什么导致了中国城镇家庭的消费不平等

以消费不平等作为反映经济不平等的重要指标,本文系统研究了中国城镇家庭消费不平等的成因。采用中国跨省区城镇家庭调查数据,基于再中心化影响函数的实证分析结果显示：我国城镇家庭的收入与净资产的不平等是导致其消费不平等的重要原因。此外,户主的性别、婚姻状况、健康状况、宗教信仰以及家庭人口结构等因素也对城镇家庭消费不平等有着不同程度的显著影响。     

中国城镇居民的财产分配

本文利用住户调查数据对 1 995年的中国城镇住户的财产分配状况进行了经验分析 ,包括对财产分配的差距进行了测量 ,影响财产分配的主要因素进行了估计 ,并将中国城镇住户的财产分配进行了国际比较。与大部分市场经济国家相比 ,中国城镇居民之间财产分配的差距并不大。但是中国城镇居民的财产分配差距超过了收入分配差距 ,而且从长期趋势上可能会出现加速扩大的势头。中国城镇居民之间财产分配的不均等并非全是经济市场化过程的结果。一些不均等的原因来自于传统计划经济遗留下来的分配模式。本文还发现 ,在户主一生中财产积累出现了两个高峰值。这是与正统的生命周期理论不同的。本文还表明了财产分配和收入分配之间的较强相关性。     

中国西部地区农村内部不平等状况研究-基于贵州住户调查数据的分析

与以往使用抽样调查数据的研究不同,本文利用在贵州省普定县随机抽取三个村庄的全户调查数据,运用三种针对不平等指数的分解方法,旨在分析西部地区农村内部不平等状况、主要影响因素及其原因,以便为瞄准住户的扶贫战略提供新的实证依据。研究发现,即使在村级层面,贫困地区农户收入和支出的不平等状况仍然很严重,收入的基尼系数高达0.44,GE指数为0.34;通过对运用组内组间收入和支出GE指数分解方法发现,村内的不平等程度(贡献率为90%左右)比村间(贡献率为10%左右)的更为严重;通过运用收入来源和支出构成GE指数分解方法发现,农业和非农收入都是西部地区农村人口的主要收入来源(分别占总收入的41.1%和42.3%),但是非农收入却是造成收入不平等的最主要因素(贡献率为68.8%);通过运用基于回归分析的Shapley值分解方法发现,家庭资产、特别是土地的拥有情况,是造成收入不平等的主要因素。文章最后根据研究结果,针对西部农村地区土地政策、社会保障体系、扶贫政策等提出了相应的建议。     

THE DISTRIBUTION OF TOTAL WEALTH IN ITALY: 1991–2002

We estimate an "augmented" measure of wealth incorporating social security wealth for the first time in Italy, and examine the composition and distribution of such augmented wealth among Italian households during the period 1991–2002. The path followed by augmented wealth from 1991 to 2002 is determined by two opposing forces: namely an increase in net worth and a decline in social security wealth, which appears to be much more pronounced in the first part of the period. Wealth inequality, after rising steeply at the beginning of the 1990s, leveled off during the second part of the period in question. The major contribution toward this upwards movement came from social security wealth, the distribution of which, although less unequal than that of real wealth and financial wealth, widened at a much faster pace at the beginning of the decade.     

财富不平等会抑制金融素养对家庭借贷行为的作用效果吗*——基于CHFS数据的经验分析

本文基于2013年中国家庭金融调查（CHFS）数据,选用工具变量法,考察了金融素养对城乡家庭借贷行为影响的差异性,并验证了财富不平等扩大会抑制金融素养对家庭借贷行为的影响。研究发现：（1）金融素养是影响家庭借贷行为的重要因素。户主金融素养水平的改善显著提高了家庭发生借贷的概率与家庭借贷规模。（2）金融素养对城乡家庭借贷行为的影响存在明显差异,金融素养的提高对信贷约束较为严重的农村家庭借贷行为的促进作用更大。（3）财富不平等对家庭借贷行为存在明显的抑制作用,财富不平等的扩大减少了家庭借贷需求,降低了家庭发生借贷的概率和家庭负债规模。（4）随着家庭财富不平等程度的扩大,金融素养对家庭借贷行为的促进作用受到抑制。基于以上结论,政府应该大力开展消费者金融素养教育,注重家庭收入分配合理性,从而推动我国消费金融市场的健康发展。     

