Inequality and income: The mediating effects of social spending and risk

This paper estimates models of social spending, income risk, and per capita income levels using data from a post-war panel of OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries. The objective is to test two theories about the pathway from inequality to per capita income. According to one theory, inequality reduces incomes because it induces social spending, which acts as a drag on the economy. The results here suggest, however, that inequality does not seem to induce social spending, and social spending does not seem to lower per capita incomes. According to a second theory, inequality causes upheaval which adds to the volatility of per capita income, which may reduce the level of per capita income. The results suggest, however, that volatility, measured here as the standard deviation of per capita income, has little measurable impact on either per capita income or social spending. The mainsprings of per capita income are more likely to be the traditional factors: the work force, human capital, and physical capital.
JEL classification: E6.     

城市各收入阶层的消费者行为特征研究

改革开放以来,我国居民收入分配差距的变化是巨大的,这种收入差距的扩大导致了不同收入阶层的形成,各个收入阶层又形成了各自的消费者行为特征。低收入阶层主要是下岗职工、失业人员、靠打零工或摆小摊养家糊口的人、较早退休或内定退休的集体企业职工、停产或半停产企业职工以及领取最低生活保障的残疾人和孤寡老人。中等收入阶层主要由政府公职人员、国有企业职工、科教文卫人员、个体经营者等组成。他们的收入基本稳定,在满足日常消费之外有一定的结余。高收入阶层主要是企事业单位的管理人员、演艺界和体育界的明星,律师、医生等。各个收入阶层的消费为国家的宏观消费政策的制定提供支撑。     

Finance,income inequality and income redistribution

Using a panel fixed effects model for a large sample of countries covering 1975–2005, we test the hypothesis that income inequality caused by finance (financial development, financial liberalization and banking crises) is related to more income redistribution than inequality caused by other factors. Our results provide evidence in support of this hypothesis. We also find that the impact of inequality on redistribution is conditioned by ethno-linguistic fractionalization. Our findings are robust to the inclusion of several control variables suggested by previous studies.     

基于社会契约的公平观浅谈收入分配政策

建立符合正义的公平、完善的收入分配制度，推进和谐社会建设，是当前中国发展中亟待解决的重大问题。现有的按劳分配、按要素分配制度不能得到有效贯彻、实现，这与基于社会契约的公平观存在密切联系，因此，建立符合正义的公平观念，制定体现公平与效率的再分配政策是一个重要研究课题。     

我国基本养老保险扩面的收入分配效应研究

文章基于一般均衡分析框架,通过构建“统账结合”制基本养老保险的异质性跨期交叠一般均衡动态模型,引入国发〔2005〕38号文的主要内容,利用政策仿真、参数估值和敏感性检验等方法,重点研究了养老保险制度覆盖面扩展的收入分配和再分配效应,并进行了理论推导和实证测算。结果发现：（1）我国基本养老保险扩面具有明显的收入分配和再分配效应,且再分配效应是累进的,发生了从城镇企业职工为代表的高收入者向以灵活就业人员和农民工为代表的低收入者的收入转移;（2）个人账户发挥了平滑作用,有利于改善不同类型劳动者终生的收入分配,但不利于收入再分配的改善;（3）社会统筹账户具有较强的收入再分配效应,有利于改善不同类型劳动者的收入再分配,缩小收入差距。参数敏感性检验表明结论是稳健的。因此,进一步优化社会统筹账户有利于减小收入不平等。     

Poverty decompositions with counterfactual income and inequality dynamics

Traditional poverty accounting decomposes changes in a country's poverty headcount ratio into changes in income and inequality. We argue that this approach is unsatisfactory from the perspective of policy analysis because it compares a country in two points of time without taking the country's initial situation, and hence its potential for poverty reduction, into account. We thus suggest comparing traditional poverty decompositions with a counterfactual situation. This counterfactual indicates what a country starting from its initial situation could be expected to achieve in terms of income, inequality, and, hence, poverty developments. We construct those counterfactuals by modeling income and inequality trends characterized by convergence and a “Kuznets” relationship between inequality and development. Parameters in those relationships are estimated using PovcalNet survey data from 144 countries and we construct our counterfactual poverty predictions for 71 developing countries. While there is overall a tight relationship between actual developments and counterfactuals, we identify several cases, where both deviate from each other and discuss the policy implications. We also check for commonalities in differently performing countries and find that those who fell particularly short of expectations often underwent political transition and state fragility.     

