scholarly journals Democratization and the Conditional Dynamics of Income Distribution

2019 ◽  
Vol 113 (2) ◽  
pp. 385-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHAEL T. DORSCH ◽  
PAUL MAAREK
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Income Distribution ◽  
Instrumental Variable ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Middle Ground ◽  
Income Distributions ◽  
Simple Observation ◽  
Market Opportunities ◽  
Distributional Dynamics

Despite strong theoretical reasons to expect that democratization equalizes income distributions, existing empirical studies do not find a statistically significant effect of democratization on measures of income inequality. This paper starts from the simple observation that autocracies are heterogeneous and govern quite extreme distributional outcomes (also egalitarian). Democratization may drive extreme income distributions to a “middle ground.” We thus examine the extent to which initial inequality levels determine the path of distributional dynamics following democratization. Using fixed-effects and instrumental variable regressions, we demonstrate that egalitarian autocracies become more unequal following democratization, whereas democratization has an equalizing effect in highly unequal autocracies. The effect appears to be driven by changes in gross (market) inequality, suggesting that democratization has led, on average, to redistribution of market opportunities, rather than to direct fiscal redistribution. We then investigate which kinds of (heterogeneous) reforms are at work following democratizations that may rationalize our findings.

scholarly journals Getting to a feasible income equality

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. e0249204
Author(s):  
Ji-Won Park ◽  
Chae Un Kim
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Income Distribution ◽  
Economic System ◽  
Gini Coefficient ◽  
Government Policies ◽  
Government Interventions ◽  
Income Equality ◽  
Income Distributions ◽  
The Gini Coefficient ◽  
Negative Impacts

Income inequality is known to have negative impacts on an economic system, thus has been debated for a hundred years past or more. Numerous ideas have been proposed to quantify income inequality, and the Gini coefficient is a prevalent index. However, the concept of perfect equality in the Gini coefficient is rather idealistic and cannot provide realistic guidance on whether government interventions are needed to adjust income inequality. In this paper, we first propose the concept of a more realistic and ‘feasible’ income equality that maximizes total social welfare. Then we show that an optimal income distribution representing the feasible equality could be modeled using the sigmoid welfare function and the Boltzmann income distribution. Finally, we carry out an empirical analysis of four countries and demonstrate how optimal income distributions could be evaluated. Our results show that the feasible income equality could be used as a practical guideline for government policies and interventions.

scholarly journals Scaling of urban income inequality in the USA

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (181) ◽  
pp. 20210223
Author(s):  
Elisa Heinrich Mora ◽  
Cate Heine ◽  
Jacob J. Jackson ◽  
Geoffrey B. West ◽  
Vicky Chuqiao Yang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Income Distribution ◽  
City Size ◽  
Housing Cost ◽  
Scaling Analysis ◽  
Total Income ◽  
Income Distributions ◽  
City Population ◽  
Leibler Divergence ◽  
Urban Scaling

Urban scaling analysis, the study of how aggregated urban features vary with the population of an urban area, provides a promising framework for discovering commonalities across cities and uncovering dynamics shared by cities across time and space. Here, we use the urban scaling framework to study an important, but under-explored feature in this community—income inequality. We propose a new method to study the scaling of income distributions by analysing total income scaling in population percentiles. We show that income in the least wealthy decile (10%) scales close to linearly with city population, while income in the most wealthy decile scale with a significantly superlinear exponent. In contrast to the superlinear scaling of total income with city population, this decile scaling illustrates that the benefits of larger cities are increasingly unequally distributed. For the poorest income deciles, cities have no positive effect over the null expectation of a linear increase. We repeat our analysis after adjusting income by housing cost, and find similar results. We then further analyse the shapes of income distributions. First, we find that mean, variance, skewness and kurtosis of income distributions all increase with city size. Second, the Kullback–Leibler divergence between a city’s income distribution and that of the largest city decreases with city population, suggesting the overall shape of income distribution shifts with city population. As most urban scaling theories consider densifying interactions within cities as the fundamental process leading to the superlinear increase of many features, our results suggest this effect is only seen in the upper deciles of the cities. Our finding encourages future work to consider heterogeneous models of interactions to form a more coherent understanding of urban scaling.

scholarly journals Robust determinants of income distribution across and within countries

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (7) ◽  
pp. e0253291
Author(s):  
Liang Frank Shao
Keyword(s):  
Panel Data ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Income Distribution ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Time Variable ◽  
Omitted Variables ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Innovative Strategy ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Selection Operator

Multicollinearity widely exists in empirical studies, which leads to imprecise estimation and even endogeneity when omitted variables are correlated with any regressors. We apply an innovative strategy, different from the usual tools (instrumental variable, ridge regression, and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator), to estimate the robust determinants of income distribution. We transform panel data into (quasi-) cross-sectional data by removing country and time effects from the data so that all variables become zero mean and orthogonal to the country dummies and time variable, and multicollinearity becomes very low or even disappears with the quasi-cross sectional data in any specifications regardless of country dummies and time variable being included or not. Our contribution is threefold. First, we build a general method to address the multicollinearity issue in panel data, which is to isolate the common contents of correlated variables and ensures robust estimates in different specifications (dynamic or static specifications) and estimators (within- or between-effects estimators). Second, we find no evidence for the Kuznets hypothesis within and across countries; investment is economically and statistically the most robust determinant of income inequality; meanwhile, labor income share shows robustly and consistently positive effects on income inequality, which challenges the related literature. Last, simulations with our estimates show that the total marginal effects of development (regarding GDP, capital stock and investment) on income inequality are very likely to be positive within and between countries except that the impacts on middle-60% and top-quintile income shares are not so likely to increase income inequality across countries.

