic growth for Japan. As for redistribution, although fiscal redistributive measures reduced inequality in Japan, they played no major role in the other three countries. With regard to the inequality-GDP per capita relationship, all countries except for China show a negative effect of fiscal redistribution on GDP per capita.     

Intergenerational income mobility and economic freedom

Numerous studies have found that income inequality reduces the chances of upward relative mobility (i.e., climbing up the income ladder). However, most of this work ignores the role played by institutional quality (namely, economic freedom) in determining mobility and increasing the individual's set of choices. We fill this gap by empirically testing the direct and indirect (through economic growth) impacts of economic freedom on intergenerational income mobility. We find that economic freedom has both direct and indirect effects on intergenerational income mobility, while income inequality is a strong predictor of downward income mobility. When we incorporate findings about the purely mechanical relationship between inequality and intergeneration income mobility, we find that the legal system and property rights component of economic freedom matters more than inequality. These results suggest that good institutions can increase intergenerational income mobility.     

Cooperating in time of crisis: war,commons, and inequality in Renaissance Lombardy

This article addresses the question of how exogenous shocks led to economic redistribution at a local rural community level in the pre‐industrial period, and how inequality can be limited (or not) by institutions and endogenous social structures within the community itself. This article presents a micro‐analytical study conducted mainly on unpublished sources, focusing on a boundary area (the Geradadda) disputed by Milan and Venice during the long period of the Italian Wars (1494–1559) in a broad European perspective. To understand the impact of wars, the management of local commons and communal assets is analysed in the more general context of the management of local finances. This research shows how local communities organized cooperative behaviours for the defence of local resources, developing innovative credit systems and encouraging a process of redistribution. Before other important factors—such as the distribution of wealth or of local political and social power—cooperation between social groups and the role played by elites were the keystones to limiting the increase in inequality.     

中国农村区域收入不均等变动：基于经济发展和制度变迁的解释

本文利用改革以来的中国省级农村居民收入数据,首先通过基尼系数和泰尔指数两个指标的测度,分析了中国农村区域收入不均等的变化趋势。结果发现,总体上持续扩大的农村区域收入不均等由工资性收入差异所主导,主要体现在东、中、西三大区域间。而基于收入决定因素的夏普利分解结果则进一步表明,改革后农村制度变迁的区域不一致所造就的农村经济的非农化进程、物质和人力资本积累水平等增长因素的分化是农村区域收入不均等变动的最主要根源。     

Political Control and Economic Inequality: Evidence from Chinese Cities

This paper explores the consequence of political control on intra-city economic inequality. Utilizing the unique political institution with mass cadre transfers and household survey data from 81 Chinese cities in 2010, 2012, and 2014, we find that cities with a “local” leader enjoy an almost 6% reduction in expenditure inequality, and the gap is especially narrowed in the lower income families. The reduction is attributed to larger amount of targeted transfers to low-income households. This paper is among the first to empirically support the argument supporting local residence duration for office holding in public sectors, and also contributes to understanding the political economy of social welfare programs as well as campaigns in inequality reduction.     

Impact of institutional determinants on income inequalities in Indonesia during the Era Reformasi

This article examines the links between a selected group of institutional factors and income inequalities. The Indonesian transformation process, referred to as the Era Reformasi, which started in 1999, was a substantial institutional change in the social, political, and economic sphere that could have impacted income inequalities. We conducted an analysis based on Engle and Granger’s (1987) cointegration technique and the autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) model, which allowed us to assess the short-run and long-run links, as well as causal relationships between variables. Particular attention was paid to governance indicators and economic freedom as factors that influence other economic and political institutions. The results show that improvements in institutional factors, namely economic freedom, corruption control, government effectiveness, regulation quality, and voice and accountability, significantly reduced income inequalities during the Era Reformasi in Indonesia.     

Does Economic Growth Really Benefit the Poor? Income Distribution Dynamics and Pro-poor Growth in Indonesia

We explore the nexus between poverty, inequality, and economic growth in Indonesia between 2002 and 2012, using several pro-poor growth concepts and indices to determine whether growth in this period benefited the poor. Our regression-based decompositions of poverty into growth and redistribution components suggest that around 40% of inequality in total household expenditure in Indonesia was due to variations in expenditure by education characteristics that persisted after controlling for other factors. We find that economic growth in this period benefited households at the top of the expenditure distribution, and that a ‘trickle down’ effect saw the poor receive proportionately fewer benefits than the non-poor. If reducing poverty is one of the Indonesian government's principal objectives, then policies designed to spur growth must take into account the possible impacts of growth on inequality.     

