GLOBALIZATION AND REGIONAL INCOME INEQUALITY: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM WITHIN CHINA

China's recent accession to the WTO is expected to accelerate its integration into the world economy, which aggravates concerns over the impact of globalization on the already rising inter-region income inequality in China. This paper discusses China's globalization process and estimates an income generating function, incorporating trade and FDI variables. It then applies the newly developed Shapley value decomposition technique to quantify the contributions of globalization, along with other variables, to regional inequality. It is found that: (a) globalization constitutes a positive and substantial share of regional inequality and the share rises over time; (b) domestic capital, however, emerges as the largest contributor to regional inequality; (c) economic reform characterized by privatization exerts an increasingly significant impact on regional inequality; and (d) the relative contributions of education, location, urbanization and dependency ratio to regional inequality have been declining.     

INCOME INEQUALITY WITHIN EUROPEAN REGIONS: DETERMINANTS AND EFFECTS ON GROWTH

Economic inequality across Europe has been largely investigated by analyzing the determinants and dynamics of the disparities between countries and regions. Similarly, many studies have focused on inequality within European countries. So far, less attention has been devoted to economic inequality within European regions, mainly due to data shortages. The aim of this paper is to shed some light on this level of analysis. After the introductory section, the first part of the paper presents the conceptual bases of the study, examining relevant theoretical and empirical arguments about (i) the determinants of economic inequality, (ii) the relationship between economic inequality and growth, and (iii) the desirability and specificity of regional analysis. The second part of the paper, using various econometric approaches, provides evidence of the centrality of labor market qualitative and quantitative aspects and of some country-level institutional settings for regional inequality levels. As regards the effects of inequality on growth, the results suggest a positive relationship.     

INCOME STRATIFICATION AND INCOME INEQUALITY

This paper develops a new index of stratification that highlights the distinction between inequality and stratification. The stratification index captures the extent to which population subgroups occupy distinct strata within an overall distribution. The indices are group specific and control for group size. A weighted sum of group stratification indices is the third term that, together with between-group inequality and a weighted sum of within-group inequality adds to the overall Gini index of inequality.     

DISTRIBUTIONS OF REAL INCOME: WITHIN COUNTRIES AND BY WORLD INCOME CLASSES

Income and expenditure data from 14 countries (representing one-third of the world's population), mostly from the 1970s, are used to construct national income distributions and , after normalizing by purchasing power parities, to construct a "world" distribution of real income. The density of real-income equivalent groups (socio-economic classes) across countries is measured for the "affluent," the "well-off," and the "poor." In comparison with earlier studies, most national distributions of income seem to have been improving, the numbers of those in poverty (based on real income) are lower, and, most important (and disturbing for some) is that the "affluent" class (and those above "middle class" income levels) has (prematurely) swelled in a number of developing countries.     

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.     

A META‐ANALYSIS ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INCOME INEQUALITY AND ECONOMIC GROWTH

In recent years there is a growing interest in determining the impact of inequality on economic growth. Theoretical papers as well as empirical applications have, however, produced controversial results. Although there is a considerable part of the literature that considers inequality detrimental to growth, more recent studies have challenged this result and found a positive effect of inequality on growth. In this paper, we provide a contribution to the empirical puzzle by using meta‐analysis to systematically describe, identify and analyse the variation in outcomes of empirical studies. We find that estimation methods, data quality and sample coverage systematically affect the results. The results point out that it will be particularly useful to increasingly focus research on determining the impact of income inequality on economic growth using single‐country data at the regional level, or a relatively homogeneous set of countries with adequate controls for country‐wide differences in economic, social and institutional characteristics.     

LIFE SATISFACTION AND INCOME INEQUALITY

Do people care about income inequality and does income inequality affect subjective well‐being? Welfare theories can predict either a positive or a negative impact of income inequality on subjective well‐being and empirical research has found evidence of a positive, negative, or non‐significant relation. This paper attempts to determine some of the possible causes of such empirical heterogeneity. Using a very large sample of world citizens we test the consistency of the effect of income inequality in predicting life satisfaction. We find that income inequality has a negative and significant effect on life satisfaction. This result is robust to changes of regressors and estimation choices and also persists across different income groups and across different types of countries. However, this relation is easily obscured or reversed by multicollinearity generated by the use of country and year fixed effects. This is particularly true if the number of data points for inequality is small, which is a common feature of cross‐country or longitudinal studies.     

