INCOME-GENERATING FUNCTIONS IN A LOW INCOME COUNTRY: COLOMBIA

Income generating functions are statistical tools used to explain income inequality and other economic outcomes and behavior. These functions are often associated with a strict human capital framework, but they need not be. Instead, they may be viewed as a reduced form equation summarizing the relationship between income and various personal and locational characteristics. Following this latter interpretation, we develop the regression and analysis of variance approaches to income generating functions and estimate them empirically using micro-economic data from one low income country, Colombia. Proceeding to increasingly parsimonious specifications of income generating functions, insights are gained into the structure of incomes in Colombia.     

MULTILEVEL DECOMPOSITION METHODS FOR INCOME INEQUALITY MEASURES*

This paper studies the multilevel decomposability of the respective income inequality measures proposed by Theil, Rao and Bahattacharya–Maharanobis. All the methods can be decomposed into multilevels if and only if each lower level subgroup belongs to only one particular higher level group. We found not only analytically but also empirically that the residual in the decomposed Bahattacharya–Maharanobis measure tends to increase when the decomposition levels increase. We conclude that Theil's and Rao's decompositions have advantages in empirical analysis and that the choice of the decomposition methods depends on the purpose of the analysis.     

关系对农村收入差距的贡献及其地区差异-一项基于回归的分解分析

Our paper aims at examining the impacts of social networks,the most important category of social capital,on income and income inequality of rural households. Moreover,we intend to understand how these impacts vary across regions with different levels of marketization and economic development. Employing household survey data from rural China,our empirical results demonstrate that social networks contribute 12.1%—13.4% to the income inequality among households in rural China,ranking the fourth after village f...     

城镇居民财产性收入不平等研究

本文利用《中国城市（镇）生活与价格年鉴》提供的数据,分析了财产性收入在影响我国城镇居民总收入不平等中所处的地位和具有的特点。在此基础上,本文进一步研究了财产性收入内部的不平等和各部分对总体不平等的贡献率,以及个人所得税在财产性收入调节中的作用。研究表明,目前我国城镇居民财产性收入增长迅速,并且对总收入不平等的贡献率呈明显的上升趋势。此外,财产性收入差距不断扩大,其内部不平等情况十分严重,目前个人所得税对财产性收入不平等的调节效果不明显,今后仍有很大的调控空间。     

HOW INCOME INEQUALITY CHANGED IN GERMANY FOLLOWING REUNIFICATION: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS USING DECOMPOSABLE INEQUALITY MEASURES

This paper analyzes how inequality in Before and After Government income has changed in Germany since reunification using the 1990 through 1992 waves of the German Socio-Economic Panel. A Theil decomposable inequality index is used to measure inequality in Germany and in its eastern and western states. Massive public transfers from west to east have narrowed the east-west income gap, substantially offset the rise in income inequality from private sources, and lowered overall inequality in the western states. The net result of this policy has been a drop in After Government income inequality in Germany between 1990 and 1992.     

THE DECOMPOSITION OF INCOME INEQUALITY: AN ANALYSIS BASED ON THE NORTHERN IRELAND FAMILY EXPENDITURE SURVEY FOR 1985

This paper conducts an empirical investigation into the issue of inequality decomposition, using the 1985 FES micro data tapes for Northern Ireland. It is hoped that it makes three contributions. First, by using the raw data, it permits a fairly rich disaggregation of individuals. The disaggregation employed in this paper viz. by individuals belonging to different'family types'and individuals of different'economic status'seems particularly relevant to social policy. Second the data also permits a disaggregation of total income by type of income: this permits one to assess, for example, how much of total inequality is caused by inequality in the distribution of income from different sources. Finally, the analysis is consistent with the existing theoretical literature on inequality decomposition.
The main results may be summarized briefly. When the FES sample was divided by subgroups of family type or economic status, then, in 1985, most of income inequality in NI was due to within group rather than to between group inequality. When total income was disaggregated by income type, then inequalities in the distribution of wages and salaries made the largest contribution to the inequality of total income. Prosperous families in NI tended to contain within them a far greater proportion of secondary workers than did the less well off families. It was not implausible therefore that the distribution of employment between families made a major contribution to wage inequalities between them.     

THE TREND IN URBAN INCOME INEQUALITY IN TWO CHINESE PROVINCES, 1986–90

This paper discusses to what extent the economic growth in China in the 1980's has improved the economic well-being in urban regions of the provinces Sichuan and Liaoning and whether or not the economic growth has been attained at the cost of increased inequality. The study is based on individual household data from the State Statistical Bureau's Urban Household Survey during the 1986–90 period.     

LIVING STANDARDS INEQUALITY BETWEEN MIGRANTS AND LOCAL RESIDENTS IN URBAN CHINA—A QUANTILE DECOMPOSITION

This study investigates the inequality in per‐capita consumption expenditure between urban and rural‐to‐urban migrant households in China using Rural‐Urban Migration in China (RUMiC) data. The methodology used is that of Oaxaca‐Blinder and unconditional quantile decompositions and we deal with selection related to education level using matching. It is found that the characteristics effect does not contribute toward explaining any of the gaps in consumption. Results from a detailed decomposition suggest that differences in educational level account for 8%–19% of the overall inequality after taking selectivity of education into consideration. Differences in household size and region of residence are also important in narrowing expenditure inequality between the two groups. (JEL R23, C15)     

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.     

