Gender discrimination,inflation, and the business cycle

Empirical evidence suggests that women are discriminated against in the labor market. We analyze the effects of taste-based and statistical gender discrimination on business cycle and inflation dynamics by including unpaid household production, two-agent households, and discriminatory firm behavior in a tractable New Keynesian model. After a negative demand shock, we find that the economic downturn is more severe in comparison to a non-discriminatory environment, as the shock implies an increase in the inefficient utilization of female and male productivity. Furthermore, the working time allocation between women and men becomes more inefficient. Moreover, we show that discrimination implies a lower transmission of expansionary monetary policy shocks on inflation. Overall, taste-based discrimination leads to larger macroeconomic distortions, while statistical discrimination implies higher intra-household inefficiencies.     

Credit Access,the Costs of Credit and Credit Market Discrimination

Since the early 1990s, credit expanded relative to income, especially after 2001. It is hypothesized that traditionally uneven credit access and gaps in the costs of credit by demographic characteristics shrank during this period. Relying on data from the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finance, this study looks at financial constraints, the costs of credit and a number of contributions to the costs of credit, including sources and types of loans. The results indicate that taste-based discrimination and structural discrimination may have persisted and possibly increased over time. Gaps in credit access and costs of credit have widened by race, remained high by income, but shrank by ethnicity. Part of the overall differences in credit access was a varying reliance on professional information when making decisions on debt.

农村城市化中人口迁移问题研究——基于刘易斯与托达罗理论的分析

文章从发展经济学的角度,对农村人口迁移理论作了简要回顾,重点论述了刘易斯的二元经济论与托达罗模型,并结合我国农村城市化过程中人口迁移的实际情况,探讨人口迁移对我国农村城市化发展带来的影响,并提出在这一过程中要注意的一些问题。     

农民合作经济组织:基于交易成本分析的农产品流通组织化选择

目前我国农村经济发展的一项重要课题是农民进入市场的组织化问题。本文基于交易成本的分析,指出各种类型的农民合作经济组织应是提高农户走向市场组织化程度的理想选择,探讨了我国农民合作经济组织存在的主要问题和影响其运行的内外部主要因素,提出了推进农民合作经济组织在农产品流通领域主体作用的对策建议。     

社会养老保险与我国居民家庭风险金融资产投资——来自中国家庭金融调查(CHFS)的证据

本文基于2011年中国家庭金融调查数据,考察了社会养老保险对家庭风险金融资产投资的影响。研究发现:拥有社会养老保险会显著提高家庭持有风险金融资产的可能性和风险金融资产比重,边际效应分别达到25%和22%左右。这一结果在控制了家庭的经济水平、人口统计学特征和主观投资风险偏好态度等因素后依旧稳健,一个解释是社会养老保险能有效地降低未来的不确定性。我们进一步分城镇家庭和农村家庭的子样本研究发现,养老保险对家庭风险资产投资的影响在农村很小且统计不显著,这说明新型农村养老保险的养老保障水平和拉动金融消费的作用仍有待提高。     

Forecasting household debt with latent transition modelling

Latent transition modelling (LTM) was used to forecast household debt patterns. A model based on three waves (2011, 2013 and 2015) and over 36,000 responses from the biennial panel study of Polish households – Social Diagnosis – provided data for these forecasts. Based on the fact that transitions between latent states are shaped by previous latent states and socio-economic covariates – age of household head, income and number of household members – we were able to demonstrate LTM as a tool to generate aggregate predictions for both medium- and long-term evolution of the household credit market. The declining tendency for household credit participation rates in Poland is expected in the longer term. In particular, the trend should be supported by decline in the proportion of mortgage debtors. The groups of households indebted for the consumption of durables and those seeking credit outside the banking sector are the groups predicted to remain stable or increase in size.     

Exploring the link between household debt and income inequality: an asymmetric approach

We investigate the relationship between household debt and income inequality in the USA, allowing for asymmetry, using data over the period 1913–2008. We find evidence of an asymmetric cointegration between household debt and inequality for different regimes. Our results indicate household debt only responds to positive changes in income inequality, while there is no evidence of falling inequality significantly affecting household debt. The presence of this asymmetry provides further empirical insights into the emerging literature on household debt and inequality.     

Counting outputs,capital inputs and caring labor: Estimating gross household product

The estimation of Gross Household Product, the economic value added by the unpaid work and own capital of households outside the boundary of the System of National Accounts, should be addressed through household input-output satellite accounts which count household outputs, value them at market prices, and include an allowance for capital as a factor of production. This paper uses internationally comparable survey data to estimate the relative magnitudes of the gender division of the millions of hours of paid, unpaid and total work in twelve OECD countries, puts a dollar value on Gross Household Product in Australia, looks more closely at who provides care and nurture in households and suggests some urgent issues for attention.     

探析县域农民专业合作社资金短缺的解决途径——基于吉林省抚松县个案分析

农民合作社是带动农户进入市场的基本主体,是发展农村集体经济的新型实体,是创新农村社会管理的有效载体。2013年中央一号文件中,要求各地大力发展农业合作社,按照积极发展、逐步规范、强化扶持、提升素质的要求,加大力度、加快步伐发展农民合作社,切实提高农业合作社引领带动能力和市场竞争能力。农民合作社作为实现农村生产关系调整和完善的重要形式因此得到社会的关注。然而,由于农民合作社发展状况与现行的信贷管理要求相距甚远,金融支持却困难重重,徘徊不前,与农民合作社强势发展态势形成鲜明对比。为探析新形势下金融支持农民合作社的有效途径,人民银行抚松县支行近期对县域金融支持农民合作社的情况进行了专题调查。     

Measuring resource inequalities: The concepts and methodology for an area-based Gini coefficient

Although inequalities in income and expenditure are relatively well researched, comparatively little attention has been paid, to date, to inequalities in resource use. This is clearly a shortcoming when it comes to developing informed policies for sustainable consumption and social justice. This paper describes an indicator of inequality in resource use called the AR-Gini. The AR-Gini is an area-based measure of resource inequality that estimates inequalities between neighbourhoods with regard to the consumption of specific consumer goods. It is also capable of estimating inequalities in the emissions resulting from resource use, such as carbon dioxide emissions from energy use, and solid waste arisings from material resource use. The indicator is designed to be used as a basis for broadening the discussion concerning ‘food deserts’ to inequalities in other types of resource use. By estimating the AR-Gini for a wide range of goods and services we aim to enhance our understanding of resource inequalities and their drivers, identify which resources have highest inequalities, and to explore trends in inequalities. The paper describes the concepts underlying the construction of the AR-Gini and its methodology. Its use is illustrated by pilot applications (specifically, men's and boys' clothing, carpets, refrigerators/freezers and clothes washer/driers). The results illustrate that different levels of inequality are associated with different commodities. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of some possible policy implications of the AR-Gini.