Increasing returns to savings and wealth inequality

In this paper I present an explanation to the fact that in the data wealth is substantially more concentrated than income. Starting from the observation that the composition of households' portfolios changes towards a larger share of high-yield assets as the level of net worth increases, I first use data on historical asset returns and portfolio composition by wealth level to construct an empirical return function. I then augment an Overlapping Generation version of the standard neoclassical growth model with idiosyncratic labor income risk and missing insurance markets to allow for returns on savings to be increasing in the level of accumulated assets. The quantitative properties of the model are examined and show that an empirically plausible difference between the return faced by poor and wealthy agents is able to generate a substantial increase in wealth inequality compared to the basic model, enough to match the Gini index and all but the top 1 percentile of the US distribution of wealth.     

Does wealth inequality affect the transmission of monetary policy?

We provide evidence that higher wealth inequality between households is associated with stronger real effects of monetary policy. First, we use state-dependent local projections to show that the US and the UK exhibited stronger real effects of monetary policy in times of higher wealth inequality. Second, we measure wealth inequality within US states and document that economic activity responds more strongly to interest rate changes in states where wealth is distributed more unequally. Third, we show that ECB monetary policy has stronger real effects in Euro Area countries with higher wealth inequality.     

Wealth and the capitalist spirit

The wealth distribution in the U.S. is more unequal than either the income or earnings distribution, a fact current models of saving behavior have difficulty explaining. Using Max Weber’s [Weber, M. (1905). The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Charles Scribners’ and Sons (1958 translated edition)] idea that individuals may have a ‘capitalist spirit’, I construct and simulate a model where individuals accumulate wealth for its own sake rather than as deferred consumption. Including capitalist spirit preferences in a simple life cycle model, with no other modifications, generates a skewness of wealth consistent with that observed in the U.S. economy. Furthermore, capitalist spirit preferences provide a way to generate decreasing risk aversion with increases in wealth without resorting to idiosyncratic rates of time preference.     

财富异质性对家庭金融资产配置的影响研究 ——基于 2015 年中国社会综合调查数据

随着我国家庭金融市场日渐完善,家庭金融资产配置的影响因素对优化家庭金融资产配置结构和提高家庭金融市场的参与率至关重要.本文从家庭财富角度出发,利用2015年中国综合社会调查数据里的9841个样本数据,运用logit模型,实证分析财富异质性对家庭金融资产配置的影响及其城乡差异.研究发现:财富水平不同的家庭,其金融资产配置存在显著差异,富裕家庭参与风险性金融市场的可能性更大,但当家庭财富累积到一定程度之后财富水平对家庭参与风险性金融市场的影响程度开始递减;城市相比于农村更有可能参与风险性金融市场,并且,在财富异质性对家庭金融资产配置的影响中,金融发展水平、被采访者的年龄和家庭规模大小等发挥着异质性作用.     

Refitting the Kuznets curve using a gender-specific threshold model

Previous studies have reached mixed conclusions regarding the relationship between inequality and per capita income. These studies, however, fail to consider gender differences in income inequality and how these may impact on the relationship between income inequality and per capita income. Using Australian taxation statistics, we derive three sets of Gini coefficients (i.e. female, male and total) for the period 1950–2013. We then examine the relationship between inequality and real per capita income and find that a gender-specific threshold panel regression outperforms three other conventional models. Our findings suggest that ‘one set of coefficients does not fit all’ in that the use of aggregate and constant coefficients may mask variations within, and between, gender inequality over time.     

Optimal asset allocation strategies of university endowment funds

Optimal asset allocation for university endowment funds is very important in USA. The management of endowment funds is challenging due to the need of finding out the balance between providing adequate and stable spending for beneficiaries and growth of the portfolio. In this paper, the author address these allocation constraints in a dynamic framework, in which minimum subsistence levels are introduced in the objective function and derive explicit formulas for the optimal portfolio strategy.     

投资理性、居民金融资产选择与储蓄大搬家

本文通过一个加入交易成本的两期资产选择模型,对目前城镇居民储蓄迅速搬家股市而农村居民几乎不持有风险资产这两种并存现象的巨大反差提供了一个较为合理的解释.研究发现当持有风险资产存在成本时,财富水平的高低和交易成本的大小是居民决定是否持有一定数量风险资产的重要因素.二元经济结构下的城乡收入差距显著,财富分布极不均等,交易成本的不对称是阻碍农村居民投资风险资产的主要原因.在众多影响风险资产持有水平的因素中,高风险升水所带来的财富效应主导了其它因素的影响.     

Visible Hands – Invisible Women: Garment Production in Turkey

Abstract

The economic liberalization policies that started in the early 1980s marked a turn in Turkey's growth strategy by shifting it from import substitution to export orientation. Since then, the garment industry has been one of the top exporters, drawing on women as the main suppliers of informal labor for the industry through subcontracted and home-based piecework. Based on fieldwork, this paper examines the gender inequalities that underlie the export success of the garment industry, in which the organization of production and workplace relations embed and reproduce gender ideology and norms. Women's engagement in garment production is ensured through the articulation of women's subordinate position with the social organization of garment production and the mobilization of kinship relations. The continued expansion of garment exports and the ongoing informalization of nonagricultural employment, according to official estimates, suggest that these arrangements are becoming more extensive over time.     

中国家庭债务和资产积累关系的实证分析:1997-2008

笔者运用1997年～2008年中国家庭债务和家庭资产积累的时间序列数据,定量分析了家庭负债和家庭资产积累的关系。研究发现,家庭债务和家庭资产积累存在同向的长期均衡关系,家庭债务的变动会影响家庭资产的积累。笔者提出促进家庭资产合理配置和防范中国家庭债务快速增长带来的消极后果的相关建议,旨在为决策部门制定合理的经济政策提供参考。     

Influence Factors on Gender Wage Gap: Evidences from Chinese Household Income Project Survey

By constructing a gender wage gap evolution model, this paper examines the source and evolutionary process of gender wage inequality from a theoretical perspective. The purpose of this study is thoroughly investigating the factors affecting the gender wage inequality from the perspective of gender discrimination and variations in non-gender endowments. Based on the Chinese Household Income Project Survey Data, this study indicates that: (1) since companies continue to re-evaluate the gender endowment value of gender, the gender wage inequality exhibits an endogenous sustainability and self-reinforcing effect. (2) The gender wage gap of urban residents is derived mainly from the top tier of wages, while the gender wage gap of the migrant people is mainly determined from the bottom rung of wages. (3) Female age has a ‘U-curve’ impact on gender wage inequality from the standpoint of non-gender endowment differences, and the female age has an ‘inverted U-curve’ impact on gender wage inequality as a result of discrimination. (4) Female appearance and actual work hours are insufficient to affect the changing trend of gender wage inequality; however, h-register location and marital status are still considered to be very important.     

Deprivation of Women and Men Living in a Couple: Sharing or Unequal Division?

In standard poverty analyses, all household members are assumed to share equal living conditions. Though a few national studies exist, this paper is the first to present empirical evidence on this issue for the EU, using the 2015 wave of the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions. We map the extent of intra-couple inequality in deprivation, and analyze its determinants. We find that for most items, the gender difference in lack between partners, though generally small, is significant and at the disadvantage of women. When aggregating the individual items into a deprivation scale, couples where the number of enforced lacks is higher for the woman (9.2 percent) are (significantly) more numerous than couples where the man is disadvantaged (6.5 percent), at the EU level. Econometric analysis shows that the work status of the partners and their relative contribution to the joint income are important determinants of the intra-couple gender deprivation gap.