Income mobility and risk during the business cycle: Comparing adjustments in labour markets in two Latin-American countries

This paper uses panel data from Argentina and Mexico and a new measure of mobility ‐ the Gini index of mobility ‐ to answer three questions. First, is there a trend towards rising labour income mobility over time in these two countries? Second, is there a relationship between income mobility and growth common to both countries, or does that relationship depend on the institutional features of each country’s labour markets? Third, do we observe more labour income mobility within some groups such as the young and the less educated than within other groups? JEL classification: D31, E32, J63.     

Corporate labour share of income and the shadow economy: a cross-country analysis

This article addresses a link between the size of the shadow economy and the corporate labour share of income in the European Union. Fixed individual and time effects models suggest that there is a negative link between these two indicators. The coefficients are statistically significant if we control for other variables related to labour markets, such as unemployment rates or strictness of employment protection (regular contracts). Depending on the exact model specification, our estimates suggest that an increase in the shadow economy by 1% of GDP results in a 0.5–1% decline in the labour share of income in the corporate sector.     

Cross-base tax elasticity of capital gains

This paper studies the cross-base tax elasticity of capital gains realizations to labour income taxes when capital gains are taxed at a separate proportional tax rate. Using a longitudinal panel of over 265 000 individuals in Sweden, this paper shows in a regression kink design that labour income taxes affect capital gains realizations in two ways. An increase in the marginal labour income tax rate increases the likelihood of realizing capital gains and the amount of realized capital gains. One implication of this result is that labour income taxes have a lock-out effect but that the magnitude of this effect is smaller than the lock-in effect of the actual capital gains tax.     

包容性金融发展与城乡居民收入差距*——基于中国内地省级面板数据的实证研究

本文借鉴二元经济增长模型,分析了包容性金融发展与城乡居民收入差距的关系,并采用2011—2015年中国内地省级面板数据,运用面板数据模型和系统GMM模型对理论假设进行了实证检验。实证分析发现：（1）包容性金融发展对缩小城乡居民收入差距具有明显的促进作用;（2）传统银行的金融服务成本、互联网金融的数字支持服务程度对城乡居民收入差距的影响显著为负,这表明,包容性金融发展缩小城乡居民收入差距的直接作用主要是通过降低金融服务成本实现的;（3）传统银行金融包容性在缩小城乡居民收入差距方面的作用,东部比中西部更加明显,而互联网金融包容性对城乡居民收入差距的影响在中西部地区显著。据此,本文提出,应重视包容性金融发展的收入分配效应,以缩小我国城乡居民收入差距。     

ON THE ROLE OF CAPITAL GAINS IN SWEDISH INCOME INEQUALITY

Realized capital gains are typically disregarded in the study of income inequality. We show that in the case of Sweden this severely underestimates the actual increase in inequality and, in particular, top income shares during recent decades. Using micro panel data to average incomes over longer periods and re‐rank individuals according to income excluding capital gains, we show that capital gains indeed are a reoccurring addition to rather than a transitory component in top incomes. Doing the same for lower income groups, however, makes virtually no difference. We also try to find the roots of the recent surge in capital gains‐driven inequality in Sweden since the 1980s. While there are no evident changes in terms of who earns these gains (high wage earners vs. top capital income earners), the primary driver instead seems to be the drastic asset price increases on the post‐1980 deregulated financial markets.     

Income inequality and credit expansion in post-communist countries

There is an on-going debate on the antecedents and consequences of income inequality. Recent studies find that income inequality was a cause of the recent financial crisis. However, the findings on the inequality–indebtedness relationship are mixed and based on analyses of developed countries. The aim of this research is to test how income inequality influences borrowing in post-communist countries, whose financial markets are not very developed, which has important implications for income inequality. Therefore, we include financial system development in the analysis. We base our analysis on state-level panel data and find that income inequality will increase indebtedness in the private sector. However, these results are model and region specific. To preclude higher income inequality and the emergence of a financial crisis, policies should be directed towards improving the role of financial intermediaries and stock markets.     

Financial markets,the structure of long-term investments and labour income risks

The paper develops a model to analyse the feedback between financial markets, long-term capital investments and the risk of labour incomes. We study a situation where firms are owned by entrepreneurs, who are able to share and diversify their income risk by trading on financial markets. Workers, in contrast, cannot short-sell the flows from future labour endowments and thus do not have the same opportunities. We derive two central results. Firstly, even if financial markets offer perfect risk-sharing opportunities for entrepreneurs, the participation restriction for labour incomes leads to a constrained inefficient market allocation. The constrained inefficiency arises because the effect of long-term investments on the risk of wages is not internalized by state prices. Secondly, we show that in general it is not true that workers indirectly benefit when we go from a situation with no financial markets to a situation with perfect financial markets for entrepreneurs but restricted participation for workers. The results suggest that a policy solution might require either to close some financial markets or to create new ones. We argue why there is a strong case for the creation of new markets rather than for closing existing ones.     

