Inequality of opportunity and household education expenditures: Evidence from panel data in China

This paper offers one of the first pieces of empirical evidence on the impact of inequality of opportunity on household education investment by using the panel data from China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) in three waves (2010, 2012 and 2014). Our result suggests that inequality of opportunity has a negative effect on household education expenditures. This result is robust to a series of robustness checks. Furthermore, for relatively disadvantaged households (household heads with less education, income, or rural hukou status), inequality of opportunity has a larger negative effect on their education expenditures. Policy suggestions to lower inequality of opportunity may include reducing labor market discrimination based on gender and hukou status, balancing education resources to create more equal educational opportunities, and offering children education subsidies in low-income families.     

Inequality of opportunity and household risky asset investment: Evidence from panel data in China

Based on the household panel data over three waves in China, this paper investigates how inequality of opportunity of a region affects household risky asset investment. The empirical results show that inequality of opportunity raises both the probability and the share of household risky asset investment in the region. Our key results are robust to a series of sensitivity checks. The heterogeneity analyses tell us that richer and more educated households seem to be affected more by inequality of opportunity of the county they reside in. The paper also tests several possible channels behind the observed relationship, showing that the following channels help bring upon this effect: increasing material aspiration, changing risk preferences, and reducing household expenditures.     

Inequality of opportunity in earnings in rural China

This paper explores the role of ‘inequality of opportunity’ in individual earnings in rural China, which is attributed to ‘circumstantial’ factors over which individuals have no control, including family background, gender, ethnic minority status and region of birth. These circumstances are contrasted with ‘efforts’ or choices that individuals make, which also impact on their individual earnings. Utilising the China Labour-force Dynamics Survey (CLDS) 2014, I measure the share of inequality of opportunity in the overall inequality of individual annual earnings for the entire sample and for each of four ten-year birth cohorts in rural China. The empirical results revealed that the share of inequality of opportunity in individual earnings for the full sample is 20.4% of the GE(0) coefficient. The adoption of machine learning methods provides a wide range of estimates between 16.4% (regression tress) and 25.4% (forests). Across all birth cohorts, gender is consistently the largest single contributor to inequality of opportunity, while family background is relatively more important for younger cohorts. A closer investigation indicates that those who find themselves in the worst circumstances are likely to exert lower level of effort, not because they don’t want to try harder, but because their circumstances prevent them from doing so.     

Impact of land tenure policy on agricultural investments in China: Evidence from a panel data study

The goal of this paper is to examine the impact of changes in China's rural land policy on agricultural investments. Dramatic changes occurred in China's rural land policies after 2000, including the extension of rural land contractual period, restriction of land reallocation among villages and villagers groups, elimination of agricultural taxes for responsibility land, and rapid development of rural land rental markets. These changes have given farmers more secure tenure on collectively controlled responsibility land and have strengthened farmers' income rights for responsibility lands, incentivizing them to increase their investments on responsibility lands. A panel data method was used to quantitatively investigate the impact of land policy changes on agricultural investment. We considered the application of organic fertilizer as an indicator for long-term agricultural investment, and compared the use of organic fertilizer between private plots and responsibility lands operated by the same household. The results showed that the difference in organic fertilizer use between private plots and responsibility land for the same household has become smaller from 2000 to 2008. Our findings suggest that recent changes in rural land policies have provided farmers incentives to increase land quality investment on their responsibility lands.     

Fiscal decentralization and environmental pollution: Evidence from Chinese panel data

China's environmental pollution casts a shadow on its economic success. Concerning fiscal decentralization, China introduced the rule-based tax assignment system in 1994. To avoid the structural change in underlying fiscal regimes, we use the provincial panel data during the period 1995–2010. We find that fiscal decentralization has no significant effect on environmental pollution as it is measured per capita emission of wastewater, waste gas or solid waste in system GMM (Generalized method of moments) estimation. Our results are robust when we use different measures of fiscal decentralization. We further find that fiscal decentralization has a significant, positive effect on pollution abatement spending and pollutant discharge fees, which indicates possible mechanisms for fiscal decentralization to help protect the environment.     

Financial penalties as an alternative criminal sanction: Evidence from panel data

This paper explores whether financial penalties can be a viable alternative to traditional sanction methods. Given that the annual cost of operating jails and prisons is approximately $40 billion in the U.S., any increase in the efficiency of the criminal justice system will lead to substantial savings. Using a panel model to control for jurisdictional heterogeneity, results indicate that financial penalties provide a significant deterrent effect similar to those provided by other sanctions. As such, policy makers should reconsider alternative sanctions as part of a larger sentencing policy. While financial penalties are not options in all cases, the large number of nonviolent offenders currently incarcerated suggests that opportunities exist for financial punishment to reduce criminal justice expenditures.     

