The Evolution of Industrial Earnings Inequality in Mexico and Brazil

Industrial data are used to derive estimates of the pattern of change in wage inequality in Mexico and Brazil. Using the group decomposition of Theil's T -statistic, the paper presents monthly changes in the dispersion of industrial wages for Brazil (1976 through 1995) and for Mexico (1968 through 1998). Both countries show increases in wage dispersion over time, and a strong negative correlation is found with the rate of real economic growth. Other things equal, the later Brazilian heterodox stabilization plans seem to have reduced inequality in the short run.     

Earnings Inequality in Australia: Changes, Causes and Consequences

This article reviews research on recent developments in earnings inequality in Australia. Four main issues are addressed. First, what are the main changes in earnings inequality which have occurred? Second, what do we know about the causes of changes in earnings inequality? Third, how have earnings differentials between workers in different skills groups changed, and to what extent can those changes be explained by shifts in the relative demand for labour and relative supply of labour by level of skill? Fourth, how have changes in earnings inequality affected the distribution of income?     

Increased Earnings Inequality and Macroeconomic Performance: the case of Canada in the 1980s

This paper provides an empirical analysis of the increase in earnings inequality and the relationship to macroeconomic conditions, in Canada, during the 1980s. Regression results presented here indicate that a positive and uniform relationship between the unemployment rate and earnings inequality existed through the period 1981 to 1989. These results contrast with recent findings that the unemployment-inequality relationship weakened in the late 1980s in other liberal economies, such as the US and UK. The main policy implication is that stimulative macroeconomic policy remains a relevant policy instrument in Canada and, more generally, that institutions, such as the degree of unionization, and policies, such as minimum wages, may partially explain differences in the pattern of inequality among countries.     

Twenty Years of Rising Inequality in U.S. Lifetime Labour Income Values

In this paper we study the evolution of lifetime labour income inequality by constructing present value life cycle measures that incorporate both earnings and employment risk. We find that, even though lifetime income inequality is 40% less than earnings inequality, the total increase in lifetime income inequality over the past 20 years is the same as earnings inequality. While the total increase is the same, the pathways there differ with earnings inequality experiencing a steady increase and lifetime income inequality increasing in spurts particularly in the latter half of the 1990s. Finally, we find the changes in lifetime income inequality are primarily driven by changes in earnings mobility and changes in the earnings distribution itself, changes in employment risk and the composition of the sample, such as the shift toward attaining more education and the ageing population, do not play a large role.     

Establishment Level Earnings,Technology And The Growth Of Inequality: Evidence From Britain

It is often argued that technical change is responsible for the increase in wage inequality in Britain and the United States in the 1980s and 1990s. In this paper we examine this argument using data from individuals and establishments. It is found that the presence of micro-electronic technologies in workplaces is associated with higher earnings, especially for skilled workers. Decompositions suggest that technical change could have been a cause of the increase in skills premium for highly skilled workers. Nevertheless, our view is that the correlation between wages and plant-level technology is mainly driven by the effect of high wages on the propensity to introduce new technologies rather than vice versa. This view is supported by simultaneous models of the wage-technology relationship.     

Earnings and Languages in the Family: Second‐Generation Australians*

This paper uses Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia data to assess the performance of second‐generation Australians in full‐time employment in 2007. It examines the role of job mismatch and cultural and linguistic diversity at the individual and family levels. The study accounts for non‐random sample selection. The new evidence shows that: (i) over‐education and over‐skilling carry a wage penalty; (ii) there are significant but heterogeneous second‐generation effects; and (iii) language effects explain most of the disadvantage associated with non‐English‐speaking background.     

Indirect Tax Exemptions and the Distribution ot Lifetime Income: A Simulation Analysis*

This paper uses a simulation model to compare the lifetime consequences of a revenue neutral partial shift towards a consumption tax, involving exemptions, with its cross-sectional effects. Exemptions of goods consumed proportionately more by lower income groups reduce the inequality of the distribution of net lifetime consumption by more than in the cross-sectional case. However, the tax shift increases lifetime inequality by more than it increases cross-sectional inequality, and the net effect is that exemptions cannot compensate for the income tax change. Concern with inequality is most appropriately handled by raising transfer payments rather than introducing exemptions.     

The Impact of Children on the Lifetime Earnings of Australian Women: Evidence from the 1990s

This article presents estimates of the consequences of having children for the lifetime earnings of Australian women in the late 1990s.     