Does greater income inequality cause increased work hours? New evidence from high income economies

We explore the extent to which individual's allocation of time between labour and leisure is affected by the consumption standards of the rich. Utilizing a panel data methodology and panel Granger causality tests we investigate the relationship between income inequality and work hours for a cluster of 24 high-income OECD countries over the period 1990–2015. Four alternative measures of income inequality are considered. We find that greater income inequality is associated with longer work hours indicating stronger concern for conspicuous consumption rather than conspicuous leisure. Even though the resulting estimates lend support to the theoretical framework on consumption emulation, the generated evidence also appears to be in line with a Duesenberry's and Frank's expenditure cascading approach. The ambiguity however arising from the Granger Causality tests appears to lead – to a certain extent – to different conclusions about the direction of causality or whether a causal relationship does even exist. It is therefore imperative that caution should be exercised when interpreting the direction of the causal dimension.     

Long-run homogeneity of labour demand. Panel evidence from OECD countries

This study makes an attempt to examine the long-run relationship between the key labour market parameters of employment, aggregate output, real product wages and labour-augmenting technical progress for a sample of 21?OECD countries covering the period from 1970 to 2000. A new panel error correction technique is applied, which allows one to constrain the long-run coefficients to be identical across the countries while letting the short-run coefficients which govern the dynamics and the error variances differ freely, respectively. Thus, this estimation approach assumes that institutional and cultural differences, albeit causing short-term deviations of labour demand behaviour across countries, leave the long-run structure of the labour markets unaffected. That is to say, the long-run equilibrium relationship between the key labour market variables is taken to be similar across the OECD economies. The empirical analysis shows that the long-run relationship between the key labour market parameters is equal across the OECD countries. However, adjustment speed of actual employment to the equilibrium is much higher in countries with flexible labour markets, such as the USA and UK, than in countries with rigid labour markets, such as Germany and Austria.     

住宅价格与居民收入均衡关系及住房支付能力稳定性

文章通过聚类分析将35个大中城市按2000-2009年住宅价格分为四组,结合面板单位根、协整和格兰杰因果检验对住宅价格和居民收入的均衡关系进行了分析,并运用FMOLS模型探讨了住房支付能力稳定性问题。分析表明:35个大中城市的住宅价格和居民收入之间存在长期均衡关系,但支付能力稳定性比较弱;住宅价格和居民收入互为因果关系;住房支付能力稳定性弱不是普遍现象,仅存在于高房价城市;除收入外,城市的食品消费、医疗、教育和交通通信等软硬件设施也是影响住宅价格的重要因素。     

基于分位数回归的农村普惠金融发展增收效应研究——以广西40个县为例

农村普惠金融对改善农村地区经济、提高农村居民收入水平有重要作用.本文首先构建农村普惠金融发展指数的指标体系,并以广西40个县为例,对其在2013—2017年的普惠金融发展进行测度及聚类分析.在聚类结果的基础上,采用面板回归模型对普惠金融发展的增收效应进行分析;同时,考虑到不同地区的农村居民收入水平存在差异,进一步采用分位数回归模型对增收效应进行研究.结果发现:农村普惠金融发展对农村居民收入增长具有正向效应,但对收入层次较低的农村居民而言,普惠金融发展不利于收入的提高.鉴于此,本文建议进一步优化农村普惠金融的发展环境,推动不同农村地区普惠金融协同发展,切实增强农村普惠金融发展的增收效应.     

中国金融发展与城乡收入差距关系的再检验——基于面板单位根和VAR模型的估计

金融抑制被认为是导致我国扭曲的金融发展拉大了城乡收入差距的最主要原因,而东西部金融发展的市场化水平差异使得金融发展与城乡收入差距也表现出非完全一致的关系.本文运用面板单位根和VAR模型的实证结果表明,无论是东部还是西部地区,金融发展与城乡收入差距均表现为非同阶单整变量,从而并未支持二者之间长期均衡关系的存在;但从短期来看,西部金融发展显著的构成了城乡收入差距扩大的Granger原因,而这种因果关系在东部地区却并不显著.     

Consumption and disposable income in the EU countries: the role of wealth effects

We investigate the long run relationship between private consumption and disposable income for a sample of EU countries using recently developed panel cointegration techniques. For the ordinary consumption-income model the evidence on cointegration is ambiguous. In addition, the cointegration vector obtained by efficient estimation methods is not consistent with theoretical reasoning, as it reflects a decline in the savings rate over time. Extending the analysis by financial wealth improves the model fit markedly. In particular, the income elasticity is not different from 1 and therefore in line with the life cycle permanent income hypothesis. The marginal propensity to consume out of financial wealth is in a range of 3–5%, thereby confirming recent time series results.     

