Top income shares in OECD countries: The role of government ideology and globalisation

This paper investigates how government ideology and globalisation are associated with top income shares in 17 OECD countries over the period 1970 to 2014. We use top income shares of the World Wealth and Income Database (WID ). Globalisation is measured by the KOF index of globalisation. Static and dynamic panel model results show that the top income shares increased more under right wing governments than under left wing governments. The ideology‐induced effect was stronger when globalisation proceeded more rapidly. Globalisation was positively correlated with income shares of the upper‐middle class (P99–P90), but negatively with income shares of the rich (top 1%) in the overall sample. We show that the relationship differs between Anglo‐Saxon countries and other OECD countries. Globalisation was more pro‐rich in Anglo‐Saxon countries than in other OECD countries. Government ideology does not turn out to have a statistically significant effect on top income shares in Anglo‐Saxon countries after the 1980s, whereas ideology‐induced differences in the distributional outcomes continued in other OECD countries.     

Zunächst vor der eigenen (Kirchen-)Tür kehren!

At Easter representatives of the Roman Catholic Church and of the German Protestant Church argued for more redistribution. The main tool for redistribution in the German tax system is the progressive income tax. The most important source of funding for the church, the church tax, is directly linked to income. However, for top earners an alternative tax scale applies. In most federal states the church tax is limited to a certain percentage of taxable income, a provision known as “capping”: hence, in contrast to the throughout progressive income tax, the church tax is lowered to a proportional burden for top earners. Therefore, the churches’ demands for more redistribution are inconsistent with the “capping”. An institution that campaigns for a specific type of distribution of taxation burden should at first apply the underlying principles to its own members.     

Relative Intragenerational Economic Mobility: A Cross-Period Analysis from 1968 to 2009

Recent debate about income inequality has occurred with good reason, as changes in income inequality are critically important for long-term economic prosperity, business profitability, and particularly for the quality and accessibility of labor in the market today. However, what is equally important and less discussed is economic mobility, or the capacity of an individual or a family to improve their financial standing, specifically as it relates to income and wealth. In this paper, we examine statistics on economic mobility in the United States. Our findings suggest that while economic mobility still exists, the likelihood of a household making a large jump out of poverty and into wealth declined from 1999 to 2009. The message of our findings to policymakers is that, rather than a redistribution of wealth from the top of the income distribution to the bottom, what is really needed is broader access to affordable education, better essential nutrition, more stable early childhood development experiences, and basic financial literacy training for all income groups.     

The effect of perceived economic mobility on customer aggression toward service employees: A darker aspect of customer behavior

The current research illuminates perceived economic mobility (PEM) as a causal antecedent of customer aggression. Study 1 with large‐scale panel data shows that PEM is positively related to attribution of poverty to personal characteristics and self‐centered intention to change jobs. Study 2 based on an experimental design shows that PEM causally induces customer aggression. Study 3 reveals that the effect of PEM on customer aggression varies depending on income; PEM increases customer aggression among low‐income earners, but the effect disappears among high‐income earners. Study 4 examines control over service employees to get self‐beneficial outcomes as a mechanism for the interaction effect of PEM and income on customer aggression. A moderated mediation analysis shows that the indirect effect of PEM on customer aggression through the proposed mechanism is significant among low‐income earners but not among high‐income earners. In sum, main findings of the present article are threefold: (a) PEM induces customer aggression, (b) income moderates the causal relationship, and (c) control to get benefits explains the joint effect of PEM and income on customer aggression. By delineating the dark side of PEM in consumer behavior, this study provides useful marketing implications for lessening side effects.     

Does economic globalisation affect income inequality? A meta-analysis

A large volume of econometric literature has studied the impact of economic globalisation on income inequality around the world. However, reported econometric estimates vary substantially, which makes it difficult to draw valid conclusions. This paper presents a quantitative summary and analysis of existing estimates regarding the globalisation–inequality relationship. We use a new data set consisting of 1,254 observations from 123 primary studies. By applying meta-analysis and meta-regression methods, we obtain several main findings. First, globalisation has a (small-to-moderate) inequality-increasing effect. Second, while the effect of trade globalisation is small, financial globalisation shows a more sizeable and significantly stronger inequality-increasing impact. Third, we find an average inequality-increasing impact of globalisation in both advanced and developing countries. Fourth, education and technology moderate the impact of globalisation on income inequality.     

Like it or not? How the economic and institutional environment shapes individual attitudes towards multinational enterprises

This paper analyses the determinants of people's attitudes towards foreign direct investment (FDI) using a survey‐based data set that covers a wide range of rich and poor countries. We find that both individual socioeconomic characteristics and macroeconomic and institutional factors shape agents’ attitudes towards multinational firms. Moreover, we find that the influence of an individual's characteristics—such as education and the status as an entrepreneur—on her/his perspective on multinationals depends on the respective country's per‐capita income. Our results confirm the conjecture that relative individual attitudes towards multinationals reflect distributional interests as suggested by economic theory.     