收入分配与中国居民消费——理论和基于中国的实证研究

本文研究了城乡收入差距扩大对中国居民消费需求的影响.基于生命周期框架的理论研究表明,收入水平越高,居民平均消费倾向和边际消费倾向越低;收入差距越大,居民消费需求越低.文章使用1978—2008年我国28个省、市、自治区的面板数据对理论模型进行了实证检验.结果显示,收入水平提高10000元,居民平均消费倾向下降25.6%,边际消费倾向下降7%;城乡收入差距扩大1单位,居民消费率下降6.5个百分点.数值模拟结果表明,城乡收入差距扩大导致居民消费率在2000—2008年间下降了3.42个百分点,解释了这一期间居民消费率下降的30.8%     

A distributional analysis of union-wage effects in South Africa: Evidence from panel data

This paper examines whether individual workers’ time-invariant unobservable characteristics influence estimates of the South African union wage premium across the length of the conditional wage distribution. It employs the 2001–7 South African Labour Force survey and a fixed effects quantile regression estimator. Results show a relatively large (small) wage premium at the bottom (top) of the conditional wage distribution when workers’ time-invariant unobserved characteristics are ignored. Accounting for this set of factors substantially reduces the wage premium at all points of the distribution. In fact, the wage premium becomes somewhat constant across the conditional wage distribution, suggesting that unions in South Africa have little wage compressionary effects.     

贸易自由化对我国地区收入不平等的影响:来自中国的经验证据

文章基于协整的VAR模型从实证的角度研究了我国地区收入不平等与贸易自由化之间的长期均衡和短期动态关系。研究发现：（1）地区收入不平等、贸易自由化与经济增长之间存在长期均衡关系,贸易自由化和经济增长对于关注参数而言是弱外生变量;（2）贸易自由化在长期内减缓了我国地区收入不平等程度,但在短期内却导致了我国地区收入不平等程度的上升;（3）经济增长长期内趋于提高了我国地区收入不平等程度,但短期的影响方向不确定;（4）地区收入不平等是一个随机游走过程,不是一个含有结构突变的趋势平稳过程。     

Carbon inequality in China: Evidence from city-level data

Carbon inequality has attracted increasing attention worldwide. Utilizing data from China's High Spatial Resolution Emission Gridded Database (CHRED), this paper presents the measured CO₂ emission inequality in China for the years 2005, 2012, 2015, and 2020. Results show that the Gini coefficients of carbon emission report a slight decrease from 0.411 to 0.385 and the distribution becomes more symmetric from 2005 to 2020. Linking carbon inequality to economic level, the positive concentration index (0.230 to 0.118) indicates asymmetricity between carbon emission and economic development. A further decomposition analysis reveals the industrial sector's uneven development, indicating that energy-intensive features can be blamed for a large proportion of carbon inequality. Our findings suggest that policymakers should not consider economic development level alone as the only indicator of the allocation of abatement, as economic structure, energy intensity, and climate conditions are all responsible for such inequality.     

Unobserved firm heterogeneity and the size-exports nexus: Evidence from German panel data

This paper starts from the stylized fact that firm size and exporting tends to be positively related. Using large sets of establishment panel data for three different industries from official statistics, evidence is presented that the familiar picture of an export/sales ratio that increases (at a decreasing rate) with firm size vanishes if unobserved firm heterogeneity is controlled for in a fixed-effects fractional logit regression model. This finding is well in line with the fact that many small firms are “hidden export champions.” JEL no. F10, D21, L60     

中国省域人才资本存量差异分析——来自大学科技园管理机构面板数据的证据

基于中国2008—2019年30个省区市(除西藏外)国家级大学科技园管理机构及在孵企业的从业人员数,采用改进的受教育年限法测算了中国省域大学科技园管理机构人才资本存量.在此基础上,利用Dagum基尼系数和泰尔指数对中国四大经济区域大学科技园管理机构人才资本存量的地区差距进行实证研究.结果发现:在样本考察期内,大学科技园管理机构人才资本存量的年均值呈现出东高西低的特征,而其年均增速则呈现出西高西低的特征;除中部及东北地区外,全国及东部、西部地区省域大学科技园管理机构人才资本存量长期表现为不均衡状态;中国各区域大学科技园管理机构人才资本存量分布差异的泰尔指数均大于零,其反映的各区域人才资本存量分布差异与基尼系数反映的情况有较大差异,且地区内差异始终高于地区间差异.     

