Accounting for Cross‐Country Differences in Wealth Inequality

There is considerable cross‐country variation in levels of household wealth and in wealth inequality. This paper assesses the extent to which these differences can be accounted for by differences in the distributions of households' demographic and economic characteristics. A counterfactual decomposition analysis of micro data from five countries (Italy, U.K., U.S., Sweden and Finland) is used to identify the effects of characteristics on component wealth holdings, their value and their distribution. The findings of the paper suggest that the biggest share of cross‐country differences is not attributable to the distribution of household demographic and economic characteristics but rather reflect strong unexplained country effects.     

生产性过剩条件下中国宏观经济政策取向探讨

目前我国之所以出现生产性过剩，商品过剩为其直接原因，生产和消费关系失调为其根本原因。为此，国家宏观经济政策应由主要调控投资转向主要调控消费，以消费带动投资。     

我国居民消费偏低的原因和对策研究

近些年来，随着我国经济的快速发展，虽然国民生产总值不断提高，但居民收入增长缓慢，收入差距逐步扩大，整个社会消费倾向偏低，导致消费率偏低。提高消费率有利于解决内需不足引发的一系列问题，提高全国人民的生活水平和质量，为构建和谐社会奠定坚实的基础。     

Interpolating the Lorenz Curve: Methods to Preserve Shape and Remain Consistent with the Concentration Curves for Components

C¹‐class interpolation methods that preserve monotonicity and convexity and are thus suitable for the estimation of the Lorenz curve from grouped data are not widely known. Instead, parametric models are usually applied for such estimation. Parametric models, however, have difficulty in accurately approximating every part of income/expenditure distributions. This paper proposes two types of C¹‐class shape‐preserving interpolation methods. One is a piecewise rational polynomial interpolation (proposed independently by Stineman and Delbourgo) that enables consistent interpolation of the concentration curves for income/expenditure components, attaining approximately the same accuracy as that of the existing methods when applied to decile‐grouped data or to more detailed aggregation. Another is a Hybrid interpolation that employs pieces of curves derived from parametric models on end intervals. Empirical comparisons show that the Hybrid interpolation (with the assistance of parametric models for class‐boundary estimation) outperforms the existing methods even when applied to quintile‐grouped data without class boundaries.     

Endogenous ranking and equilibrium Lorenz curve across (ex-ante) identical countries: A generalization

This paper proposes a symmetry-breaking model of trade with a finite number of identical countries and a continuum of tradeable consumption goods, which differ in their dependence on nontradeable intermediate inputs, “producer services”. Productivity of each country is endogenous due to country-specific external economies of scale in its service sector. It is shown that, in any stable equilibrium, the countries sort themselves into specializing in different sets of tradeable goods and that a strict ranking of countries in per capita income, TFP, the service sector share, and the capital–labor ratio emerge endogenously. Furthermore, the distribution of country shares, the Lorenz curve, is unique and analytically solvable in the limit, as the number of countries grows unbounded. Using this limit as an approximation allows us to study what determines the shape of distribution, perform various comparative statics and to evaluate the welfare effects of trade. In doing so, this paper extends the analysis of Matsuyama (Econometrica, 81:5 (September 2013), 2009–2031) for more general and flexible forms of scale economies. It turns out that the technique introduced in Matsuyama (Econometrica, 81:5 (September 2013), 2009–2031) is useful for the equilibrium characterization in this general case as well. Although some results of comparative statics and on welfare inevitably need to be modified, they change in ways that illuminate the underlying mechanism of symmetry-breaking.     

基于个体为本模型的中国碳排放核算模型构建

为合理测算中国碳排放总量, 提出了以单个人为基础的碳排放核算模型。个体碳排放量受其物质资本与人力资本、消费倾向与投资倾向影响,而计算中国碳排放总量还应考虑人口增长的影响。对个体资本投资倾向提出合理假设,进而构建人口增长模型。最后,根据各省GDP分布情况,赋予模型一个初始财富值,核算出中国碳排放总量。     

城镇家庭消费金融效应的地区差异研究

本文使用各省市自治区城镇家庭借贷支出的分类面板数据,结合我国经济发展处于转轨期的特性,考察消费升级、社会保障不完善及地区发展不平衡等因素对消费的影响。研究发现各变量在对消费的影响性质和程度上均存在地区差异,社会保障、消费升级和储蓄在全国范围内均显著正相关,房贷支出和教育在中西部地区的促进作用显著,而保险在东部地区作用突出,家庭投资则均不显著。政府要扩大消费内需并改变消费金融发展的不平衡,就应把握消费升级和社会保障制度的推进时机和力度,增加中西部地区社会保障投入和教育投入,持续提高居民收入,适度放宽中西部地区的家庭房贷限制。     

Environment versus growth — A criticism of “degrowth” and a plea for “a-growth”

In recent debates on environmental problems and policies, the strategy of “degrowth” has appeared as an alternative to the paradigm of economic growth. This new notion is critically evaluated by considering five common interpretations of it. One conclusion is that these multiple interpretations make it an ambiguous and rather confusing concept. Another is that degrowth may not be an effective, let alone an efficient strategy to reduce environmental pressure. It is subsequently argued that “a-growth,” i.e. being indifferent about growth, is a more logical social aim to substitute for the current goal of economic growth, given that GDP (per capita) is a very imperfect indicator of social welfare. In addition, focusing ex ante on public policy is considered to be a strategy which ultimately is more likely to obtain the necessary democratic-political support than an ex ante, explicit degrowth strategy. In line with this, a policy package is proposed which consists of six elements, some of which relate to concerns raised by degrowth supporters.     

A NON‐PARAMETRIC MEASURE OF POVERTY ELASTICITY

We estimate the growth elasticity of poverty (GEP) using recently developed non‐parametric panel methods and the most up‐to‐date and extensive poverty data from the World Bank, which exceeds 500 observations in size and represents more than 96 percent of the developing world's population. Unlike previous studies which rely on parametric models, we employ a non‐parametric approach which captures the non‐linearity in the relationship between growth, inequality, and poverty. We find that the growth elasticity of poverty is higher for countries with fairly equal income distributions, and declines in nations with greater income disparities. Moreover, when controlling for differences in estimation technique, we find that the reported values of the GEP in the literature (based on the World Bank's now‐defunct 1993‐PPP based poverty data) are systematically larger in magnitude than estimates based on the latest 2005‐PPP based data.     

Geographic Concentration in Indian Manufacturing and Service Industries: Evidence from 1998 to 2013

This paper uses a comprehensive new data source to document basic facts about geographic concentration among industries in India from 1998 to 2013. Unlike previous studies, our data allow us to accurately measure industrial concentration at the district level and cover manufacturing and services, as well as the formal and informal sectors. Our most striking finding is that average levels of industrial concentration fell dramatically between 1998 and 2013, driven by steep reductions in capital‐intensive manufacturing industries. We provide suggestive evidence that this increasing dispersion may be due to improvements in interregional transportation coupled with inefficient land management policies and limited labor mobility.