Lifetime Earnings, Discount Rate, Ability and the Demand for Post–compulsory Education in Men in England and Wales

Human capital theory suggests educational investments are made based on expected returns over the lifetime. Most other work in this field, particularly using British data, is based on demand models estimated in reduced form, with no earnings measures, or crudely constructed earnings measures, based on one or two earnings observations per individual.
We present a structural model of demand for educational investment which includes estimates of earnings paths for educational options as determinants of educational choice. This provides us with directly interpretable parameter estimates. The discount rate is also determined within our demand model.
Ability controlled earnings profiles are estimated by matching individuals from the General Household Survey to individuals in similar occupations from the National Child Development Survey (NCDS).
Our results show that expected earnings profiles vary according to observed ability and educational choice. Results from the demand model show that expected lifetime earnings have a significant impact on educational choice.
Other socio–demographic factors, particularly social class, also exhibit significant influences on the education decision. We estimate the discount rate to be lower than reported in other studies.     

公司盈余压力与供应链真实盈余管理

随着资本市场投资者与监管者对公司应计盈余管理识别与监管的增强,隐蔽性更高的真实盈余管理逐渐成为公司操纵盈余的主要手段,如何充分识别公司真实盈余管理行为成为实务界与学术界关注的重要问题.文章研究发现,盈余压力会使公司通过供应链(供应商和客户)方式进行真实盈余管理,公司的议价能力会强化而高管持股会弱化上述作用,而且供应链真实盈余管理与向上应计盈余管理在盈余压力下具有替代关系.进一步研究发现,公司供应链真实盈余管理不同于内部生产调整的盈余管理方式,实施供应链真实盈余管理可以提高公司达到分析师预测的可能性,但会在之后年度出现反转.文章检验了公司盈余压力下的供应链真实盈余管理行为及特征,有助于增进外部利益相关者对公司真实盈余管理的理解,提高资本市场的信息传递与资源配置效率.     

盈余持续增长、收入持续增长和盈余质量——基于中国上市公司的实证分析

本文选取净利润连续5年增长的深沪上市公司作为研究主样本,同时将主样本按照主营业务收入是否持续增长分为两类公司,进行其盈余质量的实证研究。以盈余持续性、盈余的价值相关性、盈余和现金流的关联度和盈余披露的及时性作为衡量盈余质量的标准,证实了盈余持续增长的公司的盈余质量水平较高,其中收入同时持续增长的公司的盈余质量水平更高。     

Inequality and mobility

Acknowledging that wage inequality and intergenerational mobility are strongly interrelated, this paper presents a model in which both are jointly determined. The model enables us to study how inequality and mobility are affected by exogenous changes and what determines their correlation. A main implication of the model is that differences in the amount of public subsidies to education and educational quality produce cross-country patterns with a negative correlation between inequality and mobility. Differences in the labor market, like differences in skill-biased technology or wage compression instead produce a positive correlation. The predictions of the model are found to be consistent with various empirical observations on mobility and inequality.     

盈余管理与审计意见关系的实证研究--基于非经营性收益的分析

文章研究了中国上市公司通过非经营性活动进行盈余管理是否会影响其收到非标准无保留意见(后称非标意见)的可能性.我们的假设是:盈余管理越高的公司,收到非标意见的可能性越大.我们选取1998～2001年3009家A股上市公司进行实证研究,结果与我们的预期一致,支持原假设.我们进一步还对非标意见进行了归类分析,发现公司盈余管理行为仅仅会增加收到"带说明段无保留意见"的可能性,而对其他类型非标意见的出具则无显著影响.     

Earnings Distributions and Means-tested Benefits

This paper considers the question of whether it is possible to identify labour supply incentive effects of a tax and transfer system using information on only the distribution of earnings. The major characteristics of earnings distributions arising from a simple labour supply model are examined. These characteristics include the existence of modes and antimodes caused by kinks where effective marginal tax rates increase and non-convexities in budget constraints arising from means-testing. Actual earnings distributions, concentrating on unemployment benefit recipients, are then examined. It is suggested that the use of such an approach must be severely limited, in view of the fact that there is no one-to-one correspondence between the form of the earnings distribution and the parameters of a tax and transfer system.     

Bayesian Unconditional Quantile Regression: An Analysis of Recent Expansions in Wage Structure and Earnings Inequality in the US 1992–2009

We develop Bayesian inference for an unconditional quantile regression model. Our approach provides better estimates in the upper tail of the wage distribution as well as valid small sample confidence intervals for the Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition. We analyze the recent changes in the US wage structure using data from the CPS Outgoing Rotation Group from 1992 to 2009. We find that the largest part of the recent changes is explained mainly by differences in returns to education while the decline in the unionization rate has a small impact, and that earnings inequality is rising more at the top end of the wage distribution.