收入分配与中国居民消费——理论和基于中国的实证研究

本文研究了城乡收入差距扩大对中国居民消费需求的影响.基于生命周期框架的理论研究表明,收入水平越高,居民平均消费倾向和边际消费倾向越低;收入差距越大,居民消费需求越低.文章使用1978—2008年我国28个省、市、自治区的面板数据对理论模型进行了实证检验.结果显示,收入水平提高10000元,居民平均消费倾向下降25.6%,边际消费倾向下降7%;城乡收入差距扩大1单位,居民消费率下降6.5个百分点.数值模拟结果表明,城乡收入差距扩大导致居民消费率在2000—2008年间下降了3.42个百分点,解释了这一期间居民消费率下降的30.8%     

Economic Growth and Income Inequality: Evidence from Dynamic Panel Investigation

This paper empirically investigates the effect of income inequality on economic growth using extended panel data covering a broad range of developing and developed countries. We use system generalized method of moments (GMM) techniques in a dynamic panel analysis, which alleviates the possible positive bias in difference GMM due to the persistence of lagged dependent variables as instruments. We find strong evidence of a negative effect on growth from income inequality, which contradicts the findings of Forbes [2000, September. A reassessment of the relationship between inequality and growth, American Economic Review, 90(4), pp. 869–887] and Li and Zou [1998, October. Income inequality is not harmful for growth: Theory and evidence, Review of Development Economics, 2(3), pp. 318–34]. Further analyses using combined Gini coefficients show that the difference can be overall attributed to the problem of omitted control variables and the differences in how the variations in inequality across countries are reflected. We also find that the negative effects of inequality on economic growth can be of great significance when using a sample of less developed countries or more recent inequality data set.     

中国农村收入流动分析

本文利用农业部1986—2001年间六省农村固定观察点数据,对农村家庭收入流动进行了经验分析,发现:第一,分析期内农户呈现出收入流动程度随时间先增大后逐渐稳定的趋势,这使得持久收入不均等程度显著小于年度不均等,1995年以后虽然有较大的年度收入不均等,但持久收入不均等较小;第二,分析期内农村收入流动始终大于同期城市收入流动;第三,在1986—1990年间,农民平均收入较高省份的收入流动程度较大,而在1995—2001年间,各省收入流动差异并不明显;第四,农民收入水平有条件收敛的趋势,同时,教育水平提高、外出打工,都对农民收入增长有显著的推进作用。     

The prospects for caring: economic theory and policy analysis

This paper examines three distinguishing features of caring:that it involves the development of a relationship, that caringresponsibilities and needs are unequally distributed and thatsocial norms influence the allocation of care and caring responsibilities,to draw out their implications for analysing caring and itsmovement between unpaid and paid economies. Rising opportunitycosts of caring are found to produce pressures experienced indifferent ways across different sectors of the economy. These,coupled with inequalities in care responsibilities and labourmarket opportunities, influence the movement of care betweenpaid and unpaid economies. This analysis is then used to examinethe likely evolution of caring norms and practices and how policymight intervene to avoid an uncaring future.     

Does Libertè = Egalité? A Survey of the Empirical Links between Democracy and Inequality with Some Evidence on the Transition Economies

Abstract.  The effect of the distribution of political rights on income inequality has been studied both theoretically and empirically. This paper reviews the existing literature and, in particular, the available empirical evidence. Our reading of the literature suggests that formal exclusion from the political process through restrictions on the voting franchise appears to have caused a high degree of economic inequality, and democratization in the form of franchise expansion especially for women, has more often than not led to an expansion in redistribution, at least in the small sample of episodes studied. In a less pronounced way, albeit more emphatically compared to the ambiguous results of the earlier research, the recent evidence indicates an inverse relationship between other measures of democracy, based on civil liberties and political rights, and inequality. The transition experience of the East European countries, however, seems to some extent to go against these conclusions. This, in turn, opens possible new vistas for research, namely the need to incorporate the length of democratic experience and the role played by ideology and social values.     

Landing on all fours? Communist elites in post-Soviet Russia

This paper analyzes the economic situation of former Communist party members in post-Soviet Russia. On the basis of the Russian Socio-Economic Transition Panel, we are able to identify members of the Communist party prior to transition so that we can assess their relative economic performance between 1993 and 1999. We find a significant wage premium associated with former membership in the Soviet Communist party during the period from 1993 to 1999. After addressing non-random selection into the Communist party using an instrumental variables approach, we demonstrate that the overall Communist wage premium can be attributed to positive unobservable characteristics of former party members. Journal of Comparative Economics 32 (4) (2004) 700–719.     

Labour taxation,job creation and job destruction—Focusing on the role of wage setting

We study the effects of labour taxation in a search equilibrium model with endogenous job destruction, embedding three alternative models of wage setting: Nash bargain, monopoly union and efficiency wages. Tax policy implications vary considerably depending on the wage setting model and indexation of unemployment benefits. If wage setting is based on bargaining, a pure increase in the tax progression reduces unemployment, improves the relative position of low-income workers and facilitates the emergence of low-productivity jobs. However, this comes at the cost of reduced efficiency partly owing to lower average productivity. JEL Code J30, J51, J64, H24     

Parenthood and the earnings of married men and women

We use longitudinal data to examine the relationship between parenthood, wages, and hours worked for married men and women. We find evidence of negative selection into parenthood, substantial child-related reallocations of time within the household, and heterogeneity in the effects of children on household behavior. In households in which the wife experiences an interruption in employment, mothers' wages and hours worked fall, while fathers' hours and wages increase. In households in which the mother remains continuously attached to the labor force, however, there is no evidence of a wage decline for mothers, and the hours worked by fathers decrease substantially.     

Market volatility and inequality in earnings: experimental evidence

We analyze the volatility of actions in experimental oligopoly markets. Can the volatility, measured as the total variation in actions, be predicted by inequality in earnings of the previous period? We examine two types of differentiated markets, Cournot and Bertrand, and two informational conditions. We find for both types of markets and regardless of the information available to firms that inequality in earnings is a major factor for explaining volatility. The more equal profits are distributed, the less volatility is observed.     

Counter intuitive results in a simple model of wage negotiations

Summary. Short-term contracts and exogenous productivity growth are introduced in a simple wage bargaining model. The equilibrium utilities corresponding to militant union behaviour are independent of the contract length. Necessary and sufficient conditions for monotonic convergence to a unique steady state are derived. Otherwise, cyclic behaviour of wage shares is inevitable. A wage decrease can occur if strike is credible, but never when strike is not credible. In the limit, as time between bargaining rounds vanishes, this paradox survives. Received: September 3, 1998; revised version: February 10, 2000