The development and inequality of heights in North, West, and East India 1915–1944

In this study, we trace the development of height and its distribution in India during 1915–1944. Heights of North, West, and East Indians grew very slowly. Although for this period it has been argued that income inequality declined, we reject our working hypothesis that height inequality declined in parallel with income inequality. In fact, height differences were low during the influenza/famine period of 1918–1920, and the Great Depression period. With the growing openness of the late 1920s, we observe a temporary rise in height inequality. The overall level of height inequality is lower than expected for Indian society that is influenced by a rigid caste system.     

中印城乡不平等比较:经济学分析视角

从总体上看,目前中印两国农村内部不平等程度基本上差不多,但是两国收入分配不平等的历史变化和趋势不一样;中国城乡之间无论是收入差距,还是消费差距所反映的不平等程度都明显高于印度的不平等;中国是农村不平等大于城市不平等程度,而印度则是城市不平等大于农村不平等。导致这些结构性差异的原因主要是:印度的经济增长包括技术变化、对外开放、人力资本等因素对于城乡内部以及城乡之间、地区之间等收入不平等变化产生的影响和作用更大;而中国经济增长和对外开放等因素虽然对于收入不平等也有一定影响,但是政府的政策导向和理念(先富后富政策理念与城市和沿海偏向政策)则对于城乡内部以及同一地区内城乡之间的不平等的影响更大一些。     

Affirmative Action and Subgroup Inequality in Higher Education: Adapting Indian Policy Solutions to the American Context

This paper analyzes racial and ethnic subgroup inequality in higher education in India and the US. Affirmative action policies in both countries rely upon broad categories that subsume distinct groups. These policies have failed to alleviate the significant underrepresentation of black natives and certain lower-castes by considering these populations alongside discrete and oftentimes more advantaged groups. Such inequality hinders attainment of affirmative action’s remedial justice and diversity goals. Some states in India have implemented ‘quotas within quotas’ to alleviate such underrepresentation, dividing lower caste subgroups for admissions purposes. We suggest that US institutions of higher education adopt a similar model by considering black Hispanics, multiracial blacks, black immigrants, and black natives as separate categories in recruiting and admissions.     

Ownership Restructuring, Marketization and Wealth Inequality in Urban China： 1995 and 2002

This paper proposes a property transformation perspective to examine the mechanisms of wealth accumulation and wealth inequality creation during China's post‐1978 transformation. It examines how enterprise ownership restructuring, marketization and state politics have resulted in greater wealth inequality between cadres and ordinary workers, between public sectors/organizations and private sectors/organizations. Mainly drawing on data from the Chinese Household Income Project conducted in 1995 and 2002, we find that the property transformation process has created greater wealth disparity among different occupational groups and among those working in different work organizations since the mid‐1990s. However, it is inconclusive whether non‐housing wealth or total household wealth are increasing at the same pace across different occupations and work organizations with the growing market penetration and the spread of privatization.     

China's growing but slowing inequality of household wealth, 2013–2018: A challenge to ‘common prosperity’?

By examining the period 2013–2018, this paper follows up a previous one which analysed the increase in the inequality of China's wealth per capita over the period 2002–2013. It finds that the Gini coefficient, having risen rapidly over the earlier period, continued to grow but did so more slowly in the later period, at the national level and in both urban and rural China. Counterfactual analysis identifies the lower rate of house price inflation as an important reason for the slowdown. Policies and policy options are examined, both directly on wealth inequality and indirectly through control of house price inflation. Nevertheless, the rising inequality of wealth per capita among households does indeed pose a challenge to the achievement of ‘common prosperity’ in China. It deserves more policy attention.     

“Keep silent and make money”: Institutional patterns of earnings management in China

Assessing the overall quality of Chinese financial data is important to both academic researchers and regulators. Using data from the industrial census of China, we examine the institutional pattern of the manipulation of reported profit statistics by manufacturing firms. This manipulation of profits is called “earnings management.” We find that earnings management is more pervasive in China than in mature market economies such as the U.S., and that Chinese firms appear to follow a “keep silent, make money” strategy by managing their reported earnings to zero. Specifically, we find that increased earnings management is associated with state-owned firms, firms reporting to higher levels of government, and firms in more marketized regions.     

Japanese government debt and sustainability of fiscal policy

We construct quarterly series of the revenues, expenditures, and debt outstanding for Japan from 1980 to 2010, and analyze the sustainability of the fiscal policy. We pursue three approaches to examine the sustainability. First, we calculate the minimum tax rate that stabilizes the debt to GDP ratio given the future government expenditures. Using 2010 as the base year, we find that the government revenue to GDP ratio must rise permanently to 40–47% (from the current 33%) to stabilize the debt to GDP ratio. Second, we estimate the response of the primary surplus when the debt to GDP ratio increases. We allow the relationship to fluctuate between two “regimes” using a Markov switching model. In both regimes, the primary surplus to GDP ratio fails to respond positively to debt, which suggests the process is explosive. Finally, we estimate a fiscal policy function and a monetary policy function with Markov switching. We find that the fiscal policy is “active” (the tax revenues do not rise when the debt increases) and the monetary policy is “passive” (the interest rate does not react to the inflation rate sufficiently) in both regimes. These results suggest that the current fiscal situation for the Japanese government is not sustainable.     

