The distributional impact of unification and the 1992–93 recession on West German households

The 1992–93 recession in the western states of Germany has been attributed, in substantial measure, to the macroeconomic consequences of policies to finance unification. Studies of the costs of unification have not attempted to measure the burden of the recession. We estimate a dynamic, panel model of household incomes using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) and use it to forecast what these incomes would have been in 1992–94 without a recession. Using a ratio of actual to forecast incomes, we compare the relative burden of the recession across households. Our findings suggest that western households below the median income bore the brunt of the combined impact of unification and the recession of 1992–93.
JEL classification: P3, D3, E3.     

Bayesian MCMC Mapping of Quantitative Trait Loci in a Half-sib Design: a Graphical Model Perspective

Graphical models provide a powerful and flexible approach to the analysis of complex problems in genetics. While task-specific software may be extremely efficient for any particular analysis, it is often difficult to adapt to new computational challenges. By viewing these genetic applications in a more general framework, many problems can be handled by essentially the same software. This is advantageous in an area where fast methodological development is essential. Once a method has been fully developed and tested, problem-specific software may then be required. The aim of this paper is to illustrate the potential use of a graphical model approach to genetic analyses by taking a very simple and well-understood problem by way of example.     

划拨土地使用权益基准地价评估方法探析

本文先简要介绍了几种常用的评估方法,并对划拨土地使用权权益基准地价评估进行研究,从而提出了基于土地增值收益分配理论的评估方法思路.     

Capital in the Twenty-First Century: Reinterpreting the fundamental contradiction of capitalism

At a theoretical level this article discusses Piketty’s hypothesis that the distribution of income and wealth tends to become more concentrated over time when the rate of return on capital is greater than the growth rate of real output. We develop a post Keynesian model of growth and distribution showing that once capital is differentiated from wealth, the increase in income and wealth concentration actually occurs when the rate of valorization of financial and real estate assets is greater than the growth rate of real output, and that this situation may be triggered by financial liberalization.     

制度质量与收入不均：基于中国省级层面数据的实证研究

本文通过建立跨省动态面板模型,运用系统GMM估计方法考察各省制度质量对我国收入分配和收入不均的影响,发现我国制度质量与收入不均之间存在倒U型的关系,当制度质量较低的时候,制度质量的提升会加大贫富差距,但当制度质量提升到一定程度,跨过一定的门槛值之后,会缩小贫富差距。我国制度质量尚处于较低阶段,因此近年来我国制度质量的提升,加剧了财富由低收入人群向高收入人群的转移,扩大了贫富差距。     

换工作对收入水平和收入增长的影响

本文利用中国社会科学院2002年的CHIPS数据,分析了换工作对于劳动者收入水平和收入增长的影响。本文通过控制初始的收入水平来解决异质性的影响。结果表明,对于初始收入水平较低的样本,换工作对其收入有正的影响,而对于初始收入较高的样本,换工作则有负的影响。如果直接考察换工作对于收入增长的影响,给定初始收入和其他特征,换工作对于收入增长的平均影响是正的。不仅如此,换工作对于低收入者的收入增长有较大的正的影响。     

经济增长能带来共同富裕么——基于香港地区收入分配状况的研究

库兹涅茨倒U假说揭示的工业化国家(地区)收入分配差距"先上升,后下降"的倒U型运动轨迹在很多国家(地区)的发展经验中都无法得到验证,包括香港。作为亚洲四小龙之一,香港经济已保持了近半个世纪的持续快速增长,然而我国香港地区的收入分配状况不仅没有随着经济增长而获得改善,反而是不断恶化。造成香港社会贫富悬殊的原因有很多,主要包括缺少全面的社会保障体系,为追求经济增长实行不利于中低层群体的人才引进制度、工资制度和税收制度,市民教育程度底下,政治民主发育不足,特殊的产业结构以及经济过度的自由化等等。香港经验给我们带来的启示是不能片面追求经济增长,全民的共同富裕不会伴随着经济增长自动到来,改善收入分配状况,涉及到对各种国家政策、经济制度和政治制度全面改革。     

REFRIGERATION AND DISTRIBUTION: NEW ZEALAND LAND PRICES AND REAL WAGES 1873–1939

The responses in New Zealand to the opportunities of refrigeration transformed farming in the Dominion during the half-century from 1890. Closer settlement and the extension of the cultivated area combined with more intensive farming methods to increase land productivity and real gross domestic product capita to the extent that living standards in New Zealand measured by the Human Development Index ranked first in the world by 1913. In contrast, real wages in the Dominion stagnated. The refrigeration-related trade boom had powerful income distribution effects that increased sharply the land rental–wage ratio during the years to 1920. Widely diffuse land ownership in New Zealand tempered the rise in income inequality, to set the Dominion apart from other land-abundant economies of the periphery.