How Can Globalization Affect Income Distribution? Evidence from Developing Countries

ABSTRACT

The standard Hecksher-Ohlin-Samuelson framework claimed that foreign trade benefits developing countries, but many empirical studies suggest otherwise. After analyzing data on income deciles from the World Income Distribution Database for 66 developing countries, we found that trade openness benefits underprivileged people in affluent countries but not in developing countries. Also, external financial flows and democracy in conjunction do not exert significant effects, suggesting that these variables might affect income distribution through different channels. Finally, we reinforce the Kuznets inverted-U hypothesis; namely, the presence of an economic development threshold beyond which low-income deciles would increase.     

外资进入、劳动收入份额与技能工资溢价——来自2008年服务业企业普查数据的经验分析

运用2008年第二次全国经济普查服务业企业数据,文章实证检验了外资进入对服务业企业劳动收入份额和技能工资溢价的影响。结果显示外资企业存在更高的劳动收入份额,且外资进入程度对当地企业的劳动收入份额存在正向的外溢效应。文章进一步将不同所有制类型与技能劳动力占比的交互项引入工资方程,发现外资企业存在更高的技能工资溢价。我们进一步验证了外资进入对当地劳动力市场技能工资溢价的影响。结果表明,在那些外资渗透率较高、市场竞争相对激烈的地区和行业,外资企业的技能工资溢价现象会产生溢出效应,促使当地企业提高对高技能员工的薪酬待遇。因此,在合理发挥服务业外资进入对收入分配优化效应的同时,也要采取相关措施防止其进一步拉大工资差距。     

中国个人所得税究竟该调节谁?——基于各国征税目的的分析

个人所得税是世界上普遍开征的税种,国外个人所得税实行综合所得税制或者混合所得税制,充分发挥其对自然人可支配收入的调节功能,在对高收入加强征收管理的同时,充分体现对低收入者的保护。借鉴国外的做法,我国个人所得税必须尽快调整,以解决日益扩大的收入差距,缩小贫富差距,实现经济社会稳定,建设和谐税收。     

The biggest losers (and winners) from US trade liberalization

Many development experts worry that continuing reductions of tariff levels in high-income countries will limit trade flows from developing countries that benefit from preferential trade programs because of ‘preference erosion.’ Using a panel of US import data between the years of 1997 and 2005, I find that reductions in preference margins will significantly diminish imports of some products, particularly from lower-middle and low income countries; for example, a 1% reduction in the US tariff on a product that is currently imported duty-free from developing countries will decrease imports of that product from lower-middle income countries by an average of 2.6%. However, many products produced by developing countries fail to qualify for preferential tariffs, thus a gradual reduction in all US tariff rates is expected to have only a modest impact on trade flows from developing countries.     

基于人民币升值的城乡居民收入分配研究——以甘肃省为例

文章以甘肃省相关数据为基础,主要分析人民币升值对经济落后地区城乡居民收入分配的影响。先从理论分析着手,着重分析汇率波动影响收入分配的传导机制,再利用经济计量模型证明理论分析的结论并给出相关建议。     

增值税“扩围”对城镇居民收入分配影响分析

通过微观模拟方法,就1995—2010年增值税"扩围"对城镇居民收入分配格局的影响进行模拟测算。结果显示:就整体影响而言,增值税"扩围"对收入分配的逆向调节有所减弱;就增值税和营业税各自的累进性而言,对低收入者的负面影响均较大,且消费项目间调节的差异较为明显。在继续实行增值税"扩围"的过程中,需要考虑消费项目对居民收入分配所可能产生的潜在影响,非对称地调整行业间税负。     

Income differences among elderly in Malaysia: a regional comparison

Malaysian economic development, formally launched in 1970 through a series of 5‐year development plans, has tremendously improved the quality of life of its citizens. Unfortunately, varying degrees of regional development that lead to regional imbalances produce differential impact on different sets of population in each region. This is especially true for the poverty‐prone groups, which include the elderly, women and children. This study attempts to assess regional differences (between West and East Malaysia) in the well‐being of the elderly as indicated by the income inequality. Specifically, the objectives of this study are to identify sources of elderly income, to determine the mean monthly income and to examine elderly income disparity in the three regions of Peninsular, Sabah, and Sarawak in Malaysia. A total of 2327 elderly respondents were randomly selected nationwide using the stratified random sampling technique. The study indicated that generally, the income of the elderly in Malaysia is very low as most of them had received no formal education or had only obtained primary school education. In terms of income disparity, the elderly income distribution in Sabah showed an interesting pattern, whereby a high percentage of the elderly was clustered in the bottom 20 and top 20 percentile. However, the distribution of the elderly in Peninsular Malaysia was clustered around the bottom 40 percentile, the middle 60 and the top 40 percentile.     

