THE EFFECTS OF MACROECONOMIC FLUCTUATIONS ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME*

This study develops a microanalytic simulation model to examine the effects of macroeconomic fluctuations on the distribution on the distribution of income. A representational sample of the population of the United States is linked with equations determining the variability of various types of factor income. Each family's income experience is simulated under alternative aggregate conditions, and the income distributions arising under these conditions are compared. The main results are similar for alternative specifications of the model. The incidence of a downturn in economic activity, whether accompanied by changes in the rate of inflation or not, and measured in terms of the loss of factor income, leaves the upper middle class relatively better off than before and leaves most others relatively worse off. The very rich bear the heaviest burden.     

EFFECTS OF GOVERNMENT POLICIES ON URBAN AND RURAL INCOME INEQUALITY

We use three conventional inequality indices—the Gini, the coefficient of variation of income, and the relative mean deviation of income—and the Atkinson index to examine the effect of income tax rates, the minimum wage, and all the major government welfare and transfer programs on the evolution of income inequality for rural and urban areas by state from 1981 to 1997. We find that these programs have qualitatively similar but quantitatively different effects on urban and rural areas. Most importantly, taxes are more effective in redistributing income in urban than in rural areas, while welfare and other government transfer programs play a larger role in rural areas.     

EFFECTS OF TAXES AND BENEFITS ON INCOME DISTRIBUTION IN KOREA

This paper examines the redistributive effects of Korea's fiscal policies, including consumption taxes and in‐kind benefits. Using the Household Income and Expenditure Survey of 2007, we find that taxes and transfers reduce income inequality in Korea by 13.8 percent. Contrary to the popular belief that direct taxes are the key tool for redistribution, in‐kind benefits, direct taxes, and social security contributions all decrease the Gini coefficient by 6.7, 4.7, and 2.9 percentage points, respectively. The redistributive effect of consumption taxes is small and negative (?0.5 percentage point). Policy simulations indicate that education spending financed by the personal income tax has a positive redistributive effect and that the lower 70 percent of households enjoy positive net benefits. Spending targeting the poor has a strong redistributive effect, which implies low popularity because the majority of households face net losses.     

WEALTH AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME: PERMANENT AND TRANSITORY EFFECTS

This paper examines the permanent and transitory effects of changes in wealth, the top federal marginal income tax rate, and capital gains tax rate on the distribution of Adjusted Gross Income (AGI). This paper establishes the importance of wealth in determining the distribution of AGI, and results here suggest that its effects can negate the permanent effect of a change in both tax rates. Of the two tax rates, the capital gains tax rate is the most important for AGI distribution. The marginal income tax rate is notably less important for long run behavior, but does have short run impacts.     

STRUCTURAL CHANGES AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME BY SIZE: THE CASE OF INDIA

The interrelation between changes in the economic structure, i.e., industrial distribution of income and labor force, and the size distribution of income is studied in this paper in a case study of India (1951–1960).
The change in the size distribution of income is the sum of changes due to (1) inter-sectoral factors and (2) intra-sectoral factors. The need for this distinction is emphasized by the result obtained for India, that 85% of the changes in the size distribution may be assigned to inter-sectoral factors, and only 15% to intra-sectoral factors. Since the inter-sectoral factors are significantly influenced by changes in the industrial distribution of income and labor force, our result points out a relation between economic growth and the size distribution which quite often is overlooked in studies of the size distribution.
The results obtained in this paper support several cross-section results of Professor Kuznets. In particular some of these are: (a) inter-sectoral inequality in the economic structure widened with economic growth, (b) the inequality in the size distribution of India widened, (c) the level of inequality in India is higher than in any of the eight developed countries considered.     

THE WEALTH EFFECTS OF INCOME INSURANCE

Precautionary savings models suggest that wealth should rise with income risk. Risk is reduced by means-tested transfers, however, which implies that transfer programs should discourage private wealth accumulation. We offer a comprehensive empirical assessment based on variation across states in the generosity of a number of programs, specifically unemployment insurance and means-tested transfers (Aid to Families with Dependent Children and Food Stamps). We use monthly data on married couples from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) to regress wealth on income, income risk, and various measures of transfer generosity. The results support the precaution-ary savings model and reveal moderate negative wealth effects of both unemployment insurance and means-tested transfers, with an elasticity of about −0.18.     