Optimal mixed taxation,credit constraints,and the timing of income tax reporting

We study optimal income and commodity tax policy with credit‐constrained low‐income households. Workers receive an even flow of income during the tax year, but report their incomes and make tax payments (receive transfers) at the end of the year. They spend their disposable income on multiple commodities over the year. We show that differentiated subsidies on commodities can be optimal even if the Atkinson–Stiglitz Theorem conditions apply. When the optimal policy leaves low‐income households with binding credit constraints, it may be optimal to subsidize differentially the good that they consume in higher proportion. Uniform subsidies would also relax the credit constraint, but would be more costly to the government since they would equally benefit unconstrained households. Numerical examples suggest that commodity tax differentiation increases with basic needs and with the interest rate at which government borrows.     

Minimum income in a transition economy

The Albanian Ndihma Ekonomike is one of the first poverty reduction programmes launched in transitional economies. Its record has been judged positively during the recession period of the 1990s and negatively during the more recent growth phase. This article reconsiders the programme using a regression‐adjusted local linear matching estimator first suggested by Heckman et al. (1997, 1998). We find the programme to have a weak targeting capacity and a non‐significant impact on different household outcomes.     

Minimum wage or negative income tax: why skilled workers may favor wage rigidities

In this article, we analyze the political choice of the extent and means of income redistribution between high and low-skilled workers. Redistributive tools encompass both fiscal transfers (a negative income tax) and a minimum wage requirement. We assume the use of fiscal instruments alone to be the first-best means of redistribution. We show that high-skilled workers may favor a second-best, minimum wage requirement because it increases unemployment, hence raising the marginal cost of redistribution, and creates a justification for them to moderate low-skilled workers’ claim for redistribution.      

The nature of heterodox economics

Heterodoxy serves as an umbrella term to cover the coming togetherof separate projects or traditions. In answering the question,‘what distinguishes heterodoxy from the orthodoxy?’,the author argues that matters of ontology are central. In answeringthe question, ‘how are the various traditions that makeup the modern heterodoxy to be distinguished from each other?’,the author defends criteria other than varying commitments tospecific substantive theories, policy measures or techniques(or basic units) of analysis.     

The dependence structure of income distribution

This article investigates the dependence structure of income distribution in the US by providing two approaches – one regression-based and the other copula-based – to reveal new information about income dependence. The system of Seemingly Unrelated Regressions (SUR) is estimated for both quintile income shares and mean income growth by controlling for macroeconomic variables, and Kendall's tau statistics are derived for income dependence. Results from less restrictive copula models corroborate the regression-based results. However, income growth models do not support the common claim that the rich are getting richer while the poor are getting poorer. Income dependence patterns do not appear to be affected by business cycles, but Democratic and Republican presidential administrations have drastically different income dependence results.     

The political sustainability of a basic income scheme and social health insurance

This paper studies within a two‐stage framework the political economy of a basic income (BI) and social health insurance (SHI) scheme. At the constitutional stage, individuals decide whether these schemes are implemented behind a veil of ignorance about their future income and risk type. This decision is made in anticipation of the outcome at the second stage in which individuals vote on the payroll tax to finance a BI and the contribution rate of a SHI scheme provided these schemes have been implemented. Depending on the amount of healthcare expenditure and the inequalities in income and risk, only a social health insurance scheme is implemented at the constitutional stage.     

调整我国收入分配关系的财政制度保障

现行财政制度的收入再分配职能效果不佳,原因在于两点,一是收入分配秩序的不规范,使累进性税收难以发挥缩小收入差距的作用;二是收入再分配过程中存在"逆向调节"问题,即低收入者所获转移性收入比高收入者所获转移性收入少,从而收入再分配扩大了收入差距。这两种情况的产生都与财政制度的某些缺陷有关,需要通过制度改革堵住漏洞,理顺机制,具体包括:建立规范透明的财政等方面的管理体制;建立城乡、地区一体化的社会保障体系;加大对欠发达地区和农村地区公共产品供给的投入力度。     

Marx,Veblen and Contemporary Institutional Political Economy : Henry on O'Hara

Welfare was reformed significantly in 1996, and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) was expanded substantially during the last decade. In the wake of these events, welfare rolls have shrunk dramatically and employment among the poor has increased, leading many to conclude that these policies have achieved important equity and efficiency goals. It is argued here that these conclusions are too strong. The work requirements and time limits of welfare reform create equity outcomes that are dubious and leave the potential for inefficiencies in the allocation of labor. The EITC excludes almost half of the poor population under age 65, rewards poorer working families less well than it does less poor working families, and provides a sizable work disincentive for a large proportion of its recipients. It is shown here that the poor are not homogeneous. Specifically, the very poor have a much higher incidence of physical and other disabilities. The ability to work varies substantially with income among the poor. There is a case to be made for a much more straightforward form of redistribution, such as the Basic Income Guarantee (BIG). It is quite possible that a BIG would accomplish goals of equity and efficiency more fully than the current mosaic of redistributive programs.     

