Spatial Patterns of Expenditure Inequalities in Indonesia: 1987, 1990 and 1993

This article investigates the contribution of inter-regional disparity to total national inequality in household expenditure, by decomposing national inequality into within- and between-province components. This is done by applying the Theil inequality decomposition technique to household expenditure data from the National Socio-Economic Survey. Whereas inter-provincial disparity accounted for 12–14% of total inequality among urban households and 7–8% among rural households, urban–rural disparity accounted for 22–24% of total national inequality. A Kuznets curve drawn according to the 1993 Susenas data indicates a peak inequality value of 0.27 (using Theil index T) when the share of urban households reaches 53.2%; this share is much larger than the actual 1993 urbanisation level of 32.1%. Further urbanisation is therefore likely to raise total inequality, even if other conditions remain stable.     

The trend of the Gini coefficient of China (1978–2010)

ABSTRACT

This study proposes a new approach to analyse the effects of an overlap term on the calculation of the overall Gini coefficient and estimates China’s Gini ratios since the adoption of the economic reform and open-door policies. A decomposition of the Chinese Gini coefficient for 1978–2010 reveals that the key factor contributing to income inequalities is the income disparity between rural and urban inhabitants. We further investigate the features of this income inequality between rural and urban areas and employ statistical approaches to evaluate the effects of urbanisation and rural-to-urban average income on nationwide income inequality. The results show that accelerating the pace of urbanisation is mainly responsible for decreasing China’s income disparity. Drawing on these results, we conclude with suggestions for related policies.     

Evolution of Urban–rural Living Standards Inequality in Thailand: 1990–2006

The present study examines the developments in urban–rural living standard inequality in Thailand from 1990 to 2006 using a methodology that allows for the identification of individual contributors to changes in inequality. We also propose a method to analyze the changes over time in urban–rural living standards. We find that the urban–rural gap in living standards in Thailand has narrowed substantially since the early 1990s, both at the mean and especially for households in the upper part of the expenditure distribution; however, the narrowing of the gap at the bottom of the expenditure distribution has been negligible. The study also identifies the main individual contributors to changes over time in living standards between urban and rural areas in Thailand.     

Changes in the source of China's regional inequality

This paper examines whether the dominant sources of China's regional inequality have changed since the early 1980s. We adopt the decomposition method introduced by Tsui (1993) to facilitate comparisons with his results for 1982. The decomposition analysis shows that the dominant sources of overall regional inequality in output have shifted from the intraprovincial to interprovincial inequality, from the rural–urban to intrarural inequality, and also from the disparity within the coast to between the coast and the interior. In the case of consumption, however, the intraprovincial inequality, the rural–urban inequality, and the disparity within the coast are the major factors of the overall regional inequality.     

Structure of Sectoral Decomposition of Aggregate Poverty Changes in Cameroon

Abstract: This paper reviews theoretical frameworks for sectoral decomposition and assesses the within‐ and between‐sector contributions to changes in aggregate poverty in Cameroon informed by the Shapley Value decomposition rule. Between 1984 and 1996 poverty remained a rural phenomenon in Cameroon. It became more widespread, deeper and severer in both rural and urban areas, but more so in urban than rural areas. While the within‐sector effects disproportionately accounted for the increase in poverty in the period 1984–96, the between‐sector contributions in both rural and semi‐urban areas played a mitigating role on the worse effects of the increase in poverty. These findings infer the potential positive feedback effects of migration such as remittances, and/or increases in rural consumption expenditure in the face of rural underemployment, as effective strategies used by migrants to lift their families and villages out of the worse effects of poverty. The implication of this interpretation is that decision‐makers need to better understand the factors that push or pull potential migrants. Rural–urban mobility could, therefore, be viewed as a strategy used by households to moderate the worse effects of poverty and a vector of shared growth. The implications for public policy, in terms of open unemployment and associated social and insecurity problems at the receiving end, point to the wisdom of addressing the push‐factors via targeting more in favour of rural areas.     

Decomposing Income Inequality and Policy Implications in Rural China

Using village data from samples covering 6 provinces,36 counties and 216 townships,the income inequalities within and between townships in rural China are assessed. The Theil index and the mean logarithmic deviation methods enable us to test income inequality at the township level,and to decompose it into intra-regional and inter-regional at county and provincial levels. In the present paper,we also decompose income inequalities between and within the nationally designated poor counties (NDPC). The results show that approximately two-thirds of the income inequality in rural China would be eliminated if measures and policies were targeted at the county level. This study also confirms the rationale that China's poverty alleviation strategy of focusing on poor counties based on the inequalities between NDPC and non-NDPC accounts for the most inter-province inequality.     