INCOME INEQUALITY AND POVERTY: SOME PROBLEMS

In an important recent book dealing with the measurement of income inequality with particular reference to poverty,¹ Prof. N. Kakwani derives several poverty indices, investigates the effect of negative income tax schemes with the help of those indices and gives a numerical illustration based on Malaysian data.
The aim of this note is to point out some logical flaws in his argument. Some of the ideas expressed in the part of his book we are concerned with have been disseminated for some time now² and referred to in subsequent literature;³ yet their shortcomings do not seem to have attracted anyone's attention. The introductory section gives a concise presentation of the relevant part of Kakwani's contribution. The next two sections deal with some problems with his approach.     

REDISTRIBUTIVE EFFECT OF INCOME TAXATION: DECOMPOSING TAX BASE AND TAX RATES EFFECTS

This paper introduces Gini-based decomposition formulae for the redistributive effect of income taxation. It examines the interaction between and the relative significance of tax base and tax rate components in the final determination of the overall redistributive effect. The resulting formulae can readily be applied to available income and tax statistics.     

INCOME AND WEALTH INEQUALITY: EVIDENCE AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS

Drawing on the author's work, this lecture presents evidence on U.S. income and wealth inequality. It presents series for top income and wealth shares, and the distribution of economic growth by income groups. It discusses the mechanisms behind the evolution of U.S. income and wealth inequality from historical and comparative perspectives. It analyzes the role of public policy and in particular taxation in the evolution of inequality. (JEL D31, F66, J24)     

股市发展与收入分配不平等

股市发展与收入分配状况的关系是金融理论界和业界广泛关注的问题之一。本文构造全球33个国家从1988年至2013年有关股市发展和收入分配不平等的面板数据,实证研究各国股市发展及自由化改革对其收入分配不平等程度的影响及内在机理。研究发现：首先,一国股市规模越大,由于门槛效应的存在,其收入分配状况趋于恶化,而流动性的提升将在一定程度上改善其收入分配状况。其次,一国股市的发展对不同收入阶层存在不同的影响。最后,股市自由化前后,股市对收入分配状况的影响存在显著差异：股市自由化之后,股市规模的扩大和股市流动性的提升将在一定程度上改善收入分配状况。     

FISCAL CONSOLIDATION PROGRAMS AND INCOME INEQUALITY

We document a strong empirical relationship between higher income inequality and stronger recessive impacts of fiscal consolidation episodes across time and space. To explain this finding, we develop a life‐cycle economy with uninsurable income risk. We calibrate our model to match key characteristics of several European economies, including inequality and fiscal structures, and study the effects of fiscal consolidation programs. In our model, higher income risk induces precautionary savings behavior, which decreases the proportion of credit‐constrained agents in the economy. These agents have less elastic labor supply responses to fiscal consolidations, which explain the correlation with inequality in the data.     

EFFECTS OF GOVERNMENT POLICIES ON URBAN AND RURAL INCOME INEQUALITY

We use three conventional inequality indices—the Gini, the coefficient of variation of income, and the relative mean deviation of income—and the Atkinson index to examine the effect of income tax rates, the minimum wage, and all the major government welfare and transfer programs on the evolution of income inequality for rural and urban areas by state from 1981 to 1997. We find that these programs have qualitatively similar but quantitatively different effects on urban and rural areas. Most importantly, taxes are more effective in redistributing income in urban than in rural areas, while welfare and other government transfer programs play a larger role in rural areas.     

GROWTH, INEQUALITY, AND POVERTY: A CAUTIONARY NOTE

Economic growth had less impact on poverty rates in the 1980s than in the 1960s. Could this be explained by Locke Anderson's observation that the higher median income, the greater the amount of growth needed to achieve a percentage point fall in the poverty rate? No, higher poverty rates are due instead to the rise in income inequality. With higher inequality, however, trickle down could be as effective in the 1990s as it was in the late 1960s. More generally, assessments of anti-poverty policy must recognize that inequality is as vital to changes in the poverty rate as growth in mean income.     

城镇居民收入差别及制约其变动的某些因素-就天津市城镇居民家户特征的影响进行的一些讨论

该文主要考察经济发展中的某些因素特别是家户特征对中国城镇居民收入差别状况的影响.自改革开放以来中国城镇居民的收入差别持续扩大,但按可比标准还没有达到两极分化状态.我们发现,随着经济的发展,行业结构转换已经成为影响当前中国城镇居民收入差别及其变动的最主要因素.     

城镇居民收入差别及制约其变动的某些因素-就天津市城镇居民家户特征的影响进行了一些讨论

本文主要考察经济发展中的某些因素特别是家户特征对中国城镇居民收入差别状况的影响。自改革开放以来中国城镇居民的收入差别持续扩大,但按可比标准还没有达到两极分化状态。我们发现,随着经济的发展,行业结构转换已经成为影响当前中国城镇居民收入差别及其变动的最主要因素。