Distributional consequences of asset price inflation in the Euro Area

We study the distributional consequences of housing price, bond price and equity price increases for Euro Area households using data from the Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS). The capital gains from bond price and equity price increases turn out to be concentrated among relatively few households, while the median household strongly benefits from housing price increases. The capital gains from bond price increases (relative to household net wealth) do not correlate with household net wealth (or income). Bond price increases thus leave net wealth inequality largely unchanged. In contrast, equity price increases largely benefit the top end of the net wealth (and income) distribution, thus amplify net wealth inequality. Housing price increases display a hump shaped pattern over the net wealth distribution, with the poorest and richest households benefitting least, but there exists considerable heterogeneity across Euro Area countries. The ECB's OMT announcements over the summer of 2012 had quantitatively similar distributional implications as an unexpected loosening of the policy rate by about 175 basis points.     

Reform,Growth, and Inequality in China*

This paper provides a survey of the literature on inequality in China – level, change, causes, and consequences. It attempts to answer six main questions. How much has inequality risen? What is its relation to poverty alleviation? What has happened to wealth inequality? What are the main dimensions of rising income inequality? The dimensions examined are: the rural–urban divide; urban labor market reform; regional divergence; rural–urban migration; and entrepreneurship, rent‐seeking, and corruption. Was it inevitable that inequality should rise so much? Does it matter that inequality has risen? Income distribution in China is bound up with both economic reform and economic growth. This paper concludes by considering the countervailing forces that will determine the path of inequality in future years.     

RETIREMENT WEALTH AND LIFETIME EARNINGS*

This article argues that a satisfactory theory of wealth inequality should account not only for the marginal distribution of wealth, but also for the joint distribution of wealth and earnings. The article describes the joint distribution of retirement wealth and lifetime earnings in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. It then evaluates the ability of a stochastic life‐cycle model to account for key features of this distribution. The life‐cycle model fails to account for three key features of the data. (1) The correlation between lifetime earnings and retirement wealth is too high. (2) The wealth gaps between earnings rich and earnings poor households are too large. (3) Wealth inequality among households with similar lifetime earnings is too small. Models in which households differ in rates of return or time preferences account much better for the joint distribution of retirement wealth and lifetime earnings.     

The Gender Wealth Gap in Europe: Application of Machine Learning to Predict Individual-level Wealth

This article provides comparative estimates of the gender wealth gaps for 22 European countries, employing data from the Household Finance and Consumption Survey. The data on wealth are collected at the household level, while individual-level data are needed for the estimates of gender wealth gaps. We propose a novel approach using machine learning and model averaging methods to predict individual-level wealth data for multi-person households. Our results suggest that random forest performs best as the predicting tool for this exercise, outperforming elastic net and Bayesian model averaging. The estimated gender wealth gaps tend to be in favor of men, especially at the top of the wealth distribution. Men have 24 percent more wealth than women on average. We also find that a high home ownership rate is associated with a smaller country-level gender wealth gap. Our estimates suggest that the individual-level wealth inequality is on average 3 pp higher than the household-level wealth inequality in multi-member households.     

ESTIMATING INCOME INEQUALITY IN CHINA USING GROUPED DATA AND THE GENERALIZED BETA DISTRIBUTION

There are two main types of data sources of income distributions in China: household survey data and grouped data. Household survey data are typically available for isolated years and individual provinces. In comparison, aggregate or grouped data are typically available more frequently and usually have national coverage. In principle, grouped data allow investigation of the change of inequality over longer, continuous periods of time, and the identification of patterns of inequality across broader regions. Nevertheless, a major limitation of grouped data is that only mean (average) income and income shares of quintile or decile groups of the population are reported. Directly using grouped data reported in this format is equivalent to assuming that all individuals in a quintile or decile group have the same income. This potentially distorts the estimate of inequality within each region. The aim of this paper is to apply an improved econometric method designed to use grouped data to study income inequality in China. A generalized beta distribution is employed to model income inequality in China at various levels and periods of time. The generalized beta distribution is more general and flexible than the lognormal distribution that has been used in past research, and also relaxes the assumption of a uniform distribution of income within quintile and decile groups of populations. The paper studies the nature and extent of inequality in rural and urban China over the period 1978 to 2002. Income inequality in the whole of China is then modeled using a mixture of province-specific distributions. The estimated results are used to study the trends in national inequality, and to discuss the empirical findings in the light of economic reforms, regional policies, and globalization of the Chinese economy.     

