老龄化对我国农村消费和收入不平等的影响

本文从生命周期理论框架出发,考察了我国农村消费及收入不平等与年龄及人口老龄化之间的关系。我们采用CHIP 1988年、1995年和2002年三年的微观数据,利用方差分解和回归分解方法,将我国农村总的消费和收入不平等分解为出生组间不平等、出生组内不平等和老龄化效应。结果发现,在我国农村,消费不平等要低于收入不平等;其次,在各个时期,组内不平等都占主导地位;最后,老龄化对不平等的效应很小。     

ON THE WEALTH DYNAMICS OF SWEDISH FAMILIES, 1984–98

This paper focuses on three issues. First, it analyzes the increasing inequality of wealth in Sweden in terms of percentile age and birth cohort differences, and finds very weak evidence of life-cycle savings. There are rather strong birth cohort differences in wealth accumulation. Second, it is shown that bequests and inter vivo gifts contribute to the age and cohort differences in wealth, but do not increase the inequality of wealth. The third theme is mobility of wealth as a function of bequests, age, period, length of the transition period, and the magnitude of quantile differences.     

The second Engel law: Is it a paradox?

The second Engel law says that the Engel curve for food moves out as family size increases, thus showing a decrease in welfare. What is puzzling, though, is that this regularity does not hold for equivalent income functions expressed in per capita terms. Deaton and Paxon [1998. Economies of scale, household size, and the demand for food. Journal of Political Economy 106 (5), 897-930] show that holding per capita total household expenditure constant, per capita expenditure on food falls with the number of heads. Deaton and Paxson's empirical evidence from developed and less developed countries seems to invalidate the claim of the second Engel's law. The main objective of this paper is to understand such paradoxical relationship between food consumption and household size. Our nonparametric empirical evidence, drawn from the Colombian 1985 urban survey, shows that the food share is negatively related to total household per capita expenditure in line with Deaton and Paxson's claim, but equivalent incomes shift to the right as theory predicts. The regularity of our nonparametric results is an indication of a problem in the parametric specification of the Engel curve modified by family size. In fact, using also the surveys of Italy, Nepal, Djibouti, and Bangladesh we show that a theoretically plausible modified Engel curve is coherent with the claim of the second Engel law and explains Deaton and Paxson's paradox.     

Envy and Inequality*

We present an overlapping generations economy, populated by heterogeneous agents who care about both consumption relative to others and the bequest they leave to their offspring. We show that saving and bequest rates vary across the income distribution, and we obtain several interesting results. First, envy reduces the steady‐state capital stock and increases the degree of inequality in consumption, capital ownership, and bequests. Second, if the bequest motive is sufficiently strong the equalizing effect of bequests disappears. Third, income inequality for a given cohort increases with age. Fourth, the distribution of inherited wealth becomes more unequal than that of wealth in general. Fifth, economic position becomes more persistent across generations.     

Does consumption inequality track income inequality in Italy?

This paper presents stylized facts on labor supply, income, consumption, wealth, and several measures of consumption and income inequality drawn from the 1980–2006 Survey of Household Income and Wealth (SHIW) conducted by the Bank of Italy. The SHIW provides information on consumption, income and wealth, and a sizable panel component that allows econometricians to estimate sophisticated income, consumption, and wealth processes and to analyze labor market and portfolio transitions. We find that over the sample period income inequality is higher and has grown faster than consumption inequality. Most of the increase in income inequality is related to an increase in the degree of earnings' instability rather than to shifts in the wage structure. We suggest that, in particular, the labor market reforms of the 1990s and 2000s are the most plausible explanation of the increased earnings inequality.     

Is consumption too smooth? The case of the United Kingdom

This study consider whether, for the UK, the restrictions of the rational expectations permanent income (REPI) model of consumption are consistent with the data and whether consumption is too smooth given innovations in labour income. Some of the findings confirm those for the USA: the REPI restrictions are rejected. However, in marked contrast to the result of Campbell and Deaton (1989), little is found to support the view that consumption is too smooth; indeed there is some support for the view that consumption is too volatile. Some insight is given as to how such results can arise.     

Angus Deaton’s Nobel Prize for Confronting Theory with Facts

Angus Deaton, recipient of the 2015 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, is broadly recognized as an outstanding applied economist who is well deserving of the prize. He has made a myriad of important contributions—alone and with renowned co-authors—across many fields. In this review of his work, I argue that it is his methodological consistency and focus on the two-way connection between empirics and theory, together with his attention to detail of how things are measured, that support his recognition by his peers. Informed by a career of doing careful econometric work using household surveys—especially on consumption, development, well-being and health—in his popular writing, Deaton chooses to focus on the importance of institutions, history and other disciplines.     