The effects of the social norm on cigarette consumption: Evidence from Japan using panel data

Using Japan's prefecture-level panel data from 1989 to 2001, this paper examines the influence of the social norm on a person's smoking behavior when the complementary relationship between smoking and drinking is taken into account. The key findings through a dynamic panel model controlling for unobserved prefecture-specific fixed effects are as follows: (1) influence from others is stronger when people live more closely and cohesively. A tightly knit society results in a reduction of smoking through smoking-related interaction. (2) Smoking and drinking have a complementary relationship: greater initial consumption of alcohol results in larger consumption of cigarettes. (3) The complementary relationship between smoking and drinking is attenuated if the cost of committing the annoying conduct (i.e., smoking) is high.Overall, this empirical study provides evidence that the psychological effect of the presence of surrounding people has a direct significant effect upon smoking behavior and, furthermore, that it attenuates the complementary relationship between smoking and drinking, thereby reducing cigarette consumption. These results indicate that not only formal rules but also tacitly formed informal norms are effective deterrents to smoking.     

The effect of foreign competition on UK employment and wages: Evidence from firm-level panel data

The Effect of Foreign Competition on UK Employment and Wages: Evidence from Firm-Level Panel Data. —This paper contributes to the sparse empirical literature on the effects of foreign competition on domestic employment and wages. The authors estimate a structural labour demand equation on UK firm-level panel data between 1982 and 1989 and several wage equations. When they restrict the sample to the manufacturing sector only, they find for the unionized firms that foreign competition has a negative effect on both wages and on employment. However, when UK manufacturing firms face only a few rivals, foreign competition has a positive effect on wages, but no effect on employment.     

CEO compensation and firm performance in Japan: Evidence from new panel data on individual CEO pay

Prior studies on Japanese executive compensation have been constrained by the lack of longitudinal data on individual CEO pay. Using unique 10-year panel data on individual CEO's salary and bonus of Japanese firms from 1986 to 1995, we present the first estimates on pay-performance relations for Japanese CEO compensation. Specifically we find consistently that Japanese CEO's cash compensation is sensitive to firm performance (especially accounting measures), and that the “semi-elasticity” of CEO's cash compensation with respect to ROA is 1.3 to 1.4, which is in general agreement with prior estimates elsewhere. As such, our estimates do not support that Japanese corporate governance is unusually defunct with regard to the significance and size of the sensitivity of CEO compensation to accounting profitability. On the other hand, to be consistent with the literature on Japanese corporate governance that tends to downplay the role of shareholders and stress the role of banks and employees, we find that stock market performance tends to play a less important role in the determination of Japanese CEO compensation. Finally, we find that the bonus system makes CEO compensation more responsive to firm performance in Japan. The finding is in contrast to the literature on compensation for regular employees in Japan which often argues that bonus is a disguised base wage. J. Japanese Int. Economies 20 (1) (2006) 1–19.     

Financial integration in East Asia: Evidence from panel unit root and panel cointegration tests

The aim of this paper is to investigate the degree of financial integration for selected East Asian countries from 1988 to 2006 using the recently developed panel unit root and panel cointegration techniques. Investment and savings rates are found to be nonstationary and not to be cointegrated in panels. We estimate modified Feldstein–Horioka equations and our results reveal a high degree of financial integration. When we homogenize our data, results show that high-income countries have stronger financial integration than middle-income countries. Finally, we proceed to stability tests in order to test if there is a crisis effect and we find that financial integration is stronger in the post-crisis period.     

The price and income elasticities of the top clothing exporters: Evidence from a panel data analysis

This paper studies the main export function features of twelve top clothing exporters (China, Hong Kong, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Turkey, UK and USA) in the period between 1992 and 2011. Price and income elasticities are estimated for each economy using a panel data approach, after controlling for nonstationarity, cointegration and Granger causality. Rolling regressions are also performed, and show the existence of some elasticities instability over time, fundamentally related to the profound economic and institutional changes affecting the clothing trade in the period under consideration. The analysis suggests that most advanced economies, including Hong Kong, changed their position in the global value chain towards an “organizational” role. China confirms its leadership in clothing exports although its rising price elasticity sounds a warning with regard to future prospects.