Wealth and Income Inequality in Europe

While it has long been apparent that global levels of wealth and income inequality have been steadily increasing since the 1970s, the issue received scant attention in Europe until the recent fi nancial crisis and the resulting Great Recession illuminated for the general public just how great the chasm between the very rich and everybody else had grown. This realisation was coupled with an increased focus on inequality among economists and other academics, leading to a fresh drive for policy ideas to remedy the alarming trend. This Forum comprises a diverse range of viewpoints on the recent history and dynamics of inequality within Europe, each striving to defi ne the root causes in the various countries being examined. The defi nition of these causes, of course, can inform the direction of policies aimed at alleviating the growing inequality in many European countries and thereby curtail one of the major political and social issues of our time.     

Comparable Worth: An Economic and Ethical Analysis

This article examines the legal, economic, and ethical arguments supporting and opposing comparable worth. The co- authors advance opposing views on the wisdom of adopting comparable worth as a public policy, and those views are not reconciled within the limits of this essay.     

股市财富与消费的经济学分析

在美国"9.11"恐怖事件发生之前,美国股市经历了长久繁荣.20世纪90年代,美国人增加的财富中有超过60%的部分是源于家庭持有的股票价值的上升,股价的上涨使得美国拥有百万美元财产的家庭数在2000年超过500万.本文主要以美国为例,研究股市财富效应对家庭消费行为的影响.有证据显示,20世纪90年代的股市上涨确实提高了家庭消费的水平.即使实际的财富边际消费倾向比许多宏观经济模型计算的结果要低,但在过去10年中财富累积数量的增加仍然使得总的消费支出增多了.     

同龄收入不均等与财政再分配贡献——基于个税和转移支付的实证分析

测算个税-转移支付体系在减少不平等中的效应及效率,从而保证财政工具有助于缩小收入分配差距、缓解相对贫困,是实现共同富裕的重要一环.本文基于2016年中国家庭追踪调查(CFPS)数据,构造了一种基于年龄调整的基尼系数测度同龄收入不均等,采用"匿名"与"非匿名"评价指标测度了个税、社保缴费和转移支付在再分配中的垂直效应、再排序效应和收入变动轨迹,并通过模拟最优分配方式测算支出效率及配置效率.结果 显示,基于年龄调整的基尼系数测算的收入不平等比基于传统基尼系数测算的收入不平等下降了2％;个税-转移支付体系整体的收入再分配效应达到4.9％左右,而2019年新个税的边际贡献率小于旧个税;转移支付具有显著的减贫效应,保证了相对贫困群体的向上流动;个税和转移支付的支出效率分别为71.27％和45.55％,配置效率分别为70.45％和46.84％.本文认为,政府应重视同龄收入差距过大问题,保障初次分配公平,在设计再分配政策时注重完善个税综合税制,优化财政支出结构,提高社会保障分配的公平性.     

Wealth Inequality and the Great Recession

The study of wealth and wealth inequality has received far less attention than income, but the increasing importance of wealth, debt and wealth inequality means closer attention must be paid to their concomitant dynamics. Policy interventions to reduce economic inequality continue to target income more than wealth, but targeting the latter – especially through taxes on financial assets – is arguably more effective.     

The Impact of Income Inequality on Product Diversity and Economic Growth

The paper presents an empirical analysis of a model of endogenous growth and innovation with unequal incomes and hierarchical consumer demand. The theoretical model predicts a positive impact of income inequality on product diversity. The impact of inequality on per-capita growth may be positive or negative depending upon the assumptions about productivity growth, where the standard assumption that productivity is positively related to product diversity implies a positive impact. In the empirical part, indices for absolute and relative product diversity are calculated from ICP-expenditure data. The empirical evidence shows that a significant positive relationship exists between income inequality and relative product diversity and that the relationship between income inequality and economic growth is negative and significant. The results lead to the conclusion that the diversity-productivity relationship used in new growth theory has to be treated with scepticism.     

对外贸易与收入不平等——基于我国的经验研究

本文采用我国1985-2005年的时间序列数据,就对外贸易与收入不平等的关系进行了实证研究。发现对外贸易与收入不平等是一种倒"U"形的关系。1985-2004年对外贸易拉大了我国的收入不平等,之后则缩小了收入不平等。在此基础上,分析了对外贸易与收入不平等成倒"U"形关系的成因,并就今后发展对外贸易与缩小收入不平等提出了相关建议。     

我国收入分配差距及个人所得税调节作用的实证分析

本文通过计算我国城镇居民税前收入、税后收入和税收收入的基尼系数，计算各个收入阶层的平均税率及建立计量经济模型等多角度分析了个人所得税对城镇居民收入分配差距的调节作用。最后得出结论：目前我国收入分配差距仍呈扩大趋势，但没达到两极分化的程度，2002年以来个人所得税逐渐发挥对收入分配差距的调节作用。对高收入阶层课以重税，同时增加低收入阶层的可支配收入，是改善目前收入分配不平等状况行之有效的措施，税收政策和其他社会保障的收入分配政策相结合，可以对缩小收入分配差距，建立社会主义和谐社会起到更大的作用。     

Income Per Capita Inequality in China: The Role of Economic Geography and Spatial Interactions

(1241) Laura Hering and Sandra Poncet This paper contributes to the analysis of growing income inequality in China. We apply a structural model of economic geography to data on per capita income over 190 Chinese cities between 1995 and 2002, and evaluate the extent to which market proximity and spatial dependence can explain the growing income inequality between Chinese cities. The econometric specification explicitly incorporates spatial dependence in the form of spatially‐lagged per capita income. We show that the geography of market access and spatial dependence are significantly correlated with per capita income in China. Market access is particularly important in cities with smaller migration inflows, which is consistent with NEG theory, whereas spatially‐lagged per capita income matters more in cities with greater immigration. We conclude that the positive impact of spatially‐lagged income partly results from labour mobility between neighbours, so that spatial dependence reflects the influence of migration, knowledge transfers and increasing competition between cities.     