STATE PATTERNS IN FAMILY INCOME INEQUALITY

It is well known that U.S. income inequality began to increase in the 1970s and increased sharply in the 1980s. Yet, what is less well known is that this upward trend was not uniform across states. Some states experienced almost no increase in family income inequality, while other states experienced dramatic increases. We use the variation in state trends to examine factors that may underlie shifts in U.S. income inequality. Among numerous factors, we include variables that allow us to examine the role that state and local economic development policy may play. Also, in examining state income inequality differences that could not be explained by economic factors, we explore the possibility that cultural and social norm factors affect state income inequality.     

CHANGING INCOME DISTRIBUTION UNDER DEVELOPMENT: COLOMBIA

This paper examines the available evidence relative to the distribution of income in a developing country, Colombia, over a relatively long span of years, roughly from the mid-30s to the mid-60s, especially in the context of the argument that recent growth has been characterized by worsening distribution and stable or declining incomes for lower income groups. The basic conclusions are that income distribution within agriculture worsened throughout the period, while non-agricultural income probably worsened from the mid-30s to the early 50s, improved from then to the mid-60s, and then leveled off. During the period of improvement in non-agricultural income, it appears that the overall distribution also improved somewhat. Over the period as a whole, the main gainers have been the second and third deciles from the top; the top decile appears to have lost. The bottom two deciles also appear to have lost.     

城镇居民收入差别及制约其变动的某些因素-就天津市城镇居民家户特征的影响进行了一些讨论

本文主要考察经济发展中的某些因素特别是家户特征对中国城镇居民收入差别状况的影响。自改革开放以来中国城镇居民的收入差别持续扩大,但按可比标准还没有达到两极分化状态。我们发现,随着经济的发展,行业结构转换已经成为影响当前中国城镇居民收入差别及其变动的最主要因素。     

INCOME STRATIFICATION AND INCOME INEQUALITY

This paper develops a new index of stratification that highlights the distinction between inequality and stratification. The stratification index captures the extent to which population subgroups occupy distinct strata within an overall distribution. The indices are group specific and control for group size. A weighted sum of group stratification indices is the third term that, together with between-group inequality and a weighted sum of within-group inequality adds to the overall Gini index of inequality.     

城镇居民收入差别及制约其变动的某些因素-就天津市城镇居民家户特征的影响进行的一些讨论

该文主要考察经济发展中的某些因素特别是家户特征对中国城镇居民收入差别状况的影响.自改革开放以来中国城镇居民的收入差别持续扩大,但按可比标准还没有达到两极分化状态.我们发现,随着经济的发展,行业结构转换已经成为影响当前中国城镇居民收入差别及其变动的最主要因素.     

不平等的度量与分解

本文从实证研究需要的角度,较为完整地叙述了收入分配的度量及其分解,包括常用不平等指数的构建和计算,随机占优分析,以及基尼系数、泰尔指数和基于回归方程的分解。虽然没有对应用性文献进行综述,但简要讨论了研究我国不平等时应该注意的主要问题。     

CONTRADICTORY TRENDS IN GLOBAL INCOME INEQUALITY: A TALE OF TWO BIASES

Did global income inequality rise or fall over the last decades of the twentieth century? The answer depends on how cross‐country income comparisons are made. Exchange rate comparisons suggest that inequality rose whilst the purchasing power comparisons of the Penn World Table suggest it fell. We show that both measures of real incomes lead to biased international income comparisons. Exchange rate comparisons ignore the relative price of non‐tradables, whilst the fixed price method underlying the Penn World Table is subject to substitution bias. The contradictory trends are due to growing dissimilarity between national price structures increasing the degree of bias in each method. When we correct the income data to eliminate bias we find no compelling evidence of a significant change in world inequality.     

林业重点工程对样本农户收入不平等影响的分解与分析

本文采用15个案例县的1995—2006年3 096个样本数据分析林业重点工程对农民收入不平等及其影响程度的作用机理。研究结果显示:(1)在1995—2006年的12年间,样本农户的收入结构发生了重大变化,林业重点工程补贴收入提高了8.03个百分点;(2)林业重点工程补贴收入对样本农户收入的基尼系数的贡献呈现上升态势,从1995年的0.330 7%上升到2006年的3.794 1%;(3)林业工程收入格局与国家工程区域规划有密切关系,工程政策的影响更为显著。因此,适当调整林业重点工程政策可以更好地实现农村扶贫的目标。     

CORRUPTION AND INCOME INEQUALITY IN THE UNITED STATES

In this study we analyze the effects of corruption on income inequality. Our analysis advances the existing literature in three ways. First, instead of using one of the corruption indices assembled by various investment risk services, we use an objective measure of corruption: the number of public officials convicted in a state for crimes related to corruption. Second, we minimize the problems which are likely to arise because of data incomparability by examining the differences in income inequality across the United States. Finally, we exploit both time series and cross‐sectional variation in the data. We find robust evidence that an increase in corruption increases income inequality. (JEL D31, D73, I32)     

INTERGENERATIONAL INCOME MOBILITY IN URBAN CHINA

This paper estimates the intergenerational income elasticity for urban China, paying careful attention to the potential biases induced by income fluctuations and life cycle effects. Our preferred estimate indicates that the intergenerational income elasticity for father–son is 0.63. This suggests that while China has experienced rapid growth of absolute incomes, the relative position of children in the distribution is largely related to their parents' incomes. By investigating possible causal channels, we find that parental education plays one of the most important roles in transmitting economic status from parents to children.