Status, the Distribution of Wealth, and Growth

We analyze a simple model of endogenous growth in which individuals care about both consumption and their rank in the distribution of wealth. We show that the steady-growth rate of the economy increases with both the strength of the status-seeking motive and the initial equality of the wealth distribution. Contrary to the basic model of endogenous growth, the equilibrium growth rate is not necessarily smaller than in the social optimum, and we identify the circumstances under which the two coincide.     

经济增长、收入差距与农村贫困

我国经济转型过程中同时发生的居民收入增长和收入差距扩大对农村贫困减缓具有不同的影响。本文在住户调查数据的基础上,讨论了不同时期经济增长和收入差距对于农村贫困减缓的作用大小,估算了不同年份经济增长和收入差距的贫困减缓弹性,并根据Shapley分解讨论了分项收入对贫困程度的影响以及分项收入不均等性的贫困减缓弹性。     

Wealth Inequality and Asset Pricing

In an Arrow–Debreu exchange economy with identical agents except for their initial endowment, we examine how wealth inequality affects the equilibrium level of the equity premium and the risk-free rate. We first show that wealth inequality raises the equity premium if and only if the inverse of absolute risk aversion is concave in wealth. We then show that the equilibrium risk-free rate is reduced by wealth inequality if the inverse of the coefficient of absolute prudence is concave. We also prove that the combination of a small uninsurable background risk with wealth inequality biases asset pricing towards a larger equity premium and a smaller risk-free rate.     

Wealth Inequality and Intergenerational Links

Previous work has had difficulty generating household saving behaviour that makes the distribution of wealth much more concentrated than that of labour earnings, and that makes the richest households hold onto large amounts of wealth, even during very old age. I construct a quantitative, general equilibrium, overlapping-generations model in which parents and children are linked by accidental and voluntary bequests and by earnings ability. I show that voluntary bequests can explain the emergence of large estates, while accidental bequests alone cannot, and that adding earnings persistence within families increases wealth concentration even more. I also show that the introduction of a bequest motive generates lifetime savings profiles more consistent with the data.     

Secular Changes in Wealth Inequality and Inheritance

Data suggest that the distribution of wealth among households in the USA and UK has become more equal over the last century, though, at least for the USA, the pattern may have reversed recently. This paper shows that a model in which all households save for life-cycle reasons and some for dynastic purposes as well offers a possible or partial explanation: the model predicts rising cross-sectional equality of wealth when longevity increases. There may also be implications about very recent changes: expansion of social security programmes and government deficits can lead toward more wealth inequality. Slower growth may do the same.     

Enterprise, Inequality and Economic Development

We characterize an equilibrium development process driven by the interactionof the distribution of wealth with credit constraints and the distributionof entrepreneurial skills. When efficient entrepreneurs are relativelyabundant, a "traditional" development process emerges in whichthe evolution of macroeconomic variables accord with empirical regularitiesand income inequality traces out a Kuznets curve. If, instead, efficiententrepreneurs are relatively scarce, the model generates long-run"distributional cycles" driven by the endogenous interactionbetween credit constraints, entrepreneurial efficiency and equilibriumwages.     

Income Inequality and Economic Growth: Evidence from American Data

While most cross-country studies find a negative relationship between income inequality and economic growth, studies that use panel data suggest the presence of a positive relationship between inequality and growth. This paper uses a cross-state panel for the United States to assess the relationship between inequality and growth. Using both standard fixed effects and GMM estimations, this paper does not find evidence of a positive relationship between inequality and growth but finds some evidence in support of a negative relationship between inequality and growth. The paper, however, shows that the relationship between inequality and growth is not robust and that small differences in the method used to measure inequality can result in large differences in the estimated relationship between inequality and growth.     

关于经济增长与不平等的综合评价——满意度、熵与社会福利

本文试图探讨关于经济增长与不平等的综合社会福利评价体系.建立社会福利评价体系一般面临两个困难:找出合理的社会福利函数和关于收入的个人效用函数.为此,本文把效用函数和社会福利函数标准化为满意度函数,并证明了,唯一满足齐次性和对称性的社会福利函数是个人满意度的几何平均,不存在常弹性或常相对风险规避的个人满意度函数,常二阶弹性的个人满意度函数意味着效用的收入弹性递减.以地区收入分配为例,计算结果显示我国地区不平等有长期增加趋势,若综合考虑收入增长与不平等,我国的社会福利水平有稍微上升的趋势.     

