Entrepreneurship and income inequality in southern Ethiopia

This article uses inequality decomposition techniques in order to analyze the consequences of entrepreneurial activities to household income inequality in southern Ethiopia. A uniform increase in entrepreneurial income reduces per capita household income inequality. This implies that encouraging rural entrepreneurship may be favorable for both income growth and income distribution. Such policies could be particularly successful if directed at the low-income, low-wealth, and relatively uneducated segments of the society.     

Horatio Alger Meets the Mobility Tables

The question of how entrepreneurship relates to income mobility is cogent given the current public debate about the sources of income inequality and mobility in United States society. We examine how experience with entrepreneurship has affected an individual's place in the earnings distribution. Our basic tack is to follow individuals' positions in the income distribution over time, and to see how their mobility (or lack thereof) was affected by involvement with entrepreneurship. Our main finding is that for low-income individuals there is some merit to the notion that the self-employed moved ahead in the earnings distribution relative to those who remained wage earners. On the other hand, for those at the upper end of the earnings distribution, those who became self-employed often advanced less in the earnings distribution than their salaried counterparts.     

城乡收入差距与经济增长关系的实证研究——基于中国1978—2007年数据的协整检验与脉冲响应分析

对中国1978—2007年数据的实证研究结果表明：城乡收入差距与经济增长之间存在着长期稳定的双向因果关系：城乡收入差距只在短期内对经济增长产生影响;而经济增长并不会自动导致城乡收入差距的缩小,相反,经济增长在中长期内还会进一步加大城乡收入差距。     

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。     

中国式分权、转移支付与居民收入不平等

本文首先采用基尼系数对我国城乡、城镇和农村居民收入不平等程度进行重新测度,然后以政府转移支付为门限变量建立面板门限回归模型,对财政收支分权与居民收入不平等之间关系进行实证检验,结果发现:一是财政收入分权与收入不平等显著负相关,财政支出分权与收入不平等显著正相关;二是财政收支分权对不同类型收入不平等的作用效果存在较大差异.其中,无论是财政收入分权抑或支出分权对收入不平等的政策效应大小依次是城镇居民＞农村居民＞总体居民;三是政府转移支付在不同区制对居民收入不平等的影响呈现显著地非线性特征.即从相对较低的第一区制跨入较高的第二区制时,转移支付对居民收入不平等的影响由负转变为正.本文以上研究结论不仅对于全面构建央地新型政府间财政关系,还可以为促进公平收入分配提供理论依据与决策参考.     

Ungleichheit: Wahrnehmung und Wirklichkeit – ein internationaler Vergleich

Based on a cross-national comparison, there is virtually no empirical relationship between the actual size of income inequality within a country and how critically people view these income differences. This finding is revealed by subjective inequality data on 23 European countries and the US. Instead, views on income distribution can be far better explained by the subjective perception of inequality within a society. Similarly, redistributive preferences are less influenced by actual distribution than by perceived inequality.     

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.     

Inequality and entrepreneurial thresholds

We explore the relationship between inequality and entrepreneurial activity. Drawing on cross-sectional data from a largescale survey of the economic conditions of individuals across India, we develop a number of dimensions of inequality to explore empirically how inequality interacts with entrepreneurship, operationalized as self-employment or as employing other people. We find compelling evidence that there are thresholds to becoming self-employed, and even more so to assembling the combinations of resources and personal attributes required to become an employer. Greater inequality leaves more people unable to make the transition to self-employment, leaving casual laboring as the occupation of necessity. At the same time, inequality increases the number of employers in a society, by concentrating resources - particularly land and finance - enough for significant numbers of people to be able to cross this higher threshold. Lastly, greater differentiation into social or religious groups curtails the ability to cross either entrepreneurial threshold, presumably by limiting the extent and benefits of social networks of value for entrepreneurship.     

