A Polarization Index for Overlapping Groups

The well‐known index of income bipolarization proposed by Wolfson (1994) requires two groups to be split according to the median income and, therefore, to be non‐overlapping. The aim of this paper is to propose a new polarization index in the spirit of the Wolfson index. It allows for any possible partition of the population in two or more (also overlapping) groups. The new index maintains the simplicity and immediate comprehension of the Wolfson index, though being much more flexible. An application is then provided for German and Italian income data.     

A Different Perspective on the Evolution of UK Income Inequality

This paper scrutinizes the conventional wisdom about trends in UK income inequality and also places contemporary inequality in a much longer historical perspective. We combine household survey and income tax data to provide better coverage of all income ranges from the bottom to the very top (and make our estimates available to other researchers). We make a case for studying distributions of income between tax units (i.e. not assuming the full income sharing that goes with the use of the household as the unit of analysis) for reasons of principle as well as data harmonization. We present evidence that income inequality in the UK is as least as high today as it was just before the start of World War 2.     

基尼系数及其实际应用

基尼系数是国际和国内分析收入分配差距的常用定量指标之一。系统介绍了基尼系数的含义、计算方法及其实际应用,并用基尼系数分解法分解了城乡差距、地区差距和收入差距来源构成,为分析收入分配差距提供了方法和统计依据。     

中国地区间研发资源错配测算与影响因素分析

随着中国的研发投入总量进入世界第一梯队,研发投入(资源)的配置状况成为决定研发产出效率的关键因素之一。本文基于一个包含研发资源价格扭曲的多部门竞争均衡模型,以2001—2016年各省份规模以上工业企业数据为样本,对中国地区间研发资源错配情况及其影响因素进行全面考察。研究发现:(1)各省份之间的研发劳动错配高于研发资本错配,多数省份倾向于过度配置研发资源,省份之间研发资源配置效率总体上呈逐步改善趋势,纠正错配可以使研发产出提升约16%;(2)东部各省份研发资源配置相对较为合理,但研发劳动配置略有不足,中部、西部和东北各省均存在不同程度的研发资源过度配置现象,东部和西部的研发资源配置效率一直在改善,东北和中部则没有表现出持续的改进态势;(3)市场发育程度、偏向性政策扶持、地区创新环境是研发资源错配的主要影响因素,在研发资源过度配置地区,这些因素的作用更为显著。本文的启示是,在当前全面实施创新驱动发展战略的大背景下,政府相关部门在积极引导全社会加大研发投入力度的同时,还应以市场为导向,进一步优化不同地区间的研发资源配置,实现研发效率的提升和经济的高质量发展。     

收入分配与地下经济的相关关系分析

随着我国改革开放的深入和力度的加强、收入多元化发展 ,在经济发展的同时 ,我国的收入分配差距逐渐扩大 ;同时 ,由计划经济向市场经济的转轨 ,我国地下经济出现了迅猛的增长势头。运用计量经济学中的Granger因果关系检验对两者进行检验 ,证明了我国地下经济和收入分配是互为因果关系的 ,在对两者相关关系的深入分析中找出既能有效遏制地下经济又能减小收入差距的解决办法是当前的重要任务     

基于变系数模型的我国资本流动审慎管理研究

本文采用事实测度法构建符合审慎特征的时变资本流动管理指标,并采用时变系数法考察了我国资本流动管理的有效性及其与短期资本流动的相关关系。研究发现,我国资本流动管理的有效性以2013年为界呈现出先减弱后增强的趋势。另一方面,仅依靠增强管理有效性而不增加管理强度难以有效防范突发事件冲击造成的大规模资本流动。此外,审慎型资本流动管理政策可以有效调控短期资本流动,且其对于资本流动的短期影响强于长期。     

产业转移加速进程中中国制造业集聚度再测算与演进

产业转移催化了中国制造业空间集聚的演变趋势。利用行业集中度指标和空间基尼系数指标测算了2008年金融危机以来中国制造业的集聚程度,根据测算结果,需要进一步诱导和推进沿海产业向中西部地区转移,同时实现中国与东盟各国产业梯度转移,东部沿海地区和中西部地区均可凭借自身优势吸引高新技术产业入驻,并积极嵌入全球价值链体系,沿海地区发展高技术产业要注意过度集聚和产能过剩问题。     

Twenty Years of Expenditure Inequality in Indonesia, 1993–2013

In this article, we consider the recent increase in inequality in Indonesia. We make new, consistent estimates of expenditure inequality for 1993–2013, using several measures that draw on household expenditure data from the National Socioeconomic Survey (Susenas) for 1993–2013. In doing so, we note that the central statistics agency, Badan Pusat Statistik (BPS), used grouped data for its estimates of inequality until 2009 and that this underestimated inequality up to then. Thus the rise in inequality reported since 2009 actually has a longer history. We argue that Indonesia experienced divergence and convergence at the same time: the magnitude of the rise in inequality was significant (divergence), but the rise was greatest in provinces or districts with low initial levels of inequality (convergence). We consider the literature on drivers of changes in inequality and identify a set of hypotheses, with an empirical basis, which we introduce as potential Indonesian-specific drivers of rising inequality for future exploration.     

THE GINI CONCENTRATION INDEX: A REVIEW OF THE INFERENCE LITERATURE

More than a century ago, Corrado Gini proposed his well-known concentration index for measuring the degree of inequality in the distribution of income and wealth. His index is still extremely relevant and widely used in several fields of research and application. In this paper, we focus on the inferential properties of the Gini index, and discuss the main directions of analysis proposed in the literature. The aim of the paper is to provide a comprehensive review of the main developments on the inferential aspects of the Gini concentration ratio. We feel that this work can provide a valuable contribution to those scholars who are approaching the large amount of literature on the inferential properties of the Gini index.     

Using Personal Car Register for Measuring Economic Inequality in Countries with a Large Share of Shadow Economy: Evidence for Latvia

We suggest using information from the state register of personal cars as an alternative indicator of economic inequality in countries with a large share of shadow economy. We illustrate our approach using the Latvian pool of personal cars. Our main finding is that the extent of household economic inequality in Latvia is much larger than officially assumed. According to Eurostat, the officially published estimate of the Gini coefficient for Latvia is 0.374 for 2009, which is much higher than the Gini coefficient value reported for all the 27 EU member countries (0.304), but significantly lower than 0.48 according to our results.