TYPES OF INCOME AND INEQUALITY IN CHINA AT THE END OF THE 1980s

Using a nationwide household income survey, different types of income in the People's Republic of China at the end of the 1980s is analysed. The results show that various income types play quite different roles in rural and urban areas. Subsistence income makes up about half of the total income in rural China. Money income makes up about two-thirds of total income in urban China and is the major contributor to inequality in the entire country. In kind income, of which highly subsidized housing is the single most important category, is highly concentrated in urban areas and contributes greatly to inequality.     

中国居民财产分布不均等及其原因的经验分析

使用中国社会科学院经济研究所收入分配课题组1995年和2002年调查数据,本文对中国居民财产分布的不均等情况进行了描述,对这一不均等状况进行了分析。本文发现,中国居民的财产分布差距出现了快速而且明显扩大的趋势,这一扩大的趋势主要来自于城乡之间差距的急剧拉大。其中,城镇公有住房的私有化过程既造成了此间城镇财产差距的缩小,同时又扩大了城乡之间乃至全国财产的收入差距;而随着土地收益的下降,土地价值在农村居民财产总值中相对份额降低,造成其原本具有的缩小全国财产差距的作用减弱。另外,本文还认为,居民的金融资产对总财产分布不平等的推动作用将会进一步增强。     

本地非农就业、外出务工与中国农村收入不平等*

随着巨大的经济和社会变革,中国的收入不平等程度发生了巨大变化。依据CHIP家庭微观调查1988-2007年的数据,使用基尼系数分解以及非参数分解等多种方法,本文试图对本地非农就业、外出务工等不同类型的家庭从业模式与农村收入不平等的关系进行较为全面的探讨。研究得出了一些有价值的结论：首先,从整体的收入分布来看,早期的农村地区的发展更多伴随着不平等程度提高,而后期经济增长则带来更多福利改善;其次,家庭主要非农收入来源是本地非农就业,外出务工所得具有缩小收入差距的作用,而本地非农就业则具有扩大作用,随着时间推移其作用程度也有所改变;最后,经济增长成果惠及不同群体,但并非平均分配,不同群体获益情况不同,增长和不平等通过作用于不同类型家庭影响到最终的收入分布。     

间接税归宿对城乡居民收入分配影响研究

使用全国城乡家庭消费和收入微观数据考察间接税对于城乡收入差距和收入分配的影响发现:平均来看,全国居民负担的税收占收入的比例是10.6%;不论在全国范围来看还是分别在城乡内部来看,间接税负担都呈现累退:低收入的负担率高于高收入的负担率。在城乡之间,城镇居民的税收负担率高于农村居民的税收负担率。间接税增加了城乡内部不平等,降低了城乡之间的不平等。间接税主要对低收入群体影响较大,略微恶化了整体收入不平等。     

MEASUREMENT OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH IN CANADA

The only periodic data available in Canada on the asset holdings and net worth of the household sector are data collected through a series of household surveys originally initiated in 1954. Some limited data on the holdings of financial claims by the personal and unincorporated business sector are available from flow of funds work. Data are unavailable for estimation from estate tax returns.
The scope of the surveys has been expanded substantially so that the most recent survey obtained a very comprehensive list of asset holdings. The experience with Canadian surveys has been similar to that of other countries; surveys appear to underestimate asset holdings although the estimates are more reliable for widely held assets than for assets with a very skewed distribution. Nevertheless, the surveys appear to trace the accumulated distribution of personal savings over time to a considerable degree and provide useful cross-sectional trend data.
Canadian data show that wealth is more unequally distributed among family units than is income although wealth appears to be more equally distributed between income groups than is income. Wealth is also very unequally distributed within the same income group. Over time, there appears to have been some movement towards a more equal distribution of asset holdings between income groups.     

