Genes and Social Mobility: A Case for Progressive Income Tax

Abstract

The effect of ability inheritance on income distribution and social mobility is analyzed with an emphsis on the role of progressive income tax. Epstein–Zin style utility function is used to highlight the role of risk aversion. The result shows that higher genetic inheritability leads to lower per capita income, higher income variance and lower aggregate welfare at the steady state. This tendency is intensified when the elasticity of a child's income to parent's educational investment is higher. In this setup, it is shown that progressive income tax can be a welfare-enhancing tool by increasing social mobility. The optimal progressive income tax rate is obtained in the benchmark model and its positive effect is discussed in the context of “Veil of ignorance”, a concept proposed by Rawls (A Theory of Justice (Cambridge, MA: Harvard, University Press), 1971).     

Social indicators,growth and distribution

The recent focus on a basic-needs approach to development has rekindled interest in the relationship between growth, income distribution and indicators of welfare. This paper provides some statistical evidence to support the view that for low-income LDCs, growth is necessary to bring about welfare improvements, as measured by aggregate social indicators. Historically for that group, growth rather than distribution is significantly correlated with indicators. For middle-income LDCs, the scope for improving welfare through redistribution is larger, as supported by correlation analysis results. The statistical evidence is consistent with economic theory and relevant for an effective integration of basic-needs objectives into a strategy of growth and equity.     

论中美货币政策差异及其分配效应

本文通过对货币政策的分析,认为货币政策的增长效应是有限的,分配效应是具有破坏性的,其造成的社会财富的剥夺和转移恶化了收入分配。因此,货币主义的单一规则对总量管理仍然具有很强的指导意义。本文认为,货币供给的总量管理应该永远是稳健的,结构调整应更多地依靠利率和财政政策。美元的弱势和中国的强劲增长为人民币国际化打开了空间。中国应该抓住历史机遇,积极推进人民币自由化、国际化进程。     

The redistributive role of government social security transfers on inequality in China

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the redistributive role of government social security transfers on inequality in China. We attempt to answer two questions. First, does inequality of after-transfer income narrow, compared to that of before-transfer income? Second, given the scale and distribution of existing government social security transfers, will a small percentage increase in the transfers narrow or widen the inequality of total income? By employing the methodologies of the Musgrave-Thin (MT) index and decomposition of the Gini coefficient of total income by its sources, we find a positive answer to the first question and a negative answer to the second question. Government social security transfers have a positive role on inequality in the sense that the Gini coefficient of after-transfer income is smaller than that of before-transfer income. However, government social security transfers have a negative role on inequality, as current inequality will go up if there is a universal increase in government social security transfers for all recipients. Of all the components of government social security transfers, formal sector pensions are most unequalizing, whereas dibao and rural pension benefits have equalizing effects on the income distribution in China.     

Aggregate consumption with heterogeneous agents and a changing income distribution

A simple Monte-Carlo model is used to demonstrate that the statistical problems typical for aggregate consumption, such as autocorrelation and noncointegration, can be generated through a change in income distribution if individual consumers are sufficiently heterogeneous in their marginal propensity to consume. The results are obtained for individual consumers who are assumed to be completely myopic. The dynamics at the aggregate level can, therefore, be attributed only to the aggregation process, not to dynamic optimization of individual consumers or to adjustment costs and lags on the part of a representative agent.     

Farming for energy: social options under Brazil's National Alcohol Programme

The first 5 years of the Brazilian National Alcohol Programme are assessed in terms of their stated social objectives of reducing regional inequalities and rural-urban income disparities, and expanding employment opportunities. The effects of energy production systems based on the two principal competing energy feedstocks, sugar cane and cassava, are compared in terms of these objectives, as well as their impact on land distribution, food supply, migration and environment. Greater use of cassava is clearly indicated from a social standpoint, but initial policies, influenced by institutional interests, have favoured sugar cane. Possible strategies for enhancing the Programme's social development potential are suggested.     