PREDICTING THE EFFECTS OF CHANGES IN WELFARE PAYMENTS ON THE PROBABILITIES OF RECEIVING ALTERNATE SOURCES OF INCOME: THE CASE OF HOMELESS PERSONS IN LOS ANGELES

This article investigates the role that changes in welfare payments are likely to have on the earnings behavior of homeless persons. Using a cross-sectional random sample of 1,489 homeless persons in Los Angeles, the author analyzes the marginal effect of reducing public transfers on (a) the probability of earning and (b) the level of income from various traditional and nontraditional sources. This procedure allows the author to control for a number of important factors (including background, human capital, and social network variables) that may also influence the probability of earning income. Findings suggest that reducing government benefit income by $100 increases the probability of receiving income from traditional and nontraditional sources by 1.37% and 2.18% respectively. Among the latter are selling items on the streets and "other" (nonspecified) sources. It is concluded that welfare reform measures may in fact create additional societal costs as former welfare recipients turn to alternative forms of income.     

ON THE ESTIMATION OF GROWTH AND INEQUALITY ELASTICITIES OF POVERTY WITH GROUPED DATA

After decades of intensive research dedicated to efficient and flexible parametric statistical distributions, the lognormal distribution still enjoys, despite its empirical weaknesses, widespread popularity in the applied literature related to poverty and inequality analysis. In the present study, we emphasize the drawbacks of this choice for the calculation of the elasticities of poverty. For this purpose, we estimate the growth and inequality elasticities of poverty using 1,132 income distributions, and 15 rival assumptions on the shape of the income distributions. Our results confirm that the lognormal distribution is not appropriate in most cases for the analysis of poverty: the magnitude of the elasticities is generally overestimated and the estimation of the relative impact of growth and redistribution on poverty alleviation is biased in favor of the growth objective.     

INCENTIVE AND INSURANCE EFFECTS OF INCOME TAXATION

Tax distortions cause a trade‐off between efficiency and equity. However, taxes not only affect incentives; they also provide implicit insurance, and this may critically affect the efficiency–equity relationship. For a standard labour supply problem it is shown that the insurance effect mutes the sensitivity of labour supply to taxes, which tends to reduce tax distortions and lower the marginal costs of public funds. The relation between incentives and insurance and thus efficiency and equity is flattened by the insurance effect and it may even be non‐monotone. However, the optimal utilitarian policy implies that there is always a trade‐off between efficiency and equity on the margin.     

EFFECTS OF PERSONAL INCOME TAX ON INCOME DISTRIBUTION: EXAMPLE FROM BULGARIA

This study utilizes the 1992 Bulgarian household budget survey to analyze the distribution of income and income tax burden. Results indicate that the country is characterized by low income inequality, though this is changing rapidly. The findings also show that the present income tax system is progressive and that the urban sector pays much more relative to its income. Despite a steeply graduated statutory tax rate schedule, effective progression is rather modest, indicating significant tax evasion. However, one must view the results of progressivity and urban bias cautiously. As in-kind income becomes monetized and as the economy becomes more market-oriented, both progressivity and urban/rural differences will wane over time.     

THE INCOME UNIT AND THE ANATOMY OF INCOME DISTRIBUTION*

This paper focuses on a neglected aspect of the treatment of the income unit in the construction of size distributions of income. If the size distribution is to be an indicator of the distribution of economic welfare, and if the economic welfare of each individual in society is to count equally, then conventional distributions are inconsistent with individualistic welfare functions. We estimate size distributions with each person's welfare weighted equally, and contrast these results with those weighting each household unit's welfare equally. The choice of weights is shown to affect both the level and the trend in income inequality.     