Inequality trends for Germany in the last two decades: A tale of two countries

In this paper we first document inequality trends in wages, hours worked, earnings, consumption, and wealth for Germany from the last twenty years. We generally find that inequality was relatively stable in West Germany until the German reunification, and then trended upwards for wages and market incomes, especially after about 1998. Disposable income and consumption, on the other hand, display only a modest increase in inequality over the same period. These trends occurred against the backdrop of lower trend growth of earnings, incomes and consumption in the 1990s relative to the 1980s. In the second part of the paper we further analyze the differences between East and West Germans in terms of the evolution of levels and inequality of wages, income, and consumption.     

The Contributions of Angus Deaton

Angus Deaton was awarded the 2015 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for his analysis of consumption, poverty, and welfare. This article reviews his contributions to economics. This article reviews his contributions to economics.     

Consumption inequality in Canada, 1997 to 2009

We assess the evolution of consumption inequality in Canada over the years 1997 to 2009. We correct the imputation of shelter consumption for homeowners to allow for unobserved differences in housing quality correlated with selection into rental tenure, and we account for measurement error in this imputation. Using the annual Survey of Household Spending for years 1997 to 2009, we find that household‐level consumption inequality measured by the Gini coefficient increased from 0.251 to 0.275 over 1997 to 2006. Between 2006 and 2007, consumption inequality may have decreased, and over 2007 to 2009, consumption inequality was flat. Over the entire period of 1997 to 2009, consumption inequality increased moderately. The Gini coefficient for individual‐level consumption inequality followed a similar pattern, though the changes were smaller in magnitude. We also explore a possible correction for tail non‐response bias in inequality measurement and find that the increase in measured consumption inequality is robust to this correction.     

Consumption and Income Inequality in Australia

Consumption may be a more appropriate measure of household well-being than income or earnings. Using four ABS Household Expenditures Surveys collected between 1975 and 1993, we compare trends in consumption and income inequality among Australian households. We find that consumption is much more equal than income. While there were significant increases in both income and consumption inequality, consumption inequality rose by much less. One interpretation of the results is that some income inequality in Australia reflects transitory fluctuations which households can smooth,'and that part of the growth in income inequality reflects an increase in these transitory fluctuations.     

中国物价波动与经济增长关系研究——基于城乡居民消费差距视角的分析

物价波动与经济增长之间的关系是经济学传统的研究课题。本文在测量城乡居民消费差距的基础上,利用TARCH模型研究了物价波动对城乡居民消费差距的非对称影响,并从城乡居民消费差距的视角分析了物价波动对经济增长的影响。研究结果表明:物价波动使得城乡居民消费差距的变化越来越小;物价波动与城乡居民消费差距之间呈负相关关系,当物价变动1%时,城乡居民消费差距反向变动0.579%;物价波动对经济增长有着负的直接影响;物价波动通过影响城乡居民消费差距进而对经济增长产生负的间接影响。     

Inequality of Income and Consumption in the U.S.: Measuring the Trends in Inequality from 1984 to 2011 for the Same Individuals

This paper examines the distribution of income and consumption in the U.S. using one dataset that obtains measures of both income and consumption from the same set of individuals. We develop a set of inequality measures that show the increase in inequality during the past 27 years using the 1984–2011 Consumer Expenditure Survey. We find that the trends in income and consumption inequality are similar between 1984 and 2006, and diverge during and after the Great Recession. For the entire 27‐year period we find that consumption inequality increases almost as much as does income inequality.     

Taylor rules: Consequences for wealth and income inequality

This paper compares the consequences of “active” vs. “passive” Taylor rules for wealth and income inequality. Since the distinction is operative only along transitional paths, we compare the implications for two forms of government expenditure that generate such transitions. Our results confirm that the contrasting effects obtained previously for the aggregate economy have significant distributional consequences. For an active Taylor rule, whether the government increases its expenditure on consumption, or productively, wealth inequality will increase. Expenditure on the two public goods yields divergent paths for income inequality. Government consumption expenditure raises income inequality; productive government expenditure reduces it. If the Taylor rule is passive, an increase in either form of government expenditure reduces wealth inequality initially and over time. Income inequality initially increases, but declines over time, although remaining above its previous steady-state level.     