Structural Changes and Regional Income Inequality in Indonesia: A Bidimensional Decomposition Analysis*

Using the bidimensional decomposition method of a population‐weighted coefficient of variation, this paper analyzes the changes in the determinants of interprovincial income inequality associated with structural changes in Indonesia from 1983 to 2004. The method unifies two inequality decompositions by regional groups and gross regional product components (industrial sectors) and, therefore, enables us to assess the contributions of gross regional product components to within‐region and between‐region inequalities, as well as to overall inequality. As the share of mining has decreased, the spatial distribution of manufacturing has played a more important role in the inequality of Sumatra and Kalimantan, while the primacy of Jakarta, with strong urbanization economies, facilitated by globalization and trade and financial liberalization, has determined much of the Java–Bali region's inequality and, therefore, overall inequality in Indonesia.     

Regional Disparity in the Body Mass Index Distribution of Indonesians: New Evidence Beyond The Mean

This article studies the differentials in body mass index (BMI) across the distribution of Indonesian people in urban and rural regions, using the latest wave of the Indonesia Family Life Survey. Besides the mean difference decomposition, this study implements a quantile decomposition analysis and decomposes the differentials between rural and urban populations at various quantile points of the distributions. This study offers new evidence of the substantial heterogeneity of their determinants and their impacts across the distribution, which has been overlooked in the literature. Physical activities explain the distributional differentials across the distribution for men and women, and their relative contribution sizes are larger at the higher quantiles. The significance of the structural effect of food expenditure and choices is observed at the middle and higher quantile points of the female distribution. This article shows the importance of analysing distributional differences by elucidating the heterogeneity of the effects of determinants.     

Trends in Total and Subgroup Income Inequality in the Singaporean Workforce

This paper examines the trends in income inequality in Singapore using Labour Force Survey data from 1974 to 1998. Trends in inequality within and between age, educational and occupational groups are studied using the Theil inequality index. A new method based on the Gini coefficient is also utilized to explore the nature of inter-temporal variation in within-group inequality. Any increase within age-group inequality is due to changing income shares, while the decrease in educational-group inequality comes from decreases in within-group inequality. The contribution of intereducation inequality has also increased over the years, as has inter-occupational inequality.     

Inequality and the Urban-rural Divide in China： Effects of Regressive Taxation

Using three comparable national representative household surveys for China in 1988, 1995 and 2002, the present paper reveals the regressivity and urban bias of China＇s direct tax and welfare system in this period It shows that a regressive taxation system and skewed allocation of subsidies increases the urban-rural income gap and enhances overall inequality. Modeling these relationships indicates that the relatively poorer rural population has a net tax liability, whereas those in the richer urban areas receive net subsidies. This pattern is common in China, although the extent of the bias varies. This skewed system of tax and welfare payments is a major cause of the persisting urban-rural income gap and contributes to the overall income inequality in China. The abolishment of the agriculture tax in 2006 has had a positive impact on rural people ＇s livelihoods.     

Driving factors of CO2 emission inequality in China: The role of government expenditure

China has reached a consensus regarding the total control of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions; however, regional emission inequalities still exist. The reduction of carbon emissions is a public good and indicates a strong positive externality, which is difficult to solve within the market. Such reductions are highly dependent on governmental contributions. Therefore, using the Theil index and the logarithmic mean Divisia index decomposition approach, this paper integrates government expenditure into an analysis framework, investigating the driving factors of emission inequality and the status and changes of China's CO₂ emission inequality from 2007 to 2015, attributing emission inequality to disparities in governmental expenditures, energy consumption, and other socioeconomic factors. The empirical results show that imbalances in economic development, population distribution, and energy structure were prerequisites for a regional emission inequality, while disparities in government expenditure also played an important role. Among these factors, disparities in the expenditure structure were the main cause for emission inequality. The findings of this paper provide guidelines for the government to set carbon emission reduction quota and implement reasonable differentiated emission reduction policies.     

中国开征碳税对价格、福利及公平影响的测度

本文利用投入产出和线性需求模型分析了碳税的价格影响、福利成本以及再分配效应。征税导致占中低收入居民支出比重较大的基本消费品价格大幅上涨,如电热水气、房屋、公共交通、食品等;从等价性变化、补偿性变化的角度看,城镇居民的福利损失随收入降低而上升,而农村居民中中等收入家庭损失最大;Atkinson公平指数显示碳税前后贫富差距有所扩大。因此,碳税具有一定累退性。但是,碳税边际福利成本及其收入差距影响并不大,因此政府可以通过转移支付手段缓解其负面冲击。     

中国开征碳税对价格、福利及公平影响的测度

本文利用投入产出和线性需求模型分析了碳税的价格影响、福利成本、以及再分配效应。征税导致占中低收入居民支出比重较大的基本消费品价格大幅上涨,如电热水气、房屋、公共交通、食品等;从等价性变化、补偿性变化的角度看,城镇居民的福利损失随收入降低而上升,而农村居民中中等收入家庭损失最大;Atkinson公平指数显示碳税前后贫富差距有所扩大。因此,碳税具有一定累退性。但是,碳税边际福利成本及其收入差距影响并不大,因此政府可以通过转移支付手段缓解其负面冲击。     

Migration,population aging,and income inequality in China

In this study, we examine the effects of four demographic factors, namely, birth, death, natural aging, and net migration, on population aging and income inequality in China. We use the official Chinese data and the China Household Income Project Survey data for the 2007–2013 period and apply a decomposition model based on the Shapley method. Unlike previous studies, we include migration in our decomposition model and find that natural aging is the primary factor contributing to population aging in both urban and rural areas. Further, migration may accelerate population aging in rural areas. Moreover, migration contributes to reducing income inequality in urban areas, while widening income inequality in rural areas. The effect of migration is larger than those of birth, death, and natural aging on income inequality. The robustness checks confirm these conclusions.     