ON THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF IMMIGRATION AND INCOME REDISTRIBUTION*

In this article, we analyze an economy in which agents vote over immigration policy and redistributive tax policy. We show that natives' preferences over immigration are influenced by the prospect that immigrants will be voting over future tax policy. We also show that changes in the degree of international capital mobility, the distribution of initial capital among natives, the wealth or poverty of the immigrant pool, and the future voting rights and entitlements of immigrants can have dramatic effects on equilibrium immigration and tax policies. Finally, we provide some empirical support for the model's predictions.     

论建立公平与效率协调统一的收入分配制度

本文考察了我国社会主义市场经济下如何建立公平与效率协调统一的收入分配制度问题。本文认为,在微观领域,要建立生产条件分配和收入分配相结合的微观制度,建立自由与管制相结合的市场协调制度;在宏观领域,需要实行统一的国民待遇制度,相应建立公平与效率协调统一的收入和支出方面的调节制度,同时建立再分配过程中的权力制衡机制,最终形成公平与效率协调统一的收入分配制度。     

收入的增长趋势与不稳定性对中国农户消费倾向的影响

收入的增长趋势和收入的不稳定性对农村居民的消费倾向有明显的反方向的影响,即收入增长的速度越快,收入越不稳定,农村居民的消费倾向就越低。     

中国农村地区间居民收入差距及构成变化:1995—2008年——基于基尼系数的分解

本文采用分省的面板数据对农村地区间基尼系数分解结果表明,1995—2008年,中国农村地区间收入差距总体上仍然呈现上升趋势,基尼系数上升了0.0639,但增幅出现明显减弱趋势。基尼系数变化及农村居民工资性收入对基尼系数的贡献变化显示出与经济发展阶段变化一致的含义;结构性效应已不再是农村地区间收入差异的唯一构成来源,收入集中效应对基尼系数起了明显的增加作用,工资性收入的集中效应超过了其他收入来源。这些构成来源的变化蕴含着中国面临调节地区间农村收入差距的政策机遇。     

SALES MAXIMIZATION AND PROFIT MAXIMIZATION: A NOTE ON THE DECISION OF A SALES MAXIMIZER TO THE INCREASE OF PER UNIT COST

Abstract.  In this paper, the authors compare the behaviours of a sales revenue maximizer with that of a profit maximizer in their response to an increase of the per unit production cost or a per unit tax being imposed. A common mistake in currently used textbooks is pointed out, and a new proposition is proposed for replacing a false statement there.     

农业产业化对农民收入和农户行为的影响--以山东省龙口市为例

农业产业化是当今中国农业发展的热点，但产业化经营究竟能在多大程度上促进“三农”问题的根本转变，目前仍很少有人进行定量研究。文章以农业产业化起步较早的山东省龙口市为案例，通过生产调查和统计资料分析，对该问题做了初步研究。结果表明：尽管龙口市的乡村工业发展迅速且占据了农村经济的绝大部分，但与农民人均纯收入增长关系最为紧密的仍然是农业产业，其次才是农村第二、第三产业，这一结果应归功于农业产业化的发展。农户在家庭劳动力分配时，年老人趋向于从事农业生产，年轻人趋向于从事非农生产，许多农户将自家的劳动力投入到非农产业，同时又雇佣外地劳力从事自家的农业生产。     

收入增长和分配对我国农村减贫的影响-方法、特征与证据

改革开放30年来,在农村居民收入水平快速增长的大背景下,农村减贫进程却表现出明显的波动性和不一致性。基于此,本文在贫困分解的基础上,运用贫困弹性的动态特征,从理论和实证的角度探讨了收入增长和收入分配对贫困减少的影响,解释上述问题。文章发现:(1)人均收入水平越高,贫困越有可能和收入不平等联系在一起;(2)收入不平等越严重的地区,贫困对收入不平等的反应越迟钝;(3)1998年是我国农村反贫困性质发生改变的拐点。文章建议,今后农村反贫困政策的重点应从以促进收入增长的开发式扶贫向以改善收入分配为重点的社会保护式扶贫政策转变。