技术创新、市场分割与收入不平等——基于中国省级面板数据的分析

基于1998—2017年中国省级面板数据，分析了省级层面收入不平等程度及其影响因素，重点研究了技术创新和市场分割对收入不平等的作用。研究结果显示，样本期内基尼系数总体水平较高，呈现出了先上升后下降的走势。地区收入差距与技术创新之间存在U型关系，当前“知识溢出”效应超过了“技能溢价”效应，创新水平的提高将有助于缩小地区收入差距；市场分割不仅会加剧地区收入不平等，还会通过阻碍技术创新间接弱化创新对收入差距的缓解作用。地区收入不平等与经济发展水平之间存在倒U型关系，贸易依存度、人均受教育年限和人均社会保障支出的提高有助于缩小地区收入差距，工业化率的提高则会加剧地区收入差距，财政支出对地区收入差距的作用不明显；动态面板模型的研究结果表明，地区收入差距具有惯性特征。最后，基于研究结论，给出了有针对性的政策建议。     

A new approach to financial integration and market income inequality

Using loan contracts of firms in the syndicated loan market, we generate weighted aggregate measures of financial connections of emerging market economies and relate these financial integration indices to income inequality. The results reveal that financial integration is beneficial in reducing market income inequality, but worsens net income inequality. Financial intermediation is detrimental to net income inequality, but beneficial in lowering market income inequality. The results show that independent access to financing has no relationship with income inequality. The results are invariant using alternative income inequality indices and using external instrument against internal instrument in identifying the equations.     

Taxes,start-up costs,and innovative entrepreneurship

Prior research investigates the role of start-up costs and taxes with regard to entrepreneurship. Yet, little distinction is made regarding the type of entrepreneurship, particularly innovative versus non-innovative entrepreneurship. We shall argue that start-up costs and taxes are associated in different ways with innovative versus non-innovative entrepreneurship. Taxes being recurring costs should mainly relate to innovative entrepreneurship, whereas start-up costs being one-off costs should mainly relate to non-innovative entrepreneurship. Analyzing a dataset of 632,116 individuals, including 43,223 entrepreneurs from 53 countries, we can partially confirm our predictions. Corporate taxes show a negative relationship with innovative entrepreneurship, whereas income taxes seem to have no relationship. High start-up costs have a positive relationship with innovative entrepreneurship, although this finding only holds true in cross-sectional investigations. Our paper contributes to the discussion on how governmental regulation and taxes relate to entrepreneurship.     

The income inequality,financial depth and economic growth nexus in China

Income inequality has increased in China despite rapid economic growth. Income inequality could impinge on future development, leading to social tension or political instability. Our study investigates the short-run and long-run relationship between three important macroeconomic indicators—income inequality, economic growth and financial depth. We utilise a two-step procedure of ARDL bounds and Granger causality for the analysis. The bounds test indicates the presence of a cointegrating relationship between income inequality, financial depth and economic growth in the long run. In the second step, we utilise the Granger causality approach. Results show a bidirectional causality between financial depth-growth and a unidirectional causality between inequality-growth in the short run. In the long run, results reveal that growth and financial depth determine Gini. Our findings provide support for the inequality-widening effect due to economic growth and higher credit provided to the private sector. We find no evidence of inequality-narrowing or income-equalising effect in the long run for the period of study. It is possible that the government's inclusive growth policies which started less than a decade ago have not taken effect for us to capture the inverted U-shape income equalising effect significantly.     

Financial Development,Financial Structure and Income Inequality in China

Using panel data of 23 provinces during the period 1996–2012, this paper investigates the impacts of financial development and structure on income inequality in different administrative districts (urban, rural and overall) in China. The results produced by the dynamic generalised method of moments estimator provide some evidence for a linear and inverse ‘U‐shape’ relationship between financial development and income inequality, and increasing the relative importance of financial markets to banks helps to reduce income inequality. Furthermore, the results of panel threshold regressions show that the benefits of financial development only occur if the stock market activity has reached a threshold level and disappear if the stock market capitalisation has reached a certain scale. Meanwhile, the impact of the financial structure weakens as the financial development expands and the proportion of financial markets increases. We also find that the impacts of financial development and structure on rural income inequality are stronger than those on urban income inequality.     

Entrepreneurship Education in a Poverty Context: An Empowerment Perspective

Empowerment is an important but understudied phenomenonExperiential Learning in entrepreneurship education. We integrate literatures on empowerment theory and experiential learning to propose a conceptual model of empowerment‐based entrepreneurship education. The concept of entrepreneurial empowerment is introduced as a cognitive state characterized by meaning, competence, self‐determination, and impact toward entrepreneurial activities. The model proposes that empowerment has a mediating role in the relationship between experiential learning approaches in a poverty context and the acquisition of learning outcomes. The model is illustrated using an entrepreneurship and adversity program that supports local low‐income individuals in starting and growing their ventures.     