Effects of Patent Policy on Income and Consumption Inequality in a R&D Growth Model

To analyze the effects of patent policy on growth and inequality, this article develops a quality‐ladder model with wealth heterogeneity and elastic labor supply. The model predicts that strengthening patent protection increases (a) economic growth by stimulating spending on research and development and (b) income inequality by raising the return on assets. Elastic labor supply creates an additional effect on income inequality. As for consumption inequality, the effect is ambiguous and depends on the elasticity of intertemporal substitution. Calibrating the model to the U.S. data shows that strengthening patent protection increases income inequality by more than consumption inequality, and this pattern is consistent with the data.     

西藏农村公共服务的提供和贫困的减少(英文)

I. IntroductionThrough observing the basic public services that the farmers and herdsmen have obtained,this paper is devoted to an evaluation of the efforts made by the local government for thealleviation of poverty in rural Tibet. Firstly, the role of the agricultural support system inrealizing food security will be identified. Secondly, the public services that could directlyimprove the household welfare of farmers and herdsmen will be examined. Finally, we willexplore the possibilities for…     

How Aging and Intergeneration Disparity Influence Consumption Inequality in China

Concurrent with market economic reforms, China is facing an increasing income gap and an aging population. The question addressed in the present paper is how much aging contributes to the rising disparity in consumption. Based on the model established by Ohtake and Saito （1998）, our study shows that cohort effects contribute close to 60percent of the rising consumption inequality, while approximately lO percent is the result of aging. The growth of aggregate consumption inequality caused by the cohort effect has various implications. Strengthening the redistribution system, especially the tax system, may enable the economy to avoid further increases in income inequality.     

Economic growth,inequality, and poverty in Vietnam

This study examines how poverty reduction has been associated with economic growth and inequality in Vietnam. It finds that although the speed of poverty reduction was lower in the 2000s than in the 1990s, economic growth was more pro‐poor in the latter period. During the 1993–98 period, expenditure inequality increased and the poverty reduction during this period was mainly caused by economic growth. During the 2004–08 period, however, expenditure inequality decreased, thereby contributing to poverty reduction. The poverty incidence declined by around 5 percentage points, of which expenditure growth and redistribution contributed 2.8 and 2.2 percentage points of poverty reduction, respectively.     

The Impacts of Economic Freedom and Institutional Quality on Migration from African Countries

The previous empirical literature suggests that socio-economic conditions and demographic pressures are triggering factors of migration from Africa. We propose that economic freedom and institutional quality indicators of African countries are also important determinants of out-migration from Africa. Hence, we investigate the effect of economic freedom and institutional quality on migration flow from 44 African countries to major migration destination countries. Aggregate indicators are derived for the quality of institutions and economic freedom using principal component analysis. Controlling for source and destination countries' income levels, population size, cultural, historical and physical distance, our findings provide evidence that migration flow from Africa is significantly determined by the institutional quality and economic freedom indicators in African countries. Our results are strongly robust to different econometric techniques used to control for sample selection bias, zero-valued observations and endogeneity concern. Hence, improving institutional quality and maintaining economic freedom in African countries matters significantly to control out-migration from Africa.     

Economics versus politics in trade policy

Do economies of scale contribute to our understanding of trade policy or is ideology and inequality sufficient? We develop a unified theoretical framework that encompasses both strategic economic and political variables deemed to be important in explaining trade policy. We predict that an increase in the scale effect leads to restrictive trade policies in labor-abundant countries and liberal trade policies in capital-abundant countries. Using cross-country data on economies of scale, ideology, inequality and various measures of trade barriers we confirm our predictions and establish that a unified framework, which incorporates economies of scale in production, performs better in explaining trade policy than existing political economy models.     

