Urban sector income distribution and economic development

This paper examines the relationship between measures of urban sector inequality and economic development for a sample of 25 developing and newly industrialized countries. A U-shaped relationship is found in which bottom urban quintiles' income shares initially decline and then rise as per capita income increases. This relationship is strengthened when an estimate of urban per capita income replaces national per capita income as the development measure. The curves suggest that per capita incomes of the bottom quintiles will never decline as development proceeds, but may rise only very slowly.     

Global estimates of growth–inequality–poverty (GIP) triangle: evidence from World Bank’s classification countries

This study extended the concept of ‘growth–inequality–poverty (GIP) triangle’ by using the principle component approach which allows us to composite different poverty and inequality indicators into one single index that contains most of the useful information from the original dataset. Using the idea of GIP triangle, this study examines the long-run relationship among weighted poverty index (which comprises headcount ratio, poverty gap and squared poverty gap); weighted inequality index (i.e., Watts Index, Gini Index and MLD Index) and average monthly per capita income in the designated 138 countries according to World Bank’s classification over a period of 2005–2010. The data set mainly contain countries’ unit record household survey at least one which is conducted between the countries during the sample period. The regression model encompassing the impact of economic growth and income inequality on poverty reflects that income inequality increases poverty while economic growth decreases poverty. It indicates that the impact of inequality in increasing poverty is a somewhat greater than that of growth in average income in reducing overall poverty in a sample countries. The other regression model encompassing the impact of economic growth and poverty on income inequality showed that the poverty itself is also likely to be a barrier for poverty reduction; and inequality seems to predict lower future growth rates. The final regression model depicting the impact of poverty and income inequality on mean income of the household suggests that poverty itself reduces mean income of the household while income inequality increases economic growth. The results are interesting and simply suggest that whenever social institutions malfunction, the incidence of damage would usually be distributed unevenly over the society’s members.     

Inference on inequality from household survey data

I develop a theory of asymptotic inference for the Lorenz curve and the Gini coefficient for testing economic inequality when the data come from stratified and clustered household surveys with large number of clusters per stratum. Using the asymptotic framework of Bhattacharya [Asymptotic Inference from multi-stage surveys. Journal of Econometrics 126(1), 145–171], I derive a weak convergence result for the continuously-indexed Lorenz process even when the underlying density is not uniformly bounded away from zero. I provide analytical formulae for the asymptotic covariance functions that are corrected for both stratification and clustering and develop consistent tests for Lorenz dominance. Inference on the Gini coefficient follows as a corollary. The methods are applied to per capita household expenditure data from the complexly designed Indian national sample survey to test for changes in inequality before and after the reforms of the early 1990s. Ignoring the survey design is seen to produce qualitatively different results, especially in the urban sector where the population sorts more completely into rich and poor neighborhoods.     

Accounting for Public Recreation Expenditures

A bstract . Understanding why local parks and recreation budgets are set at particular levels is an interesting but difficult area in which to conduct research. In order to help clarify some of the important ideas, 22 hypotheses are developed and tested, correlating for 103 United States cities , the relationships of dependent variables (city's total recreation budget, recreation as a percent of total expenditure and recreation expenditure per capita) to selected sets of urban variables identified as demographic, labor force structure, local income, and public service variables. Results of the analysis suggest that the size of park budgets is positively associated with pet cent of population Non-White, birth, death and marriage rates, crime rates, non-agricultural employment , white collar employment, and income growth. Variables inversely related to budgets include the percent of lower to middle income groups and expenditures for education.     

The Effects of Fiscal Decentralization on Household Income Inequality: Some Empirical Evidence

Abstract

We investigate the effects of fiscal decentralization on income inequality using a sample of 23 OECD countries over the period 1971–2000. We utilize novel and robust measures of fiscal decentralization based on different degrees of fiscal autonomy of sub-central governments. Our results highlight the importance of both the nature of fiscal decentralization—expenditure versus revenue—and the extent to which independent spending responsibility and taxing powers are actually assigned to local governments. A higher degree of tax decentralization is associated with higher household income inequality within a country. Thus, even if fiscal decentralization could be attractive according to efficiency reasons, it may actually have undesirable consequences on the income distribution.     