Housing Development and Urbanisation in China

Rapid urbanisation and rising income have led to a strong demand for housing in urban China. However, housing development has been distorted by speculation, income inequality and lack of government support for low‐cost houses. In recent years, house prices become so high, making the vast majority of urban residents unable to afford, whereas rich families are able to buy many and leave them vacant. Income inequality is a major cause for rising house prices, which, in turn, exaggerates income inequality further. This vicious relationship has caused social tension between the rich and the poor and unhappiness among the middle‐ and low‐income groups. This paper discusses the factors responsible for the housing bubble in China and recommends appropriate policies to resolve this problem.     

收入不平等对经济增长的负面影响机制——近二十年文献综述

近年来,国内外学者运用各种方法探讨了收入不平等与经济增长的关系。大部分研究结论显示,收入差距对经济增长存在间接的负面影响,两者之间存在一个多因素的传导过程,包括人力资本积累机制、政治经济决策机制、社会冲突机制、需求传导机制以及其他传导机制。总的来看,这些研究加深了对于两者关系性质和相互影响的认识,但研究结论的分歧和研究方法的局限性仍然存在,有必要对两者关系进行更深入的研究。     

Was treibt staatliche Umverteilung?

This paper investigates the major drivers of governmental redistribution. Extended and harmonised data on effective redistribution recently provided by the newest version of the Standardized World Income Inequality Database allows for the assessment of the origins of governmental redistribution for a broad sample of countries. Our findings confirm the Meltzer-Richard hypothesis, pointing to a robust positive relationship between market inequality and redistribution. We show that perceptions of inequality are often biased and that the redistribution-enhancing effect of gross inequality is even stronger when individuals are aware of national income disparities. The results also suggest that top income shares tend to impede redistributive policies.     

Wealth and Income Inequality: An Economic and Ethical Analysis

I perform an economic and ethical analysis on wealth and income inequality. Economists have performed many statistical studies that reveal a number of, often contradictory, findings in connection with the distribution of wealth and income. Hence, the statistical findings leave us with no better knowledge of the effects that inequality has on economic progress. At the same time, the existing theoretical results have not provided us with a definitive answer concerning the effects of inequality on progress. By gaining knowledge of the nature of inequality, and bringing basic economic principles to bear on the subject, we can come to an understanding of what the causal relationship is between inequality and economic progress. Furthermore, I apply a new theory of ethics – rational egoism – to assess economic inequality. I show that, in the right context, economic inequality is both economically and morally desirable.     

Cross‐Country Determinants of Early‐Stage Necessity and Opportunity‐Motivated Entrepreneurship: Accounting for Model Uncertainty

Model uncertainty is one of the most pervasive challenges in the social sciences. Cross‐country studies in entrepreneurship have largely ignored this issue. In this paper, we evaluate the robustness of 44 possible determinants of early‐stage opportunity‐motivated entrepreneurship (OME) and necessity‐motivated entrepreneurship (NME) that are broadly classified in four groups: (1) economic variables, (2) formal institutions, (3) cultural values, and (4) legal origins and geography. The results, which are based on a representative world sample of up to 73 countries, suggest that institutional variables associated with the principles of economic freedom are most robustly correlated with OME and NME. Our findings also identify net income inequality and Scandinavian legal origins as weakly robust predictors of both types of entrepreneurial activity. Furthermore, we find that log GDP per capita is only a weakly robust predictor of NME, but not OME. We discuss implications for future research.     

Nascent Entrepreneurship and the Level of Economic Development

Based upon two strands of literature, this paper hypothesizes a U-shaped relationship between a country’s rate of entrepreneurial dynamics and its level of economic development. This would imply a different scope for entrepreneurship policy across subsequent stages of development. Regressing global entrepreneurship (GEM) 2002 data for nascent entrepreneurship in 36 countries on the level of economic development as measured either by per capita income or by an index for innovative capacity, we find support for a U-shaped relationship. The results suggest that a ‘natural rate’ of nascent entrepreneurship is to some extent governed by ‘laws’ related to the level of economic development. For the most advanced nations, improving incentive structures for business start-ups and promoting the commercial exploitation of scientific findings offer the most promising approach for public policy. Developing nations, however, may be better off pursuing the exploitation of scale economies, fostering foreign direct investment and promoting management education. An erratum to this article is available at .