以社会管理创新推进收入分配改革

货币收入与更重要的非货币收入构成的“社会收入”具有社会性本质特征.市场竞争是收入差距产生的原因,不能成为缩小这个差距的动因.实现共同富裕作为改革目标,不能指望资本让步也不能完全依赖政府,追求公平分配的社会公民是根本动力.收入的社会性、目标和力量的社会性,是收入分配改革依靠社会管理创新的接入口.优化抗衡物质资本的社会资本,构建运用社会资本的公民社会,推进公权力制定改变收入分配格局的公共政策,是社会管理创新的功能.源自社会底层的诱致性收入分配改革的制度变迁,依赖于社会管理创新.其实,改革就是创新.     

Poor university professors? The relative earnings decline of German professors during the twentieth century

Using individual earnings data from university archives, we analyse the position of university professors within the aggregate income distribution over a time span covering the Kaiserreich, the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich as well as the Federal Republic of Germany. We find that not only did the earnings of professors deteriorate with respect to average incomes, due to the compression of the income distribution, but that professorial earnings no longer sufficed to lift professors into the top 1% of the aggregate income distribution.     

Corporate income tax compliance: A time series analysis

How extensive is corporate income tax noncompliance and how responsive is it to policy tools such as penalties, audits, and tax rates? This paper analyzes aggregate time series data on corporate compliance in an attempt to answer these questions. The results show audits to be an effective deterrent to noncompliance but cast doubt on the presumption that higher penalities or lower tax rates lead to improved compliance.     

农村居民收入差距及其演变的思考——基于浙江农村固定观察点调查数据的分析

基于浙江农村固定观察点1993—2007年的调查数据,运用五等分和基尼系数及相关指数对农村居民的收入差距及其演变趋势进行考察,并对考察结果进行分析。结果发现,浙江农村居民的收入差距不仅始终较大,已经处于差距偏大行列,而且近年在高位波动中呈现攀升态势,导致“两极”分化较为严重;浙江农村居民的收入差距主要源于农村工业化进程中非农就业机会和非农收入分配的不平等,是市场机制对人力资本的正常回报。因此,其最优的解决措施应是在保持经济效率的基础上,为各个阶层提供更加公平的发展机会和分享社会成果的机会。     

Pro-poor growth and social protection in South Africa: Exploring the interactions

This study evaluates the impact of South Africa's long-term economic growth on household poverty and inequality between 1995 and 2005. We find a decline in aggregate levels of poverty, but increasing levels of inequality. The evidence suggests that the growth model provides substantial redistributive income support to the poor through the social grant programme, whilst offering few returns to those in the middle of the distribution.     

Describing and decomposing post-apartheid income inequality in South Africa

This paper describes the changes in inequality in South Africa over the post-apartheid period, using income data from 1993 and 2008. Having shown that the data are comparable over time, it then profiles aggregate changes in income inequality, showing that inequality has increased over the post-apartheid period because an increased share of income has gone to the top decile. Social grants have become much more important as sources of income in the lower deciles. However, income source decomposition shows that the labour market has been and remains the main driver of aggregate inequality. Inequality within each racial group has increased and both standard and new methodologies show that the contribution of between-race inequality has decreased. Both aggregate and within-group inequality are responding to rising unemployment and rising earnings inequality. Those who have neither access to social grants nor the education levels necessary to integrate successfully into a harsh labour market are especially vulnerable.     

关于改革收入分配问题的探讨

收入分配关系国计民生，关系改革发展大局，社会认同度很高，反响也比较强烈，已经成为新的发展阶段最具政治意义的经济问题。贯彻落实科学发展观，加快经济发展方式转变，也需要改革分配制度。“十二五”乃至更长的时期，我们要实施强国富民的战略，改革分配制度，不断提高城乡居民收入，逐步扭转收入差距扩大的趋势。通过发展做大社会财富这个“蛋糕”，通过合理的收入分配制度把“蛋糕”分好。让全体人民分享改革发展的成果。     

Efficiency wages and tax policy

The conventional belief suggests that a tax increase can be regarded as an anti-inflation device because it reduces the aggregate demand. This paper makes a new attempt to reexamine the belief by introducing the principal tenets of the efficiency wage hypothesis. It is found that, in the context of an efficiency wage model, a rise in the income tax may stimulate the domestic price level, rather than depress it.     