Cores of many-player games; nonemptiness and equal treatment

This paper provides sufficient conditions to ensure nonemptiness of approximate cores of many-player games and symmetry of approximate core payoffs (the equal treatment property). The conditions are: (a) essential superadditivity—an option open to a group of players is to partition into smaller groups and realize the worths of these groups and (b) small group effectiveness (SGE)—almost all gains to collective activities can be realized by cooperation only within members of some partition of players into relatively small groups. Another condition, small group negligibility (SGN), is introduced and shown to be equivalent to SGE. SGN dictates that small groups of players cannot have significant effects on average (i.e., per capita) payoffs of large populations; thus, SGN is a analogue, for games with a finite player set, of the condition built into models with a continuum of player that sets of measure zero can be ignored. SGE implies per capita boundedness (PCB), that the supremum of average or per capita payoffs is uniformly bounded above. Further characterization of SGE in terms of its relationship to PCB is provided. It is known that if SGE does not hold, then approximate cores of many-player games may be empty. Examples are developed to show that if SGE does not hold and if there are players of “scarce types” (in other works, players with scarce attributes) then even if there is only a finite number of types of players and approximate cores are non-empty, symmetry may be lost; moreover, even players of abundant types may be treated asymmetrically by the core.     

Simulating fundamental tax reforms in an aging Japan

This paper studies in a quantitative way the macroeconomic and welfare effects of introducing progressive expenditure taxation, in a situation of the aging of the Japanese population. It undertakes a simulation analysis taking account of the general equilibrium effects of intragenerational inequality, which increases with a transition to an aging society. The simulation results suggest that progressive expenditure taxation has advantages over progressive labor income taxation on the grounds of efficiency and equity. Thus, a shift to progressive expenditure taxation can overcome the large welfare loss that would occur under the current tax system as Japan ages.     

Who Gains from the Demographic Dividend? Forecasting Income by Age

Changes in the population age structure are known to influence the total income per person, but little is known about whether the changes are equally shared across the population or are concentrated on particular age groups and/or birth cohorts. The answer to this question has potentially important implications for income inequality, human capital investment, and fertility decision-making. We propose a new model of intergenerational transfers which distinguishes between the effects of changes in population structure and the effects of changes in family age structure. Using age-specific data from annual income and expenditure surveys of Taiwan between 1978 and 1998, we show that changes in age structure have had a very favorable effect on Taiwan's income growth. The gains are not equally shared by all age groups, however. Children and young adults have benefited the most, while the elderly have benefited the least. The population and family age structures have independent effects on per capita income; the effect of the population age structure is most important. Generational differences in per capita income are closely related to intergenerational differences in earnings, suggesting only a weak form of altruism. Finally, we predict that, on average, population aging will adversely influence the per capita income growth in Taiwan in the coming decades.     

A dynamic almost ideal demand system incorporating consumer expectations

In this paper a theoretical framework is presented for the analysis of the effects of psychological, perceptual or expectational factors on household expenditure within a complete demand system. The model was estimated using the Consumer Sentiment Index, which represents an index of consumer perceptions of economic conditions. Evidence was found for significant expectational effects on five of nine expenditure categories—food at home, alcohol, housing, durables and other services. The direct expectation effects were found to be small in size. The results demonstrate the model's potential usefulness as a framework for modelling consumer behavioral responses to expectations and for evaluating the welfare implications of policy-induced changes in expectations.     

Spatial inequality and household poverty in Ghana

The study analyses district-level consumption inequality in Ghana, explores the relative contribution of within- and between-district inequalities to national inequality and examines the relationship between household poverty and inequality. The last three rounds of the Ghana Living Standard Survey are used. We observe that the contribution of within-district inequality to national inequality is higher than inequality between districts. Also, district-level consumption inequality shows a significant effect on household poverty, but with varying signs. We surmise that the variation in signs is as a result of the state of economic activity and factors that affect both poverty and inequality.     

How do natural resource endowment and institutional quality influence the nexus between external indebtedness and welfare in Africa?