Hicks's Valuation of Social income: an appraisal *

This paper attempts to reconstruct and assess the intellectual itinerary of Hicks on the valuation of social income. His 1958 and 1981 papers on that topic have been wholly ignored in the economic literature. In both of them differentmeasures of real income are provided. These show to what extenteach one of them can be relied upon. Our assessment argues that it is impossible to measure social income independentlyof the reasons for which that measure is required and that any valuation cannot ultimatelybe made independently of political and ethical considerations.     

Direct evidence on income comparisons and their welfare effects

This paper provides direct evidence that income comparisons exert a significant impact on subjective well-being. It also evaluates the relative importance of different types of benchmarks. Internal comparisons to one's own past living standard outweigh any other comparison benchmarks. Local comparisons (to one's parents, former colleagues or high school mates) are more powerful than self-ranking in the social ladder. The impact of comparisons is asymmetric: under-performing one's benchmark always has a greater welfare effect than out-performing it (in absolute value). Comparisons, which reduce satisfaction also increase the demand for income redistribution, but there, the relative impact of subjective ranking is preponderant.     

Basic income in the United States: Redefining citizenship in the liberal state

This paper examines citizenship-based arguments for work-conditioned welfare and basic income. I argue that the most common citizenship-based justifications for work requirements—the paternalistic and civic republican arguments—are flawed because of their selectivity, and that the only defensible citizenship-based justification for work requirements is the socialist model, which enforces work requirements universally on all. I offer as a liberal alternative a radically pluralist notion of citizenship, with a kind of universal economic suffrage at its core, to justify an unconditional basic income in the US.     

Investment subsidies and redistributive capital income taxation in a neoclassical growth model

How do investment subsidies bear on pure redistribution when coupled with capital income taxes? In a heterogeneous agent, neoclassical growth framework it is found that on impact, with no optimizing behavior, investment subsidies are good for growth but bad for redistribution. The opposite holds for capital income taxes. But when the government acts as a Stackelberg leader vis-à-vis the private sector (the follower), the optimal feedback policy is by construction time-consistent and implies that in a long-run optimum the tax scheme does not distort accumulation. This holds regardless of social preferences. For the feedback Stackelberg equilibrium I find that (pure) redistribution can go either way and capital income taxes are nonzero in the long-run, time-consistent optimum, depending on the social weight of those who receive redistributive transfers, the distribution of pretax factor incomes, and the intertemporal elasticity of substitution. It is argued that investment subsidies may be an important indirect tool for redistribution, and may allow for the separation of “efficiency” and “equity” concerns.     

The role of natural capital in supporting national income and social welfare

Using life satisfaction as a proxy for social welfare, this study contributes to the extant literature by empirically demonstrating that natural capital contributes to social welfare, functioning in part through increasing national income and in part through its direct effect on life satisfaction; the direct effect is approximately 40% greater than the indirect effect. This suggests that the true welfare benefits of natural capital may not be adequately reflected in conventional economic data and, therefore, studies seeking to evaluate the contribution of natural capital to human well-being should consider employing data sets that capture subjective elements of welfare. The magnitudes of the reported marginal effects of natural capital on social welfare, however, are small. This is perhaps due to the fact that (1) there are shortcomings in the measure of natural capital; (2) life satisfaction effects are unlikely to reflect the poorly understood benefits that natural capital provides; and (3) keystone species (such as mosquitoes) and integral ecosystems (such as wetlands) may be negatively associated with life satisfaction, even though such components of natural capital are vitally important to sustaining ecosystems and human life     

基础养老金全国统筹收入再分配给付水平及适度性检验

依据生存公平和劳动公平统一原理,从基础养老金计发办法及规则分解入手,设定相应的全国统筹计发方案并分析不同方案对高低收入地区的财富分配的影响,同时从宏观适度性、微观适度性以及福利改进角度对基础养老金全国统筹各方案进行评价和适度性检验。利用地区间物价差异修正后的全国统筹计发方案,既可以解决劳动力跨统筹范围流转的难题,实现养老保险的地区间收入再分配和地区间基础养老金给付水平适度性的优化,也可在适度区间标准上实现福利改进。