Transition on the spot: Historicity, social structure, and institutional change

Why do some countries in transition perform quite well while others still struggle with institutional reform, experiencing economic hardship and political disintegration? This paper suggests that this question can only be answered if the processes behind institutional change are well understood. Within the framework of a micro-macro model, it will be argued that historic experience shapes both mental models and the effectiveness of social learning. The historicity of economic development is behind differing development paths. Moreover, it will be shown that understanding the forces that bring about institutional change allows the political advisor to suggest strategies better adapted to the specific needs of different countries than the strategies currently employed. These findings will be applied to the problem of institutional change in rural Russia where the failure of existing reform strategies is eminent.     

新时代推进区域高等教育公平发展研究

区域高等教育的发展对区域经济发展以及缩小地区间教育质量差距具有显著影响。立足于我国当前时代背景,探讨区域高等教育公平的内涵意义,分析新时代我国区域高等教育公平的发展现状,总结归纳区域高等教育公平发展起点、过程、结果公平性不均衡现象,有层次地进行问题检视并剖析其中原因。在此基础上,提出相关经济、政策制度、资源配置等方面的建议,能有效缓解区域间不平等态势,提高区域高等教育质量水平。     

Asia's quest for inclusive growth revisited

Despite the rapid economic growth and poverty reduction, inequality in Asia worsened during the last two decades. We focus on the determinants of growth inclusiveness and suggest options for reform. A cross-country empirical analysis suggests that fiscal redistribution, monetary policy aimed at macro stability, and structural reforms to stimulate trade, reduce unemployment and increase productivity are important determinants of inclusive growth. The main policy implication of our analysis is that there is still room to strengthen such policies in Asia to better achieve growth with shared prosperity. In particular, scenario simulations based on our results suggests that the effect of expanding fiscal redistribution on inclusive growth could be sizeable in emerging Asia, since the estimated improvement in our proxy of inclusive growth—a measure of growth in average income “corrected” for the equity impact—ranges from about 1% to about 8% points.     

Inequality and Unemployment Patterns in Europe: Does Integration Lead to (Real) Convergence?

The economic convergence criteria adopted in the Maastricht Treaty and the fiscal discipline of the Stability and Growth Pact enforced nominal convergence, leaving aside real convergence indicators. In this paper, we use cluster analysis to examine the convergence patterns of income inequality, absolute redistribution (a measure of governments’ effectiveness in correcting for inequality) and unemployment. The expected outcome after years of economic integration was, ex-ante, convergence to a single cluster. Our results, however, uncover a variety of groups, implying that economic integration has not led to real economic convergence. Moreover, the existence of different patterns suggests: (i) that traditional classifications (Anglo-Saxon, Continental European, European Periphery, and Nordic models) remain broadly valid; (ii) that there is no unemployment-inequality trade-off to be exploited in terms of economic policy; and (iii) that the redistributive capacity of governments plays a pivotal role in coping with inequality without negative effects in terms of unemployment.     

Village Elections,Accountability and Income Distribution in Rural China

1. Introduction The village election was first envisioned by the late chairman of the National People’sCongress (NPC), Mr Peng Zhen, in the mid-1980s to enhance village governance after the commune system was dissolved in China in the early 1980s. In 1987, the NPC passed a tentative version of The Organic Law of the Village Committee (OLVC), and started a 10 year experiment of village elections. In 1998, the NPC formally passed the law and elections quickly spread to the whole count…     

State capacity and the socialist calculation debate

Despite its invaluable contribution to the field of comparative economics, the socialist calculation debate has focused on the narrow topic of the impossibility of the rational economic calculation under socialism. The literature on new institutional economics suggests that economic development is determined by economic and political institutions which are far more complex than the issue of economic calculation. To bridge the gap between the calculation debate and new institutional economics, this paper utilizes the historical case studies of Perestroika and Deng's China to demonstrate relationship between state capacity and economic calculation. We argue that rational economic calculation requires the state's institutional ability to make a credible commitment to constraints inhibiting public predation.     

Economic Inequality and Its Socioeconomic Impact

Income inequality is of fundamental interest not only to economists, but also to other social scientists. A substantial literature in economics and the social sciences has investigated the relationship between income inequality and economic growth, and a variety of social phenomena. The links between inequality and economic growth are explored as well as those between inequality and such key social variables as political conflict, education, health, and crime. The analysis in this paper follows a two-step process. First, a review of the empirical evidence relating inequality to growth and to each of the above social variables is undertaken. Second, the various causal mechanisms that have been proposed in the social science literature to explain those links are surveyed.