Growth, income distribution and well-being in transition countries

We apply several well-being measures that combine average income with a measure of inequality to international and intertemporal comparisons of well-being in transition countries. Our well-being measures drastically change the impression of levels and changes in well-being compared to a traditional reliance on income measures. Due to low inequality and moderate income levels, socialist countries enjoyed relatively high levels of economic well-being. In the transition process, rising inequality and falling incomes have led to a dramatic absolute decline in well-being and a considerable drop in relative well-being vis-à-vis non-transition countries. We also find a close correlation between income losses and inequality increases. While the transition has been successful in expanding political and civil rights, our indicators suggest that most transition countries are still below the level of economic well-being of the late 1980s.
JEL classification: D6, O15, P27.     

The impact of unemployment on inequality and poverty in OECD countries

The purpose of this research is to examine the contribution of unemployment to income inequality and poverty in various OECD countries. These relationships have been explored using Luxembourg Income Study micro-data. Considerable differences across OECD countries are revealed through the use of within-household unemployment distributions. These differences help to explain most of the observed divergences in the relationship between unemployment and income distribution, in conjunction with the heterogeneous influence of social benefits on the economic position of the unemployed in these countries. A sub-group decomposition analysis corroborates the limited effect of unemployment on income distribution in most of the considered countries. However, it seems clear that the unemployed are among those with the highest risk of experiencing poverty.
JEL classification: D31, I32, J31.     

Inflation and the Income Share of the Rich: Evidence for 14 OECD Countries

This paper examines the distributional implications of inflation on top income shares in 14 advanced economies using data over the period 1920–2016. We use local projections to analyze how top income shares respond to an inflation shock, and panel regressions in which all variables are defined as 5-year averages to examine the impact of inflation on the position of the top-one-percent in the long run. Our findings suggest that inflation reduces the share of national income held by the top 1 percent. Furthermore, we find that inflation shocks and long-run inflation have similar effects on top income shares.     

Inequality,Redistribution, and the Financial Crisis: Evidence from Distributional National Accounts for Austria

In this paper, we provide novel findings regarding the distributional effects of the global financial and economic crisis and how redistribution operated during this time, using detailed data for Austria. We construct distributional national accounts for the period 2004–2016 by combining survey data, tabulated tax data, and detailed national accounts data. The comprehensive data set allows us to analyze the distribution of macroeconomic income growth across the income distribution and to explore the evolution of income inequality over time. Our results suggest that as the distribution of growth changed over time, this had considerable repercussions for inequality, which started to decline at the very beginning of the economic and financial crisis, but increased again after 2012. We find that capital income largely determined both the level and the dynamics of income inequality. Government spending was found to play a key role for redistributive effects across the income distribution. In particular, in-kind transfers redistributed pre-tax income to a large extent. Our results show further that individuals with lower educational levels and younger individuals faced negative growth in pre-tax income over the years and also benefited considerably from redistribution.     

The labour market and the distribution of earnings: an empirical analysis for Italy

Using four waves of data from the Participation Labour Unemployment Survey, a database of information on the Italian labour market supply, we address the question of earnings dispersion by applying a ‘nested’ decomposition procedure of the Theil inequality measure, which combines into a unified framework the standard decompositions by population subgroups and income sources. The empirical evidence obtained points to the key role played by the self-employees in shaping labour income inequality, especially at the upper extreme of the earnings distribution, and the emergence of non-standard forms of employment as an important feature of the contemporary workplace.     

Taking down the wall: Transition and inequality

In this article, we investigate the main determinants of income inequality in the transition countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States during the period 1990–2018. To this end, we address a major methodological challenge that lies at the core of the cross‐country literature on income inequality: the potential endogeneity of income per capita, which is largely ignored by most empirical studies. We adopt a two‐pronged empirical strategy by (1) using trading partners’ weighted average real GDP as an instrumental variable and (2) estimating the model via the two‐stage least squares approach for static models and the generalized method of moments estimator for dynamic models. Our empirical findings are consistent with the Kuznets curve that illustrates a nonlinear relationship between income inequality and the level of economic development. We also find that the redistributive impact of fiscal policy is statistically insignificant and taxation and government spending appear to have the opposing effects on income inequality in transition economies over the sample period.     

Income mobility and risk during the business cycle: Comparing adjustments in labour markets in two Latin-American countries

This paper uses panel data from Argentina and Mexico and a new measure of mobility ‐ the Gini index of mobility ‐ to answer three questions. First, is there a trend towards rising labour income mobility over time in these two countries? Second, is there a relationship between income mobility and growth common to both countries, or does that relationship depend on the institutional features of each country’s labour markets? Third, do we observe more labour income mobility within some groups such as the young and the less educated than within other groups? JEL classification: D31, E32, J63.     

