Intermediate Inequality and Welfare: The Case of Spain, 1980–81 to 1990–91

The 1990–91 household expenditures distribution in Spain dominates, in the relative ("rightist") Lorenz sense, the 1980–81 distribution, but the latter dominates the former in the absolute ("leftist") Lorenz sense. This situation constitutes a textbook case for intermediate or "centrist" notions of inequality and social welfare. This paper presents the first empirical application of this sort, using the intermediate inequality concept introduced in Del Río and Ruiz-Castillo (2000). The data reveal that there is a decrease in household expenditures inequality for a relatively small set of centrist attitudes.     

中国农村地区收入差距解释:1997～2005

1997～2005年我国农村地区收入差距以2000年为转折点,经历了先下降后上升的变化过程。要素分解分析表明,1997～2000年地区收入差距的下降完全归因于分配效应;2001～2005年地区收入差距的上升主要归因于结构效应。样本分解分析表明,东中西部地区间的差距和东部地区内部的差距是形成农村地区差距的主要原因。费景汉-兰尼斯分解分析表明,工资性收入、地理位置、教育、物质资本和人均占有耕地面积共解释了地区收入差距的80%以上。     

POLARIZATION BY SUB-POPULATIONS IN SPAIN, 1973–91

We use an extension of the Esteban and Ray (1994) approach to polarization in order to analyze the role of different household characteristics in the formation of groups in Spanish expenditure distribution, e.g. educational level, position in the labor market, and region. According to a first approach we assume that groups are determined by a characteristic that their members share, and we study which gives rise to a higher level of polarization. In a second approach we can also investigate which characteristics better explain an observed level of polarization, assuming that income proximity determines the group to which one belongs. In both cases we take into account the effect of social stratification on polarization.     

Budget deficits and long-term interest rates: 1973–91

This study investigates the relationship between nominal long-term interest rates and central government budget deficits during the post-Bretton Woods era in Italy. The analysis is based in an open-economy, loanable-funds framework. The cointegration results indicate, among other things, the existence of a long-term positive relationship between the long-term interest rate and the deficit. An earlier draft of this paper was presented at the Forty-Fourth International Atlantic Economic Society Conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, October 9–12, 1997.     

中国地区间对外贸易的差异性:1978～2007年

本文利用1978～2007年期间的统计数据,基于区域经济学和空间经济学的视角,借鉴并融合不同学科的经典研究方法对中国30个省市间、3大区域间的对外贸易差异性进行实证研究.研究结果表明:中国30省市间对外贸易的绝对差异越来越大,但自从1992年以来,相对差异整体表现为下降的趋势;自从1992年以来,东部地区的内部差异日益加剧,两极化趋势日益明显;地区间对外贸易差异主要表现为外部差异;对外贸易对中国经济的整体促进作用存在"边际效应递减"的趋势,外贸发展领先地区都是东部沿海省市,广东、北京和上海3个省市的增长极效应日益明显,上海代替广东成为中国贸易发展最为领先的地区;中国省市间对外贸易的差异程度日益严重.因此,为了缩小地区间对外贸易的差异性,中央政府有必要在中西部省市培育新的经济圈和增长极,加快东部产业向中西部省市的转移,并加大对中西部省市的投资力度.     

Fifty Years of Regional Inequality in China: a Journey Through Central Planning, Reform, and Openness

The paper constructs and analyzes a long‐run time series for regional inequality in China from the Communist Revolution to the present. There have been three peaks of inequality in the last fifty years, coinciding with the Great Famine of the late 1950s, the Cultural Revolution of the late 1960s and 1970s, and finally the period of openness and global integration in the late 1990s. Econometric analysis establishes that regional inequality is explained in the different phases by three key policy variables—the ratio of heavy industry to gross output value, the degree of decentralization, and the degree of openness.     