The Great Compression of the 1940s: The Public versus the Private Sector

Between 1940 and 1950 wage differentials narrowed substantially, a phenomenon that economic historians have called the “Great Compression.” This paper dis-aggregates the Great Compression into changes within and between the public and private sectors. We show that wage differentials declined in the public sector as well as in the private sector; had the public sector decline not taken place, the Great Compression would have been substantially smaller. In this regard, the experience of the 1940s stands in stark contrast with that of the past two decades, during which a relatively rigid public sector wage structure has dampened overall increases in wage inequality.     

International Price Linkage within a Region: The Case of East Asia

This paper investigates how “prices” in East Asian economies correlate with those in Japan and the United States. The analysis is particularly noteworthy because although the East Asian economies are geographically close to Japan, their currencies have been tied more closely to the U.S. dollar. In this paper, we analyze two different types of “prices”: overall price levels in terms of the same currency and relative prices among different commodities. We demonstrate that overall price levels in the East Asian economies are more closely related to those in the United States. However, the relative prices in East Asia, especially those in Taiwan and Korea, are more closely correlated with those in Japan. These price correlation patterns are in marked contrast with those in other regions.J. Japan. Int. Econ.December 1993,11(4), pp. 643–666. Faculty of Economics, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan; and Department of Economics, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, and Graduate School of Economics, Hitotsubashi University, Japan.     

Inequality in property incomes in nineteenth-century Austria

The article examines the distribution of wealth in the alpine lands of the Habsburg Monarchy in the period 1820–1913. A moderate rise in overall inequality from the first to the second half of the period can be observed. This rise is due to sectoral shifts within the society. Inequality between various social groups shows various changes with widening as well as narrowing inequality in the different parts of society. Altogether, the changes in wealth inequality do not support the notion of widening income inequality in the early stages of industrialization in Austria.     

Crime and income inequality: An economic approach

Conclusion When a given pie is redivided in a less equalitarian manner, it is uncertain whether those already undertaking illegal activity will increase or decrease their activities, since the return to illegal activities is countered by the loss due to punishment (which is more painful to a criminal who failed) on one hand, and from the cost of the sacrifice of utility from legitimate activities on the other hand.If the absolute level of wealth remains constant but relative position declines, an incentive is generated to re-establish a person's standing by joining the crime industry. This is certainly the case at the margin for those close to the boundary of joining, i.e., those who are almost indifferent between joining or remaining within the legal framework.Assuming an individual is already participating in illegal activities, the effect of either an absolute or relative change in his level of wealth on his level of illegal activities is indeterminate. This applies both to the case where the total wealth of the society is fixed and the share of the pie going to the rich rises and the case where the total pie rose but the entire gain went only to the rich.In summary, it has been shown that an increase in wealth inequality has an indeterminate outcome both with respect to the decision of the poor on whether or not to enter the crime industry and with respect to the decision of those already participating in illegal pursuits to increase or decrease their level of activity. This conclusion is somewhat contrary to the general consensus of the literature, which appears to hold that increases in wealth inequality will tend to increase both the level of participation in the crime industry and the level of output within the industry.     

Farmers' Preference for Farming: Evidence From a Nationally Representative Farm Survey in India

Using data from a nationally representative farm survey in India, we have analyzed Indian farmers' stated preference for farming as a profession. Findings show that more than 40% of farmers dislike farming as a profession because of low profits, high risk, and lack of social status, yet they continue with it owing to a lack of opportunities outside agriculture. Farmers who express a preference for moving out of agriculture are mostly those with small landholdings, poor irrigation facilities, fewer productive assets including livestock, and follow a cereal‐centric cropping pattern. They also have relatively lower access to credit, insurance, and information, and are weakly integrated with social networks such as self‐help groups and farmers' organizations. Importantly, the disinclination for farming, conditional on other covariates, is not significantly differentiated by caste, an important indicator of social status in rural India. Yet, within a caste group, the dislike for farming moderates with larger landholdings.     

Stature decline and recovery in a food-rich export economy: Argentina 1900-1934

Using height data for recruits of a principal regiment at Buenos Aires, the paper revises the question of welfare in Argentina during the period 1900-1934. The period of rapid export-led growth (1900-1913) showed an absolute deterioration of “net nutrition.” On the other hand, the inter-war period (1918-1939), generally characterized as a period of economic “delay” or “retardation,” presented a steady improvement in nutrition and health conditions. Two powerful external shocks, World War I and the Great Depression, had a minimal impact on the biological welfare of Argentine recruits. Economic growth generated important regional and social inequalities.     