经济增长与收入分配相关性研究重点转移带来的政策启示

从有关经济增长与收入分配相关性的研究内容入手,分析经济增长和收入分配研究从功能性分配向规模化分配的理论转变过程,提出了针对此种演变带给我们的政策启示:在经济增长过程中,应同时关注收入差距问题。     

Interpolating the Lorenz Curve: Methods to Preserve Shape and Remain Consistent with the Concentration Curves for Components

C¹‐class interpolation methods that preserve monotonicity and convexity and are thus suitable for the estimation of the Lorenz curve from grouped data are not widely known. Instead, parametric models are usually applied for such estimation. Parametric models, however, have difficulty in accurately approximating every part of income/expenditure distributions. This paper proposes two types of C¹‐class shape‐preserving interpolation methods. One is a piecewise rational polynomial interpolation (proposed independently by Stineman and Delbourgo) that enables consistent interpolation of the concentration curves for income/expenditure components, attaining approximately the same accuracy as that of the existing methods when applied to decile‐grouped data or to more detailed aggregation. Another is a Hybrid interpolation that employs pieces of curves derived from parametric models on end intervals. Empirical comparisons show that the Hybrid interpolation (with the assistance of parametric models for class‐boundary estimation) outperforms the existing methods even when applied to quintile‐grouped data without class boundaries.     

基于主体视角的国民收入分配格局研究——对中、日两国的实证比较

国民收入在居民、企业和政府之间的分配格局合理与否决定着居民福利水平的提高、企业的持续发展和公共服务的持续发展能否协调共进。中国与日本的国民收入分配格局存在着明显的差异。与日本相比,在国民收入初次分配和再分配中,中国住户部门的所得份额明显偏低,而企业部门和政府部门所得份额明显偏高,中国的国民收入分配格局存在着明显的向企业和政府倾斜的倾向。这对国内消费需求的增长、居民生活水平的提高和产业结构的升级都产生了不利的影响,应该采取提高劳动者报酬收入在国民收入初次分配中的比重、减轻居民税收负担、增加政府对居民的转移支出、放松对企业向职工提供补助和福利的管制等措施,提高居民在国民收入分配中的比重。     

Calculation and decomposition of income inequality in low- and middle-income countries: a survey data analysis

This article estimates income inequality in a sample of four low- and middle-income (LMI) countries namely; Albania, Nepal, Tajikistan and Tanzania using the household survey data – Nepal Living Standard Measurement Survey Second. First, we estimate the income generation function for each country and calculate the income inequality using Gini index (GI). Second, we decompose the income Gini into the determinants of income generation functions. Based on the decomposition result, socio-economic factors are the most important determinants of income inequality followed by geographic factors. Demographic factors have the least effect on income inequality in all four countries. Third, we propose a new method to quantify the effect of change in each covariate of income generation function on income Gini. That allows us to quantify the effects of change in specific policy such as increase in investment in schooling or public health to specific group of the population in society on income inequality. A carefully chosen, integrated policy can significantly reduce inequality in all four countries under study.     

Empirics for Growth and Distribution: Stratification, Polarization, and Convergence Clubs

This paper studies cross-country patterns of economicgrowth from the viewpoint of income distribution dynamics. Sucha perspective raises new empirical and theoretical issues ingrowth analysis: the profound empirical regularity is an emergingtwin peaks in the cross-sectional distribution, not simplepatterns of convergence or divergence. The theoretical problemsraised concern interaction patterns among subgroups of economies,not only problems of a single economy's accumulating factor inputsand technology for growth.     

Some indicators of multinational domination of national economies: analysis for the UK and other developed countries

The paper starts by giving an overview of the foreign direct investment position, relative to the size of the domestic economy, for major developed western economies. It then develops the view that, in assessing the full impact of foreign direct investment on national economies, a global approach should be considered: such approach stresses the relevance of multinational spread of activities and the need to consider the cumulative effect of both outward and inward direct investment. This leads to the introduction of a ‘multinational domination ratio’ for national economies and to estimates of it for some main industrialized western economies over a 20-year period. A first attempt to use this global approach in order to assess the possible impact of UK foreign direct investment (both inward and outward) on trade leads to the computation of elasticities of trade with respect to foreign direct investment.     

Corporate profit tax,firm entry with unemployment,and income inequality

In this paper, we provide a general equilibrium analysis of corporate profit tax on income distribution, unemployment, and wage inequality. With firm dynamics in industrial sector, we identify a new channel through which profit tax affects income and wage inequality: profit tax cut will widen not only the wage gap between skilled and unskilled labor, but also exacerbate the wage inequality of unskilled labor among different sectors. The welfare effect of profit tax cut depends on unemployment deepening (labor-distortion effect) and more manufacturing firms enter the market (business-creation effect), eroding the market share of incumbent firms (business-stealing effect).     