对经济周期波动的收入差距因素分析

收入合理的分配问题与社会经济的持续增长密切相关。西方经济学里,对国民收入分配的关注大多从边际理论和市场的自发调节功能出发,但市场运行的马太效应最终将导致贫富悬殊。不同收入分布的人群由于其边际消费倾向的差异将会导致整体的边际消费倾向不等于个体的简单加总,另外市场机制将加深收入的差异程度,因而经济增长呈现出波动性前进的形态。只有保持收入差异在社会经济可接受的范围内,国民经济增长才能够持续、稳定的增长。     

Do types of foreign capital matter for income equality?

We investigate the link between financial integration and income inequality, suggesting that different channels of financial integration have contrasting distributional effects. Using an unbalanced panel of 65 countries from 1992 to 2015 and employing dynamic panel data methods, we find that greater financial integration through debt-creating capital increases income inequality compared to equity-type capital. Furthermore, a larger share of direct investment in financial integration is associated with lower income inequality; the converse is true for loans and credit, while the share of portfolio investment has no significant effect when considered as a whole. Evidence also shows that increased financial integration and trade is beneficial for reducing the income inequality of emerging economies.     

Factor allocation,economic growth and unbalanced regional development in China

On the basis of development accounting techniques and a factor misallocation framework, we use panel data of 30 Chinese provinces from 2000 to 2013 to assess how factor allocation affects economic growth and unbalanced regional development in China. In particular, we decompose economic growth into three parts, namely sector productivity (SP ), factor market efficiency (FME ) and factor endowment (FE ). We then conduct counterfactual analyses to investigate the short and long‐run roles of factor allocation in the income distribution across provinces. The results show that SP , FME and FE can explain 23%, 8.5% and 68.5% of economic growth, while labour, capital and energy reallocation account for aggregate productivity growth of about 47%, −4.8% and −0.1%. Furthermore, when the factors are efficiently allocated, transferring labour (capital, energy) from agriculture (service, industry) to the other sectors will increase the income per capita by 29.5% and 42.5% in the short and long term. Meanwhile, efficient factor allocation accounts for 32% and 29.7% of aggregate productivity and reduces the income variation across provinces by 25.5% and 23% in the short and long run, respectively.     

加强金砖国家的经济合作

金砖国家是指巴西、俄罗斯、印度、中国和南非五个新兴经济体国家,其经济以快速发展为主要特点。预计金砖国家GDP总量占全球的比重2015年将会上升到23%,2020年将会达到31%,2025年将达到41%,2030年将达到47%,甚至有可能会占到50%以上。金砖国家目前面临的主要问题是收入分配差距比较大、产业层次低、社会保障体系不够完善、受通货膨胀困扰和国际短期资本冲击大。金砖国家应处理好与发达国家和其他发展中国家以及金砖国家内部的合作关系,把握好共同利益,在国际事务中加强政策协调,共同反对贸易保护主义,推动国际金融体系改革,积极应对全球气候变化,实现共同发展。     

Horatio Alger Meets the Mobility Tables

The question of how entrepreneurship relates to income mobility is cogent given the current public debate about the sources of income inequality and mobility in United States society. We examine how experience with entrepreneurship has affected an individual's place in the earnings distribution. Our basic tack is to follow individuals' positions in the income distribution over time, and to see how their mobility (or lack thereof) was affected by involvement with entrepreneurship. Our main finding is that for low-income individuals there is some merit to the notion that the self-employed moved ahead in the earnings distribution relative to those who remained wage earners. On the other hand, for those at the upper end of the earnings distribution, those who became self-employed often advanced less in the earnings distribution than their salaried counterparts.     

收入差异的“倒U型”假说悖论:初次分配、再分配与政策选择

通过MLD指数分解分析,发现中国收入差异有明显扩大趋势,且地区间差异贡献率高,这与库兹涅茨"倒U型"假说相悖。收入分配的不平衡受初次分配差异与再分配差异共同影响,其中初次分配差异源于要素流动性差异和地区生产力水平差异,而再分配差异应归因于政策倾斜度。要改善中国收入分配不均现状,缩小地区收入差距水平,必须打破二元经济结构,统筹配置资源,适度推进金融自由化进程,加大教育投资,加强社会保障制度建设,并重视西部经济均衡发展。     

Does financial liberalization reduce income inequality? Evidence from Africa

This paper investigates the impact of financial liberalization on income inequality by using the country-level panel data from 51 African countries in more than two decades. We find that income inequality increases, rather than decreases, with the level of financial liberalization. This finding is consistent with the hypothesis that financial liberalization likely induces banks to allocate the scarce financial resources in African countries more discriminatively to rich clienteles but excludes the poor ones from financial access, which thus widens the income gap.