强化政府收入分配职能的必要性及对策思路

收入分配是经济社会生活的重要方面,而收入分配政策是关系收入分配公平与否最直接、最核心的要素。因此,政府作为资源配置的重要主体之一、作为政策的直接制定者势必应该强化其收入分配职能,进而逐步缩小收入分配差距和贫富差距,实现社会公平与社会正义。     

Appraising the distributional aspects of rural development projects: A Kenya case study

Based on a case study of alternative farming systems for settlement projects in Kenya, this study demonstrates different approaches for the weighting of income changes attributable to a project. Income changes to the new farmers are first estimated and weighted according to various approaches, especially through the use of a constant-elasticity social welfare function. The substantial amount of income changes that would ensue outside the farms following the implementation of either type of settlement approach are then assessed and weighted. On balance their aggregate value was negative at low elasticity values. Finally, reversing the normal cost-benefit sequence of efficiency appraisal followed by distributional evaluation, all non-income costs and benefits are shadow-priced to give an aggregate measure which shows the superiority of one farm system over the other at any elasticity value of the social welfare function.     

Dynamics of Income Distribution across Chinese Provinces during 1978–98

This study attempts to examine the growth pattern of China's economy during 1978–98 from the perspective of income distribution dynamics. Motivated by the model of dynamic distribution, a transition matrix is derived from a panel of ratios of provincial real incomes to national averages across 30 provinces over 1978–98. The transition matrix is used not only to reveal the transitions of provinces between the states of income over time, but also to predict whether there is a tendency across provinces to converge in real income per worker in the long run. This study finds evidence of a slight reduction of income dispersion across Chinese provinces over 1978–98. However, the slight reduction of income dispersion is not strong enough for the provinces to converge to mean income. But there is a strong tendency to converge across provinces within regions and it is evident that, in the eastern region, poor provinces caught up with rich ones over the period under study. The long-run distribution indicates that there will not be a tendency to converge in real GDP per capita across provinces in the long run.     

公共部门收入分配机制问题研究

公平与效率并重是公共部门收入分配机制构建的基本价值理念。构建公共部门收入分配机制的目标是缩小收入差距,实现收入分配的社会公平。有效的公共部门收入分配协调机制、完善的公共部门收入分配政策扶持机制和规范的公共部门收入分配制度实施机制共同构成公共部门收入分配机制的基本框架。建构完善的公共部门收入分配机制,需要从理念、制度和法制化等方面作为切入点。     

我国城乡居民收入差距与消费需求的实证分析

20世纪90年代以来,中国城乡居民收入差距不断拉大,国内的消费倾向则呈下降趋势,这与收入差距有密切联系。本文通过构建新的衡量收入差距指标衡量城乡收入差距,同时建立城乡居民平均消费倾向——收入差距方程揭示二者相关关系,证实了收入差距对消费需求的抑制作用,进而提出加大对农村的资金支持和转移支付、开展农村内部循环就业、完善税收结构以及改革收入分配制度等政策措施,以减小收入差距,刺激国内消费需求。     

国家财政预算存在的不足与思考

国家财政预算,是国家制定的年度财政收支计划,是国家为实现其职能而有计划地筹集和分配财政资金的主要工具。国家财政预算存在编制必滞后、质量难保证、执行常脱节、体制未转型、内容不完整、编制不透明等不足,应调整国家预算编制时间,确定公共财政改革目标,全面推行零基国家预算,提高财政预算的透明度,构建有效的财政监督机制,推进政府收支分类改革,完善国家预算管理体系,这样才能使国家预算真正综合反映国民经济,起到平衡社会总供给和总需求的作用,从而充分发挥其分配、调控和监督的职能。