Resource-rich African countries are often saddled with high external indebtedness. Yet, their management of resource endowment, a logical source of debt repayment, also remains a challenge, alongside their characteristic weak institutions. We investigate the relationship between external indebtedness and welfare whilst considering the pervasive influence of both natural resource rents and the quality of institutions. Using a two-stage analysis, we find that the quality of institutions, mineral- and oil-resource rents negatively affect indebtedness, while rents of aggregated natural resources, which include agricultural commodities, increase indebtedness. In the second stage, we find that welfare is enhanced by the quality of institutions, mineral- and oil-resource rents. These sets of results are interestingly conditional on the degree of resource endowment and the income level of countries, alongside the interesting effects of external indebtedness on welfare, both of which, importantly, nuance past results on the “resource curse”. Furthermore, the proxy for welfare matters: the human development index proxy reflects more the theoretical expectations of unsustainable indebtedness on welfare, than does the GDP per capita alternative. These and other results of our paper, which hold useful policy guides for African countries, are robust to alternative estimation techniques and other checks.     

Love thy neighbor: Income distribution and housing preferences

Do homeowners prefer living in an area with a more equal distribution of income? We answer this question by estimating a semi-parametric hedonic pricing model for about 90,000 housing units transacted in Hong Kong between 2005 and 2006. We first identify a hedonic price function by locally regressing the rental price of the housing unit on its intrinsic and neighborhood characteristics, one of which is the Gini coefficient for household income of the constituency area. We then combine the estimates with a log utility function to obtain the heterogeneous preference parameters. Finally, we estimate the joint distribution of the preference parameters and demographics. We find that most homeowners have a strong distaste for inequality in their neighborhood, and the distaste increases with income and goes down with education level. Counterfactual experiments show that reallocating public rental housing by half can increase the welfare of homeowners by about HK$8,000 on average per year, an amount which is equivalent to increasing the housing unit by 20 square feet or reducing the age of the unit by 5 years.     

Re-examining the relationship between economic growth and inequality in the New Member States

The link between income inequality and economic growth has raised many debates in the literature and has generated a large spectrum of results over time. This paper aims at analyzing the relationship between economic growth and income inequality, as well as their macroeconomic and institutional determinants in the New Member States, between 2000 and 2009. In the presence of a set of explicative variables, the economic growth influences the social inequality through a U-shaped relationship. Health, education and gross capital formation generate different direct and indirect effects on income inequality as the per capita GDP growths, while the transition indicators are found to be either common or specific determinants of inequality and growth.     

中国城乡居民住房不平等分析

随着中国城镇住房分配体制的转型,居民的居住条件在很大程度上依赖于家庭的收入水平,因此不断扩大的收入差距也在无形中影响着住房的不平等状况。基于2002年和2013年的城镇和农村的住户调查数据,本文从住房面积和房产价值两个角度分析中国农村和城镇居民住房不平等的总体状况。研究发现,在住房市场化体制建立和发展的过程中,虽然从财产所有权上的住房均等化有所提升,家庭居住面积有了很大的改善,但人均居住面积分布的不均等程度却进一步扩大。房产价值的不平等分析表明,虽然这一时期居民的住房财富高速增长,但城乡内部和城乡之间的房产差距都急剧扩大。基于回归分解的方法考察住房财富不平等的影响因素后发现,区域差异、收入差异和人力资本是造成居民房产价值分布差距不断扩大的重要因素。     

EVALUATING IMPACT EFFECTS OF TAX REFORMS

Abstract. This survey paper provides coverage of the inputs from the theory side which go into the empirical analysis of impact effects of tax reforms. Inequality, social welfare, progressivity and horizontal inequity effects are considered. The value judgements inherent in selecting the target group for analysis, specifying welfare through household utility, equivalizing incomes and otherwise incorporating differences in household needs into utilitarian analysis, are all explained. The evaluation procedures described include dominance checks and index comparisons. The inequality and social welfare tests are also applicable to other comparisons of income distribution. Standard computer software to sort, cumulate and compute covariances is all that is required to undertake the necessary computations using microdata.     

Social Capital Across European Countries: Individual and Aggregate Determinants of Group Membership

Social capital refers to norms and networks of reciprocity, trust, and cooperation that facilitate coordinated action for a mutual benefit. Theoretical and empirical studies have documented the positive contribution of social capital in social welfare and development. This study empirically explores the determinants of social capital, in the form of group membership, across European countries. Data is derived from the European Community Household Panel, which covers a large sample of individuals from a set of European countries. Binary logistic regression models are applied to regress an index of individuals' group membership on a set of individual characteristics (income, education, gender, age, marital status, employment), as well as aggregate characteristics of countries (GDP per capita, income inequality, social trust, trust in public institutions, corruption, unemployment, and violation of political and civil rights). Results provide evidence of the impact of both individual and aggregate factors on group membership. These factors constitute a possible means to rebuilding patterns of social capital, especially in Southern European countries, where special‐interest groups and patron‐client relations prevail over generalized norms and networks of reciprocity, trust, and cooperation that promote wider social welfare and development objectives.     