Economic Growth And Global Inequality In Long Run Perspective

Book reviewed in this article:
Angus Maddison, The World Economy, A Millennial Perspective     

社会地位、非期望效用函数、资产定价和经济增长

本文利用非期望偏好结构 ,讨论消费和资产收益的时间序列行为。在这种递归偏好结构中 ,投资者积累财富不仅仅为了消费 ,也为了财富所带来的社会地位 ,我们研究这一假设对消费、投资组合策略、证券市场价格以及经济增长的影响 ,并利用所得到的定价方程讨论风险溢金问题。     

税收、收入不平等和内生经济增长

企业家(通过金融中介)从家庭借贷来支撑创新。二者在企业家的努力不为外人所见的情形下双方签订信用合同分享创新带来的垄断利润(即蛋糕)。两个有代表性经济人(企业家和家庭)的存在允许人们在内生经济增长模型里研究收入不平等。本文研究发现,企业家分配份额的增加一开始会提升增长速度,但是过了一定值后会拉低增长速度;而该份额的增加一直拉大企业家和工人间的收入差距。所以降低企业家获得的蛋糕的份额的分配改革可缩小收入差距。提高企业家来自创新的收入的税率将降低他们的努力程度,从而降低增长速度,但是该税率的提高有助于降低收入不平等程度。存款收入的税率提高尽管不会改变企业家的努力程度,但是也会降低经济增长速度,而且不会降低收入不平等(如果工人有一定比例的存款)。对于劳动收入(工人工资)的税率增加会加剧工人和企业家间的收入不平等,但对经济增长速度没有影响。     

收入不平等对经济增长影响的实证研究

采用联立方程分析方法,实证分析了收入不平等对经济增长影响的三种机制,探讨了收入不平等如何通过影响物质资本投资、人力资本投资和居民消费来作用于经济增长。结果表明,从长期看收入不平等的扩大会刺激物质资本投资,但不利于人力资本投资和居民消费增长,收入不平等对经济增长的长期影响为负。因此,从经济发展的角度政府不应容忍收入不平等的过分扩大。     

中国经济增长与收入差距关系的经验研究

经济增长与收入差距的关系是一个古老而又充满活力的问题。研究发现,尽管全国总量时序数据的Granger因果关系检验表明,中国的经济增长与收入差距不存在任何方向的因果关系,但以各省GDP增长率和城乡收入比为观测点的面板数据检验结果显示:不论是在短期还是在长期,收入差距的扩大都是引起经济增长的Granger原因;经济增长在短期会引起收入差距的扩大,但从长期看,有助于收入差距的缩小。     

城市化、城市倾向的经济政策与城乡收入差距

基于 1 987— 2 0 0 1年间省级面板数据的估计结果显示 ,城市化对降低统计上的城乡收入差距有显著的作用。而地区间人口户籍转换、经济开放、非国有化和政府对经济活动的参与都是拉开城乡收入差距的因素。政府财政支出的结构也对城乡收入差距有显著的影响。研究结果表明 ,中国持续扩大的城乡收入差距与地方政府实施的带有城市倾向的经济政策有关。     

数字渗透、金融普惠与家庭财富增长

数字金融已成为普惠金融发展中最具影响力的形态之一,是普惠金融发展的重要驱动力。文章采用中国家庭动态跟踪调查(CFPS)数据,研究了数字普惠金融促进家庭财富增长的效应及机制。研究发现,与传统普惠金融相比,数字普惠金融更能促进家庭总体财富规模的增长,运用工具变量的检验也证实了这一结论。异质性研究表明,数字普惠金融能够提升家庭的耐用消费品价值、金融资产价值和房产净值;数字普惠金融在货币基金和电子支付方面的使用深度能够增加家庭财富规模;数字普惠金融对城市家庭及中西部家庭的财富增长具有更强的促进作用。但"数字鸿沟"在一定程度上会削弱数字普惠金融对家庭财富的促进作用。     

Human Capital, Growth, and Inequality in Russia

Our model captures the fact that Russia has both much human capital and an education system that produces the wrong skills for a market economy. We define a rule for the timing of educational restructuring that is Pareto optimal and that dominates all later times in a Paretian sense while simultaneously reducing inequality. We demonstrate that failure to implement restructuring early in the transition process is likely to produce a very long delay that will significantly reduce Russia's human capital. A retreat from subsidizing public education is likely to be counterproductive. We argue that early educational restructuring should be emphasized in Russia's transition strategy. J. Comp. Econom., December 1999, 27(4), pp. 618–643. Lingnan University, Tuen Mun, N.T., Hong Kong, People's Republic of China; University of Colorado, Denver, Denver, Colorado 88217; and Royal Holloway College, University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 OEX, United Kingdom.     

Does the Profile of Income Inequality Matter for Economic Growth?

This paper investigates the importance of the shape of the income distribution as a determinant of economic growth in a panel of countries. Using comparable data on disposable income from the Luxembourg Income Study, results suggest that inequality at the top end of the distribution is positively associated with growth, while inequality lower down the distribution is negatively related to subsequent growth. These findings highlight potential limitations of an exploration of the impact of income distribution on growth using a single inequality statistic. Such specifications may capture an average effect of inequality on growth, and mask the underlying complexity of the relationship.     

Growth, Prosperity and the Generation of Inequality

Books reviewed in this article:
Lawrence Mishel, Jared Bernstein, and John Schmitt, The State of Working America, 1998–99
Paul Gregg and Jonathan Wadsworth (eds.), The State of Working Britain