中国收入差距中的机会不均等

本文使用中国综合社会调查(CGSS)数据和基于回归方程的分解方法,将全国、城镇和农村地区的收入差距分解为源于环境因素的机会不均等、源于努力因素的收入不均等,以及源于运气和未知因素的收入不均等三大成分,研究结果如下。(1)2010—2015年,全国、城镇和农村机会不均等均经历了先上升后下降的过程,但出生时户籍的贡献度有上升趋势。(2)通过估算,2010年我国机会不均等为24.39%,2012年为28.04%,2013年达到峰值35.72%,2015年下降到30.56%,而如果不考虑党员身份、迁移两个努力变量以及环境变量与努力变量的交互影响,估算结果会被高估至少8个百分点;居住地、性别、出生时户籍是机会不均等的重要来源。(3)2010—2015年,农村机会不均等平均水平达到33.31%,高出城镇约8个百分点。其中,年龄与性别因素是导致农村机会不均等过高的原因,而居住地差异是城镇机会不均等的主要来源。基于此,本文建议从协调区域发展、完善就业公平竞争机制、加快户籍制度改革三个方面减缓机会不均等。     

The Ethical Wealth of Nations

Michael Porter argues that some nations manifest a competitive advantage deriving from key elements of their economic structure. Some nations are thus disposed by structure to possess what Porter calls a "competitive advantage of nations" (Porter, 1990). In this paper I examine the prospect of an ethical advantage of nations, and in particular, of a set of advantages that extend far beyond the simple dimension of trust so often discussed. I consider, further, how such a range of ethical features would be structured, and what the implications of those features would be. Three conclusions are reached: 1. Morality may create economic advantages for nations in ways that extend beyond the notion of an idealized market; 2. In order for ethics to drive economic advantage, ethical concepts must rise to the status of intrinsic value; and 3. If claims for national ethical success factors are true, then nations should attend to the issue of moral education.     

城市正规就业与非正规就业收入差距及影响因素贡献——基于收入不平等的分解

本文使用CHNS 1997-2006的调查数据实证研究了城镇正规就业与非正规就业之间的收入差距及影响因素。收入不平等分解结果表明,正规就业与非正规就业之间存在显著的工资收入差距,但随着经济发展和劳动力市场供求的转变,两类就业者由于就业类别差异导致的"收入差异"呈缩减的趋势;受教育水平和工作经验等人力资本特征是两类就业者决定工资的主要影响因素,也是他们之间工资收入差距变化的主要贡献因素。     

我国城镇居民收入分配差距的实证分析

1978－1999年,中国经济高速发展,带动城镇居民人均可支配收入增长3倍以上,与此同时,收入差距也不断扩大。对改革开放以来收入分配进行了回顾,并作了国际比较。深入分析了城镇居民收入差距的成因和现状。     

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     

收入不平等与最优个人所得税-转移支付再分配系统

本文构建了个人所得税、转移支付以及个人所得税-转移支付系统对于居民收入不平等的实际、最优和最大效应指标。运用中国省份数据分析,发现中国个人所得税正在加速恶化居民收入不平等,并且在对收入不平等的影响中发挥主要作用;转移支付对收入不平等有一定的抑制作用,但力量较弱,而且离最优指标"要求"越来越远;个人所得税-转移支付系统加剧了收入不平等,并且加剧程度越来越严重,最后提出了相应的政策建议。     

浙江省经济增长与收入分配差异实证分析

本文通过对浙江省人均GDP及其基尼系数的协整关系检验得出浙江省经济增长与收入分配差异之间存在一种稳定的长期均衡关系;通过冲击响应分析得出浙江省经济增长与收入分配两者之间越来越协调,越来越朝着持续、健康的方向发展;在此基础上利用格兰杰因果分析得出自从1982年以来,浙江省经济增长从一定程度上导致了收入差距的扩大,但同时,收入差距的扩大也对经济增长存在影响。     

Student Ethical Perceptions and Ethical Action Propensities: An Analysis of Situation Familiarity

Recently McCuddy and Peery (1996) have suggested that business students may not respond the same way to unfamiliar business ethical dilemmas as they would to more familiar academic ethical dilemmas. The purpose of this study was to present the same students with both unfamiliar business dilemmas as well as possibly more familiar academic dilemmas in order to examine this issue.Findings of the study revealed that students did not exhibit different perceptions of the unethical actions performed in the academic and accounting/business ethical vignettes. However, the students indicated that both they and their peers would be more likely to act unethically to resolve the dilemmas in the accounting/business cases than in the academic cases. This finding is troubling in that it suggests that students either feel less compelled to act ethically in business, or that they perceive that ethical standards in the business world are generally low when compared to their current educational environment. In addition, the students in the study maintained the same halo effect (i.e., the difference between an individual's perception of their likelihood of performing an unethical action compared to their perception of their peers' likelihood to perform the same unethical action) across the two types of ethical dilemma.     

调节收入分配防止两极分化

防止两极分化、实现共同富裕是"三个代表"的本质要求.我国当前城乡之间、行业之间、高收入阶层与低收入阶层之间收入分配差距过大,居民收入分配的基尼系数已进入国际公认的警戒区间.如果听任收入差距继续扩大,将会随时出现两极分化,引发一系列的经济风险、社会风险和政治风险.本文就如何防止两极分化、实现共同富裕,提出了具体的政策建议.