Inequality trends in Sweden 1978–2004

We document a clear increase in Swedish earnings inequality in the early 1990s, and that much of this increase was generated by movements in and out of the labor market. Inequality in disposable income and earnings net of taxes and transfers also increased, but much less than the increased inequality in pre-government earnings. These different developments are most likely explained by the generous Swedish welfare system. Consistent with these observations, we see no clear trend in consumption inequality.We also estimate stochastic processes for household earnings. A simple random-walk process captures much of the life-cycle dynamics. But we find clear evidence that the true earnings process is not a random walk. We demonstrate that some estimation methods result in severe upward bias in the estimated volatility of permanent shocks if serial correlation in temporary shocks is ignored.Our estimation results show that the increase in earnings inequality is almost entirely driven by an increase in residual earnings inequality. Moreover, this increase was mostly generated by an increased volatility of persistent shocks.     

Consumption and leisure in Austria

Böhm's (1980) data set on consumption and leisure in Austria is used to estimate the Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) of Deaton and Muellbauer (1980). Average income elasticities and average Slutzky price elasticities are calculated and the patterns of consumption and leisure in Austria are described.     

PRICE SEARCH,CONSUMPTION INEQUALITY AND EXPENDITURE INEQUALITY OVER THE LIFE ‐CYCLE

We differentiate consumption from expenditure by incorporating price search decision into an otherwise standard life‐cycle model. We first analytically show that, under very general conditions, poorer households search more and pay lower prices compared to wealthier ones. As a result, consumption inequality is smaller than expenditure inequality, and the gap between them increases over the life‐cycle. Next, using a plausibly calibrated model, we find that life‐cycle increase in consumption inequality is about 30% lower than the increase in expenditure inequality. Price search provides an insurance mechanism against income shocks and increases the welfare of a newborn by 3.9%.     

CHANGES IN CANADIAN FAMILY INCOME AND FAMILY CONSUMPTION INEQUALITY BETWEEN 1978 AND 1992

This paper uses Canadian cross-sectional income and expenditure data to examine changes in the distribution of family income and family consumption during the period 1978 to 1992. Family consumption data are analyzed because in the presence of intertemporal consumption smoothing, the cross-sectional distribution of consumption may characterize the distribution of lifetime wealth. I find that both Canadian family income inequality and Canadian family consumption inequality moved countercyclically. In addition, both Canadian family income inequality and Canadian family consumption inequality trended upward over the period; however, the change in family consumption inequality was much smaller than the change in family income inequality, suggesting that inequality in the distribution of lifetime wealth may have changed much less than is suggested by changes in the distribution of income.     

中国农村家庭脆弱性的测量与分解

在理论层面上,本文在效用理论基础上对脆弱性进行了定义并对其分解以反映消费的不平等性和波动性。在实证分析层面上,本文使用CFPS(Chinese Family Panel Studies)数据对中国农村家庭脆弱性进行量化与分解。量化结果表明多数农村家庭是脆弱的;分解结果发现相对于村间不平等,村内不平等是脆弱性的主要组成部分。家庭脆弱性及五个分解部分对家庭特征集合变量的OLS回归结果表明:增加农村家庭收入是降低其脆弱性最有效的手段;提高劳动力平均受教育水平能够有效降低家庭脆弱性,但大学教育支出会显著提高家庭的脆弱性水平,这较好地解释了目前出现的农村籍高中生弃考大学这一现象;新型农村合作医疗和社会保险能有效降低农村家庭脆弱性;社会资本、更大的家庭规模和更高的劳动力占比有利于降低家庭脆弱性,这能较好地解释中国农村家庭频繁的送礼活动以及倾向于组建大家庭的现象。     

Consumption,Income, and Wealth: Evidence from Age,Cohort, and Period Elasticities

This paper examines the relationship between non‐durable consumption, income, and wealth (housing and financial) allowing explicitly for generational heterogeneity. A framework is proposed to disentangle cohort, age, and period effects and the empirical analysis is based on the U.S. Consumer Expenditure Survey data. We find that there are significant generational differences and the results highlight the range of elasticities implicit in results presented, thus far, by age groups. Moreover, we find supporting evidence of humped shaped age profiles for the elasticity of consumption with respect to income and the importance of financial wealth for those aged 60+. The framework also allows us to generate cohort profiles which draw attention to the negative role of housing wealth for generation X, and period profiles which reinforce the role of financial wealth for the baby‐boom generation.