Reproducing Difference? Schooling,Jobs, and Empowerment in Uttar Pradesh,India

This article examines the role of school education in reproducing caste and class inequalities in rural Bijnor district, Uttar Pradesh, India. Drawing on Bourdieu’s work, the article shows that a rural elite has used its superior wealth, connections, and social status to ensure that their sons receive privileged access to schooling credentials and government employment. The greater availability of formal educational opportunities allied to the political rise of lower castes has allowed a small group of Dalits to raise their social standing, but has failed to alter historical relationships of dependence and exploitation.     

数字金融、家庭财富与共同富裕

文章使用2017年中国家庭金融调查(CHFS)数据,实证研究了数字金融对家庭财富积累、财富不平等的影响。研究发现:(1)在考虑了内生性问题的影响后,数字金融能够显著促进家庭财富积累,经过使用多种方法进行稳健性检验,该结论依然成立。(2)创业和配置风险金融资产是数字金融影响家庭财富的重要渠道。(3)财富规模越小的家庭,使用数字金融产生的创富作用越大,并且老年人、低教育程度、低收入水平、农业户口群体家庭和农村居民家庭使用数字金融能够产生更大的创富作用。总的来说,财富是富裕的题中之义,数字金融能够在提升家庭财富总体水平的基础上缓解财富不平等,从而有利于实现共同富裕。文章的研究发现为推动共同富裕提供了政策参考依据。     

Structural Changes and Regional Income Inequality in Indonesia: A Bidimensional Decomposition Analysis*

Using the bidimensional decomposition method of a population‐weighted coefficient of variation, this paper analyzes the changes in the determinants of interprovincial income inequality associated with structural changes in Indonesia from 1983 to 2004. The method unifies two inequality decompositions by regional groups and gross regional product components (industrial sectors) and, therefore, enables us to assess the contributions of gross regional product components to within‐region and between‐region inequalities, as well as to overall inequality. As the share of mining has decreased, the spatial distribution of manufacturing has played a more important role in the inequality of Sumatra and Kalimantan, while the primacy of Jakarta, with strong urbanization economies, facilitated by globalization and trade and financial liberalization, has determined much of the Java–Bali region's inequality and, therefore, overall inequality in Indonesia.     

消费者保障计划的作用机理——基于信号博弈的理论分析

信息不对称是阻碍电子商务进一步发展的关键问题。消费者保障计划是淘宝网在2007年推出的一种交易机制,旨在解决网上交易信任问题。本文运用信号博弈理论分析了该机制中的＂先行赔付＂计划和＂7天无理由退换货＂计划在网上交易中的作用机理,并据此讨论了各种因素对分离均衡产生及卖家利润的影响,比较了两种计划在降低消费者购买风险方面所起到的不同作用,为该机制的使用和完善提供了理论参考。     

Race, Inequality, and Anti-Chinese Violence in the Netherlands Indies

Movements in wages for subjects of the Netherlands Indies for the period 1908-1917 are analyzed. The analysis reveals a sharp increase in inequality between the ethnic indigenous and Chinese communities between 1910 and 1916, the period of the birth and rise of the anti-Chinese Sarekat Islam movements in Java. It also reveals that this inequality was most severe in a number of residencies of Java, where the movements first took hold. While there is statistical evidence of a link between interracial wage differentials and anti-Chinese violence, there is no link between absolute wages and violence. This evidence suggests that “relative deprivation” is important in understanding ethnic tension.     

Was Malthus right? The relationship between population and real wages in Italian history, 1320 to 1870

In this article we investigate the relation between population and real wages in the Italian economy during the period 1320–1870. The main result is that the positive check is strong and statistically significant but the other equilibrating mechanism in the Malthusian model – the preventive check – based on the positive relationship between fertility and real wages does not operate in pre-industrial Italy. In contrast to the Malthusian hypothesis, we find a negative feedback from wage to population. The empirical result is clearly consistent with the theoretical framework of the “old age security motive”. We show, with a simple overlapping-generation model, that by allowing for substitution in a pre-industrial economy between child quantity and other assets (such as new seeds, better soybean quality, and new cultivation and irrigation methods) fertility may be negatively affected whenever income rises.     

Forest Dependence and Income Distribution in a Subsistence Economy: Evidence from India

We examine an area of northern India where forestry acts to ameliorate the incidence of poverty and destitution, though it does not otherwise contribute significantly to the reduction of income inequality. The poor would be doubly disadvantaged without common property access to forest products. Conservation measures entailing curtailment in the right to common access pose a dilemma. This issue is explored here.