Does military expenditure crowd out health-care spending? Cross-country empirics

The trade-off between military expenditure and public health spending has remained an unsettled empirical issue. This paper investigates whether military expenditure has crowded out public health spending in 116 countries (including a subsample of 87 non-OECD countries) over the period 2000–2017. Through our system generalized methods of moments (GMM) estimations, we find that military expenditure, whether it is measured on a per-capita basis or as a proportion of total government expenditure, has a positive impact on the demand for health care. Nonetheless, we find a significant crowding-out effect of military expenditure on domestic government health spending by taking into account government fiscal capacity. The evidence we present supports the long-standing view that military expenditure has a particular ability to compete government financial resources away from publicly funded health spending. By interacting the military expenditure variable with income per capita, we find that an increase in income per capita has neutralized the crowding-out effect of military expenditure on domestic government health spending – less well-off countries stand to suffer most, and wealthy ones stand to suffer least, from the crowding-out effect. The crowding-out effect is statistically more specific to middle- and low-income countries in our samples.

     

On the Applicability of the Tiebout Model to Japanese Cities

The purpose of this paper is to apply the so-called Tiebout hypothesis empirically to Japanese cities. 117 cities in the Tokyo metropolitan area and 72 cities in the Osaka metropolitan area are respectively classified into eight clusters using public expenditure densities as attribute variables. The land price of each city is then regressed on per capita income, population density and dummy variables corresponding to the clusters. High statistical significance of the estimated coefficients of the dummy variables can be taken meaningfulness of the initial classification of cities in which individuals of varying preference to the different patterns of public expenditures reside, Through this procedure, the authors reached the conclusion that the Tiebout hypothesis is applicable to cities in Japanese metropolitan areas.     

Distributional effects of imputed rents in five European countries

Most empirical distributional studies of well-being in developed countries rely on distributions of disposable income. From a theoretical point of view this practice is contentious since a household’s command over resources is determined not only by its spending power over commodities it can buy in the market but also on resources available to the household members through non-market mechanisms such as the in-kind provisions of the welfare state and the value of private non-cash incomes. In developed market economies the most important private non-cash income component is imputed rent from owner-occupied or subsidized accommodation. Employing a wider definition of imputed rent that also allows the analyst to capture income advantages among tenants living in rent-subsidized accommodations of various sorts (including rent-free or reduced-rent households), the present paper examines the differential effects of including imputed rents in the concept of resources in five European countries (Belgium, Germany, Greece, Italy and the UK). The results suggest that in almost all cases, the inclusion of imputed rents in the concept of resources leads to a decline in measured levels of inequality and poverty. The main beneficiaries are outright homeowners and households living in rent-free (or heavily subsidized) accommodation—most often older persons. The inclusion of imputed rents in the concept of resources does not lead to substantial changes in the ranking of the countries according to their level of inequality, despite widespread differences in the rates of home ownership and subsidization across the countries studied here.     

Does rising income increase or decrease damage risk from natural disasters?

Recent empirical literature has found a negative relationship between income per capita and measures of risk from natural disaster, supportive of logic that higher incomes allow countries to mitigate disaster risk. We argue that behavioral changes at the micro level in response to increasing income (such as location choice and extent of costly abatement activity) may lead to a non-linear relationship between aggregate incomes and disaster damages, where the risks increase with income before they decrease. In a country-year panel data set, we show that disaster risk associated with flooding, landslides and windstorms increases with income up to GDP per capita levels of $5044, $3360, and $4688 per year respectively and decrease thereafter. Such non-linear impacts are absent for other disaster types such as extreme temperature events and earthquakes where the links between human behavioral choices and exposure to risk are not as strong. From a policy perspective, this suggests that for the least developed countries, the dual goals of disaster risk prevention and economic development cannot be assumed to be complementary for all forms of natural disaster. In addition to allocating resources to manage disaster risk, the poorest nations may have to be more proactive in enacting policies that alter the behavioral choices of citizens that impact a country's exposure to natural disaster risk.