生产集中、人口分布与地区经济差异

动、静态比较分析发现 ,我国生产的极化作用不高 ,人口的极化作用过低。我国地区经济差距的主要原因是生产向东部地区不断集中的同时 ,人口没有相应地向那里集中 ,造成核心发达区域生产与人口分布高度失衡。鼓励中西部贫困人口向东部尤其是东部核心区域流动 ,是解决我国地区经济差距的有效策略。     

河北省区域经济差异实证分析

对河北省区域经济的绝对差异和相对差异分析显示:河北省区域经济发展不均衡差异逐步扩大。运用Theil指数的空间分解和基尼系数的产业分解方法分析产生区域差异的原因并以因子分析法综合评价其区域经济的差异性,说明政府应进一步统筹区域协调发展,以缩小区域经济发展过程中的差距。     

Regional welfare loss meaures of the 1973 oil embargo: a numerical methods approach

A simple exercise of time-series analysis shows that the presence of the phonomenon of temporal aggregation in quarterly consumption data can substantially alter the empirical inference about Hall' mocel of consumption behaviour. This fact has received almost no attention in the econometric research in this field.     

Foreign Direct Investment and Regional Inequality in China

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is blamed for being one of the main factors widening regional inequality in Chinese regions since it is highly unevenly distributed spatially. If this logic were true, then controlling the scale of FDI could be a solution to reduce regional inequality. However, it is difficult to reconcile the positive effect of FDI on economic growth with its potential "negative" effect on regional inequality. Using the largest panel dataset covering all the Chinese regions over the entire period 1979–2003 and employing an augmented Cobb–Douglas production function, this paper proves that FDI has been an important factor responsible for regional growth differences in China. However, it suggests that FDI cannot be blamed for rising regional inequality. It is the uneven distribution of FDI instead of FDI itself that has caused regional growth differences. The research results have important policy implications on regional development in China relating to FDI.     

Knowledge Disparity and Regional Inequality in Post-reform China

This article investigates China's knowledge disparity and its association with economic inequality, an issue little attended in Chinese regional studies. It focuses on the 1990s, the period when the economic reform and open door policy started to have their full impact on all aspects of social and economic development. The article reveals that knowledge advancement is uneven in China, with a regional pattern similar to economic inequality but also unique in several ways. The association between knowledge disparity and economic inequality is found not to be as strong as one would expect. The implications of the findings in terms of the impact of reform policies are discussed.     

Against the Wind: Bargaining Recentralisation and Wage Inequality in Norway 1987–91

In the late 1980s, Norway's labour market experienced similar supply and demand shifts for skills to other countries', but unlike other OECD nations, Norway's wage setting system became more centralised. The pay distribution in Norway became more compressed at the bottom from 1987 to 1991, while low wage workers in other countries lost ground relatively. Using Norwegian microdata for 1987 and 1991, I found that changing labour market prices helped cause this wage compression. Further, the less educated had declining relative overall employment but increasing relative public sector employment, both possible labour market responses to the wage compression     

论专业化产业区对县域经济发展的推动作用

专业化产业区是以企业集群为基础的地方产业集聚现象。它以民营企业为主体，具有自组织功能。通过企业集群与产业关联，形成以优势产业为主导的地方产业体系，推动县域工业化、市场化、城镇化进程．是县域经济发展的有效载体与成功之路。     

Benefit-induced female sole parenthood in Australia, 1973-85

The supporting mothers' benefit, introduced into Australia's Social Security Act in 1973, made nonwidowed single mothers eligible for direct Commonwealth transfer payments after a 6 month waiting period from date of separation or birth. The number of sole parent beneficiaries reached 176,730 by 1986, with an annual outlay of over US$1.3 billion. In essence, the supporting parents' benefits program legitimizes and facilitates pursuing a career as a single parent. Econometric estimates of the effects of economic and program-related variables on the benefits participation rates of Australian women during the 1973-86 period suggest that the program has had a substantial effect on several margins of individual choice. The outcome for the individual depends on economic, preference, and demographic variables for individuals, their potential or actual spouses, grandparents, and the benefits and eligibility characteristics of the government's parenting support system. In specifying a female sole parent supply function, the appropriate dependent variable is the female beneficiary participation rate--the number of supporting mother beneficiaries as a percentage of the population aged 15 years and over. Time series analysis suggests that, while the eligible population of lone females heading income units was growing before the 1973 introduction of the benefit scheme, there was also a substantial rise in this eligible population after 1973. However, this rise was less than the rise in female supporting parent beneficiaries between 1974-84. It appears that the female beneficiary rate has increased both because the eligible population of lone females heading income units increased in total and as a proportion of the female population and because of an increase in the benefit participation of those eligible. The data further provide evidence of relative wage and discouraged worker effects; coefficients of the weekly real value of benefits and supplementary assistance relative to female wages and the lagged female unemployment rate are positive.     