要素生产率和要素配置作用下的中国城乡收入差距

根据城乡生产函数差异的特征事实构建了城乡收入差距模型,利用我国各省1997—2009年数据研究城乡劳动力比、固定资产比、人力资本比、农业中间品投入、工业化和第三产业规模对城乡收入差距的影响。结果显示,我国城乡要素生产率与城乡要素配置的差异对城乡收入差距具有决定性作用;城乡劳动力比的增长明显有助于缩小城乡收入差距,而城乡人力资本比、固定资本投入比、农业成本、以及相邻地区间的相关性都导致了城乡收入差距的扩大。缩小城乡差距的重要途径是加快农村劳动力的城市化、增加农村教育投入、提高农业生产率、增加农村的物质资本投入,各省缩小城乡收入差距的努力对邻近省份也会产生积极影响。     

A framework for the decomposition of poverty differences with an application to poverty differences between countries

We propose an Oaxaca-Blinder-like decomposition of poverty differences. The decomposition is based on a parametric model of the income distribution and can be used to decompose differences in poverty rates across countries or years. Poverty differences are decomposed into differences in the underlying distribution of poverty-relevant characteristics and differences in the incidence of poverty conditional on these characteristics. We illustrate our method by comparing levels and patterns of relative poverty in the USA, Great Britain and Germany during the 1990s. Our results suggest that the higher aggregate poverty rates in the USA and in Britain relative to Germany were mostly accounted for by higher poverty rates conditional on characteristics, which were partly offset by a more favourable distribution of poverty-relevant characteristics, in particular higher employment rates.This paper is part of the research programme of the TMR Network ‘Living Standards, Inequality and Taxation’. Financial support from the European Union (Contract #ERBFMRXCT980248), the UK Economic and Social Research Council, the University of Essex, and the Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft (DFG) is gratefully acknowledged. The data used in this study were made available by Cornell University (Cross-National Equivalent File), the University of Michigan (Panel Study of Income Dynamics), the UK Data Archive (British Household Panel Survey), and the German Institute for Economic Research (German Socio-Economic Panel). Martin Biewen would like to thank the Institute for European Studies and the Department for Policy and Management at Cornell University, in particular Jonas Pontusson, Richard Burkhauser and Dean Lillard, for their hospitality and support. We are also grateful for comments by Bernd Fitzenberger, Joachim Winter, Christoph M. Schmidt, an anonymous referee and seminar participants in Essex, Heidelberg and Mannheim. Last but not least, we thank Nick Cox for providing us with updated versions of his Stata programs for drawing quantile plots.First version received: May 2003/Final version received: December: 2003     

正确把握经济走势实现平稳快速增长

2003年中国经济增长存在有局部过热的特点。新一轮经济增长周期是我们在社会主义市场经济体制下宏观调控中遇到的第一个重要关口。局部过热会引起局部的、结构性物价上涨。而若发展到全局过热,仍会引起全面的通货膨胀。因此,要适时适度地进行宏观调控,保持经济继续平稳、较快地增长;在微观层面上,企业要有应对市场的安全应急机制。     

非正式制度与不同所有制企业人力资本收入差异

在总结各研究者对不同所有制企业人力资本收入差异的实证数据的基础上,对形成这一差异的原因进行了剖析。在分析的过程中放弃了以往研究的视角,从基于意识形态传统的非正式制度角度进入,指出国有企业改革使得企业内部产生了制度摩擦现象。又因为国有企业特殊的委托代理关系,非正式制度在影响企业目标和行为的过程中作用凸显,导致不同所有制企业的分配制度存在差异,从而人力资本收入也存在差异。     

Overhead labour and feedback effects between capacity utilization and income distribution: estimations for the USA economy

ABSTRACT

Empirical studies on the USA have not reached a consensus on whether its demand is wage- or profit-led, leading many scholars to scrutinize what drives the empirical results. This article tests two possible explanations for profit-led results which are related to the presence of overhead labour. To do so, a vector autoregression model is estimated for the USA from 1964 to 2010 and the wage share is split between supervisors/managers and direct workers. The results support the argument that the income redistribution away from workers and towards managers increased the likelihood of profit-led demand and suggest that an increase in the workers’ share of income would stimulate the economy. Also, increases in capacity utilization negatively affect the supervisors’ share, so that short-run profit-led results may be capturing the cyclical behaviour of the profit share, but the effect becomes positive as time goes by, suggesting a complex determination of functional income distribution, as capacity utilization affects it in ambiguous ways.