我国垄断行业收入与经济增长关系的实证研究——基于面板协整理论

基于1990—2008年我国垄断行业收入的面板数据,通过面板协整、Engle-Granger检验以及运用误差修正模型对我国垄断行业的收入水平与经济增长的长期关系进行分析。研究结果显示:与能源、交通相关的垄断行业的收入与经济增长之间存在长期稳定的协整关系;与能源相关的垄断行业的收入对经济增长具有正向影响,而与交通相关的垄断行业的收入对经济增长的影响不太显著;金融保险业和房地产业的收入与经济增长之间并不存在长期稳定的面板协整关系。     

金融结构转型与收入分配优化*

本文阐释了金融结构(包括银行业结构)影响收入分配的理论机制，并运用动态面板模型和面板门槛模型分析了金融结构对收入分配的影响效应。研究表明：(1)金融制度功能的有效发挥依赖于金融资源在数量规模和结构层次上的匹配程度，金融要素之间根据市场主体的融资需求形成相互分工协作，在促进金融结构转型过程中实现收入分配优化；(2)在资本密集型产业优先发展的战略背景下，银行业结构对收入分配存在逐级递减的正向影响效应，大型商业银行市场融资份额占比过高将不利于优化收入分配；(3)在经济增长进程中，金融结构对收入分配存在倒“U”型影响效应，金融结构由“银行主导型”向“市场主导型”转变将有利于优化收入分配。     

金融结构转型与收入分配优化*

本文阐释了金融结构(包括银行业结构)影响收入分配的理论机制，并运用动态面板模型和面板门槛模型分析了金融结构对收入分配的影响效应。研究表明：(1)金融制度功能的有效发挥依赖于金融资源在数量规模和结构层次上的匹配程度，金融要素之间根据市场主体的融资需求形成相互分工协作，在促进金融结构转型过程中实现收入分配优化；(2)在资本密集型产业优先发展的战略背景下，银行业结构对收入分配存在逐级递减的正向影响效应，大型商业银行市场融资份额占比过高将不利于优化收入分配；(3)在经济增长进程中，金融结构对收入分配存在倒“U”型影响效应，金融结构由“银行主导型”向“市场主导型”转变将有利于优化收入分配。     

生态环境、经济收入与公众健康的关系——基于我国29个省市区面板数据的经验研究

公众的健康水平受到其所处自然和社会环境的共同影响,文章利用我国29个省市区的面板数据,构建了同时包含生态环境与经济收入因素的公众健康影响模型,检验了生态环境污染、治理状况以及经济收入、收入不均对人口健康的影响。研究结果表明,环境污染已经威胁到人们的健康,而污染治理投入能缓解污染的危害,同时收入公平性比绝对收入水平对健康影响更大。最后,在此基础上指出走人与自然协调、社会公平发展道路的重要意义。     

Urban–rural income polarization and economic growth in China: evidence from the analysis of a dynamic panel data model

Using a dynamic panel data model and the system GMM, this article examines the relationship between urban–rural income polarization and economic growth at the provincial level in the period 1995 to 2010 in China. The estimated results and significant tests indicate that a certain degree of urban–rural income polarization is beneficial to economic growth at the provincial level in both stages for China as a whole, though the contribution of urban–rural income polarization to economic growth is relatively small. Aggravating urban–rural income polarization has a negative impact on economic growth in China. Based on a cluster analysis of regional economic growth at the provincial level, the authors carried out the same analysis separately for two categories of regions too. The results for those two categories of regions show that positive correlations also exist between urban–rural income polarization and economic growth in both stages, which are very similar to the analysis for the whole of China. In addition, a meaningful finding can be derived that the contribution of consumption growth rate to economic growth rate in the second stage is smaller than that in the first stage obviously.     

Losers amongst the Losers:: The welfare effects of the great recession across cohorts

This paper studies the effect of deep recessions on intergenerational inequality by quantifying the welfare effects on households at different phases of the life cycle. Deep recessionary episodes are characterized by large declines in the prices of real and financial assets and in employment. The former levies high welfare costs on older households who own financial wealth, the latter determines labour income losses and destroys the human capital of younger cohorts, lowering their productivity. The paper extends previous analyses in the literature by including permanent labour income losses in an OLG model calibrated to match the Great Recession. The analysis shows that younger households lose more than double of all other living cohorts, as younger household become unemployed and experience a decline in their future income. The dynamics of households’ consumption and portfolio composition between 2007 and 2013 in the US are consistent with the predictions of the model.     

代际收入流动性与收入不平等——基于面板数据联立方程模型的分析

利用CHNS数据,在测度收入不平等的代际传递性的基础上,通过面板数据联立方程模型实证分析代际收入流动与收入不平等之间的关系。实证研究结果表明,收入不平等程度的上升阻碍了代际收入的流动,而代际收入弹性的提高也会导致收入不平等状况的恶化。