Inequality reduction by income taxes: Just how much? An investigation for the Netherlands, 1914–1973

Data on the income distribution in the Netherlands since the introduction of the income tax in 1914 are used to calculate the extent of income redistribution through the progressive rate structure. Seven indexes of income equality are used, and their values after-tax are divided by the value before-tax. The extent of inequality reduction differs substantially between inequality indexes. Pearson and Kendall correlation coefficients of the time series are presented and again, the information diverges so widely that one may doubt the usefulness of the conventional summary statistics of income inequality.     

Dissertation abstract: Contribution to a public good - Theoretical analysis and experimental evidence

The work undertook is located between Public Economic Theory and Experimental Economics. The object of the thesis consists in analysing the aggregate behavior and the individual heterogeneity in a voluntary contribution game. The thesis defended here is that overcontribution in comparison to the Nash equilibrium of the game, can not be explained neither by judgement errors, nor by the information on the individual behaviour of the members in a one given group. The level of contribution observed remains nevertheless inferior to the one simulated using the E.W.A. learning model. The dissertation is composed of three parts and six chapters. The first chapter expresses the various theoretical mechanisms of production of a public good, while the second one presents an overview of the experimental literature using voluntary contribution mechanisms. The second part carries on the introduction of an interior solution in a public good game in order to distinguish an explanation of overcontribution in terms of mistakes or strategies. While chapter three presents the most important works in literature that use an interior solution, the fourth chapter constitutes a personal contribution consisting in an experiment with an interior optimum. Our main result is that individuals contribute a constant part of their social optimum and that overcontribution is not explained by error. We test then the simple learning model R.L. using the observed data on the aggregate level. This model predicts well the observed behaviour. The third part is composed of two experiments where the environment of players is modified. We introduce in chapter five promises as cheap talk and find that they increase contributions at the aggregate level. In chapter six, various conditions of information on individual contributions are tested. The parameter tested is the level of information on “neighbours” contributions given to players. One of the treatments presents full information about individual contributions of the members of the group, while this information is incomplete in the other treatments. Our results show that information has no effect on the level of contribution. We simulate then the EWA learning model both at the aggregate and the individual levels and compare the simulated data to the experimental one. These simulations predict a level of contribution that is higher that the one observed in the experiment. JEL Classification C91, C92, H41 Dissertation Committee: Alan Kirman (Ph.D. Advisor), Université d’Aix-Marseille III Marie-Claire Villeval (Chair), GATE, Lyon, France Jordi Brandts, Universitat Autonoma Barcelona, Spain Charles Noussair, Emory University, Alanta, GA, U.S.A. Sylvie Thoron, GREQAM & Université du Var, France Marc Willinger, Université de Montpellier I, France     

物流能力对区域经济的贡献研究

从1956～2001年,物流能力W对江苏GDP增长的贡献率为36.77%。在加强物流基础设施建设的同时,合理调整物流系统结构,加强物流系统的信息化建设,尽快建成现代化的物流系统,是江苏面临的重要任务。     

中国地区工资水平差异的影响因素分析

本文运用模块数据和空间计量学的方法考察了中国改革开放以来影响地区工资水平及地区工资非均衡的各种政策体制因素和经济因素。实证结果表明,中国的地区工资水平及其差异既受制度变迁的影响又受市场机制的作用,具有典型的转型特征。具体而言,工资体制、对外开放、所有制改革、地方保护、教育水平和资本投入等因素对地区工资水平及其差异都有不同程度的影响作用。