Informal employment and its effect on the income distribution in urban China

This paper discusses the issue of informal employment and its effect on the income distribution in China using datasets from the China Urban Labour Surveys of 2005 and 2010. Based on a new definition of informal employment, we estimated the proportion of informal employment relative to total non-agricultural employment in urban China and found it to be 49.7% in 2005 and 40.3% in 2010. Meanwhile, our study illustrated that informal employees' earnings were 67% that of formal employees, and this large earnings gap raised the Gini coefficient to 0.42 in 2005. The Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition result shows that the earnings gap explains more than half of the overall personal income inequality in urban China. These results indicate that informal employment has a significant effect on the income distribution in urban China. Consequently, regulating the labour market, eliminating job discriminations and legislating the informal employment should be considered as alternative means of reducing inequality in China.     

创新与收入不平等

文章运用1995-2014年中国省际面板数据,从部门内和部门间两个视角,考察总体创新和产业创新水平对收入不平等的影响。实证结果表明不同类型的创新活动对收入不平等产生了不同影响：对于城镇居民收入不平等,总体创新水平和高新技术创新水平具有显著的扩大作用,创新带来了不同收入阶层内部的分化;对于农村居民收入不平等,农业创新水平具有显著的缩小作用,显示出农业创新对农民增收的积极作用;对于城乡收入差距,总体创新水平和农业创新水平具有缩小作用,而高新技术产业创新水平具有显著扩大作用。不仅如此,由于城乡收入差距存在显著的正向空间自相关,总体创新和高新技术产业创新对相邻地区城乡收入差距有显著的扩大作用。     

Regional Income Inequality and Welfare in China: A Dominance Analysis

Inference-based dominance analysis is applied to micro data containing comprehensive measures of rural and urban incomes in seven major regions of China. Ordinal inequality rankings are estimated for Lorenz curves of household income, per capita household income and square root equivalences scale adjusted income. Regional inequality is shown to be sensitive to the treatment of household size. The lack of reliable regional cost of living measures leads us to propose that entire food expenditure share quantile distributions be used as indicators of differences in well-being within and across regions. The results indicate that statistical rankings of Lorenz dominance and food share dominance are very different indicators of regional disparities in income and welfare in China. One urban region is shown to have been in the unenviable position in 1988 of being at the bottom of the Lorenz dominance ranking and tied for last in terms of food share dominance.     

Inequality Trends in Indonesia, 1969–1981: A Re-Examination 1

This paper attempts to clarify the debate over trends in inequality in Indonesia from 1969 to 1981, by adjusting die standard inequality measures for the differential impact of inflation on different expenditure groups. It is shown that, once such adjustment is made, inequality increased in Indonesia between 1969/70 and 1976, but declined between 1976 and 1981. Adjustments are also made to the inequality indicators for urban and rural areas, and for Java and the Outer Islands.     

中国农村收入不平等—基于微观调查数据的回归分解

论文利用2003-2008年CGSS的微观个体调查数据,运用回归分解方法对中国农村收入不平等进行分解。首先对收入不平等进行测算,研究发现农村收入极端不平等,并且呈上升趋势。回归分解结果表明,年龄、教育、性别、东部地区虚拟变量、政治地位、婚姻、健康和幸福感是对农村收入不平等的决定要素。其中教育、年龄、性别、东部地区虚拟变量和健康对农村收入不平等的贡献显著。其余变量对农村收入不平等的贡献相对较小,但其对农村收入不平等的影响也不能被忽视。研究结论对政府制定科学合理的收入分配政策和有效调控收入差距具有借鉴作用。     

Urban‐biased Policies and the Increasing Rural–Urban Expenditure Gap in Vietnam in the 1990s

There was a significant and widening rural–urban gap during the economic boom in Vietnam in the 1990s. Using an econometric decomposition, we find that differences in individual characteristics such as education, ethnicity and age are the primary explanation for this widening gap, whereas differences in the returns to these characteristics are the primary explanation for the increase in the gap at higher percentiles. We then argue that government investment policies and the manipulation of price incentives were important factors behind the gap. In particular, we argue that government policies created some benefit to urban dwellers at the expense of rural areas, lending support to Lipton's urban‐bias hypothesis, which states that government, under strong political pressure from the urban population, directs resources from rural to urban areas without consideration of efficiency or equity.