GENDER INEQUALITY IN EDUCATION IN CHINA: A META‐REGRESSION ANALYSIS

Although there is evidence that there was gender inequality in China's education system in the 1980s, the literature in China has mixed evidence on improvements in gender inequality in educational attainment over the past three decades. Some suggest gender inequality is still severe; others report progress. We seek to understand the progress China has made (if any) in reducing gender inequality in education since the 1980s. To meet this goal, we use a meta‐analysis approach which provides a new quantitative review of a relatively large volume of empirical literature on gender educational differentials. This article analyzes differences across both time and space, and also across different grade levels and ethnicities. Our results indicate that gender inequality in educational attainment still exists, but it has been narrowing over time. Moreover, it varies by area (rural versus urban) and grade level. There is nearly no significant gender inequality in the case of girls in urban areas or in the case of the 9 years of compulsory education (primary school and junior high school). Girls, however, still face inequality in rural areas (although inequality is falling over time) and when they reach high school or beyond. (JEL I24)     

LIVING STANDARDS INEQUALITY BETWEEN MIGRANTS AND LOCAL RESIDENTS IN URBAN CHINA—A QUANTILE DECOMPOSITION

This study investigates the inequality in per‐capita consumption expenditure between urban and rural‐to‐urban migrant households in China using Rural‐Urban Migration in China (RUMiC) data. The methodology used is that of Oaxaca‐Blinder and unconditional quantile decompositions and we deal with selection related to education level using matching. It is found that the characteristics effect does not contribute toward explaining any of the gaps in consumption. Results from a detailed decomposition suggest that differences in educational level account for 8%–19% of the overall inequality after taking selectivity of education into consideration. Differences in household size and region of residence are also important in narrowing expenditure inequality between the two groups. (JEL R23, C15)     

数字普惠金融与中国农村家庭财富差距

促进农民增收致富和推动乡村振兴是二十大关注的重要问题。本文使用中国家庭金融调查数据和数字普惠金融指数,用分位回归方法分析了数字普惠金融对中国农村家庭财富差距的影响。结果发现：数字普惠金融可以显著提高农村家庭财富,有助于缩小家庭财富差距。随着家庭财富由低到高,数字普惠金融对于农村不同财富家庭总资产的正向影响由大到小。由于不同财富家庭的负债结构差异较大,随着财富由低到高,数字普惠金融对家庭净资产的影响则由小到大。夏普里值分解结果表明,数字普惠金融对农村家庭财富差距的贡献度近三分之一。异质性分析表明,数字普惠金融发展对于低收入家庭和低教育水平家庭财富的正向作用更强,进一步证明了上述结论。机制分析表明,数字普惠金融能显著促进农村家庭特别是低财富家庭的创业行为,而创业对于最低财富组家庭资产的正向刺激作用最强;受流动性约束可能性越大的低财富家庭,越能从数字普惠金融的发展中获益。因而进一步证实数字普惠金融可以缩小农村家庭财富差距。本文的研究说明,发展数字普惠金融对于探索农民致富路径和推进乡村振兴有积极作用。     

Distribution of wealth and incomplete markets: Theory and empirical evidence

This paper analyses the equilibrium distribution of wealth in an economy where firms’ productivities are subject to idiosyncratic shocks, returns on factors are determined in competitive markets, households have linear consumption functions and government imposes taxes on capital and labour incomes and equally redistributes the collected resources to households. The equilibrium distribution of wealth is explicitly calculated and its shape crucially depends on market incompleteness. With incomplete markets it follows a Paretian law in the top tail and the Pareto exponent depends on the saving rate, on the net return on capital, on the growth rate of population, and on portfolio diversification. The characteristics of the labour market crucially affects the bottom tail, but not the upper tail of the distribution of wealth in the case of completely decentralized labour market. The analysis also suggests a positive relationship between growth and wealth inequality. The theoretical predictions find a corroboration in the empirical evidence of United States in the period 1989-2004.     

U.S. Pensions in the 2000s: The Lost Decade?

The last three decades saw a sharp decline in traditional defined benefit (DB) pensions and a corresponding rise in defined contribution (DC) plans. Using the Survey of Consumer Finances from 1983 to 2010, I find that after robust gains in the 1980s and 1990s, pension wealth experienced a marked slowdown in growth from 2001 to 2007 and then fell in absolute terms from 2007 to 2010. Median augmented wealth (the sum of net worth, pensions, and Social Security wealth) advanced slower than median net worth from 1983 to 2007 and its inequality rose more, as DB wealth fell off. However, from 2007 to 2010, the opposite occurred. While median wealth plummeted by 41 percent and inequality spiked by 0.032 Gini points, median augmented wealth fell by only 21 percent and its Gini coefficient rose by only 0.009 points. The differences are due to the moderating influence of Social Security wealth.