scholarly journals Income inequality and intragenerational income mobility in Sweden from 1983 to 2010: Following two birth cohorts

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Birgitta Jansson
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Income Distribution ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Income Mobility ◽  
Birth Cohorts ◽  
Income Gap ◽  
Income Distributions ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Income Development ◽  
Equal Income

AbstractSweden has been known for having one of the most equal income distributions in the world. However, in recent decades, Sweden has experienced increasing income inequality. An alternative way of measuring the development of inequality is to study and compare the income development within and between two birth cohorts according to gender and different positions of income distribution. The focus in this paper is to study how individual disposable personal income has changed by aging and at various positions of the income distribution, as well as the gender disposable income gap and intragenerational income mobility. Three positions of the income distribution were chosen: percentile 10; median; and percentile 99. Two cohorts, including all individuals born in 1948 and 1958, were tracked from 35 years of age to 53 years of age – with two 18-year overlapping periods, 1983–2000, and 1993–2010. The results show a complex and multifaceted image of the development of income inequality and mobility, within and between the two birth cohorts. Especially male low-income earners, born 1958, have been left behind. Income mobility differ according to gender where women have increased mobility in the bottom quintile and decreased in the top quintile, men experienced the opposite. When modelling mobility education have decreased to contribute to an upward mobility, especial for cohort born 1958. Taking all the results together, the development of increasing income inequality in Sweden is apparent.

The European Polarization of Income Distributions

2019 ◽  
pp. 174-210
Author(s):  
Jason Beckfield
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Economic Convergence ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Income Distributions ◽  
Fixed Effects Models ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Country Differences ◽  
European Economies ◽  
Total P

The stratification of Europe combines two trends: the economic convergence among European economies and the within-nation polarization of the distribution of household income. This chapter examines the combination of these trends to describe the new structure of European stratification, and it analyzes what role European integration has played in these changes. Using fixed-effects models that simulate control for unmeasured but stable between-country differences in the drivers of income inequality over the 1973–2013 period, it extrapolates predictions from those models and compares these to data on income inequality from Waves V and VI of the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS), circa 2000–2010, and Eurostat, circa 2008–2012. It then uses individual-level data from the LIS and Eurostat to calculate the level of total income inequality in Europe and the changing contribution of between- and within-nation income inequality to the total.

scholarly journals Satisfaction as an outcome, as a means and as a cause

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Susanne Elsas
Keyword(s):  
Life Satisfaction ◽  
Household Income ◽  
Instrumental Variable ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Econometric Methods ◽  
Variable Approach ◽  
Panel Fixed Effects ◽  
Instrumental Variable Approach

This dissertation analyzes large-scale panel data on individual satisfaction in three self-contained empirical studies, each taking a different perspective on individual satisfaction and using appropriate econometric methods accordingly. In its first empirical analysis, the thesis addresses the obvious question of satisfaction as an outcome, here if life satisfaction is an outcome of education. Results of the instrumental variable estimation, using German NEPS data, show that education has no effect on life satisfaction, yet on some of its determinants. Based on the idea that income is a fundamental of financial satisfaction, the second analysis concludes from satisfaction to its cause: Intra-household satisfaction differences are used as a means to approach the intra-household income distribution. Panel fixed effects estimations on German SOEP data show that couples share their income according to their individual financial contribution to the household‘s income. Finally, the last analysis, which also uses SOEP data, explores the question whether satisfaction could also be the cause of a typical determinant of itself, i.e. of income. This analysis also uses SOEP data and an recent synthetic instrumental variable approach. Results suggest that satisfaction causes income, while income tends not to cause satisfaction.

Dampak Kebijakan Moneter Pada Output Di Negara-Negara ASEAN Tahun 1980-2014

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-70
Author(s):  
Nur Widiastuti
Keyword(s):  
Monetary Policy ◽  
Interest Rate ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Least Square ◽  
Fixed Effects Model ◽  
State Data ◽  
Ordinary Least Square ◽  
The Impact

The Impact of monetary Policy on Ouput is an ambiguous. The results of previous empirical studies indicate that the impact can be a positive or negative relationship. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of monetary policy on Output more detail. The variables to estimatate monetery poicy are used state and board interest rate andrate. This research is conducted by Ordinary Least Square or Instrumental Variabel, method for 5 countries ASEAN. The state data are estimated for the period of 1980 – 2014. Based on the results, it can be concluded that the impact of monetary policy on Output shown are varied.Keyword: Monetary Policy, Output, Panel Data, Fixed Effects Model

Philanthropy and Income Inequality

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Anderson ◽  
Ing-Haw Cheng ◽  
Harrison Hong
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Income Distribution ◽  
Tax Policies ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Alternative Models ◽  
Tax Relief ◽  
Bill Gates ◽  
Welfare Implications ◽  
Tax Cuts

Bill Gates recently argued that philanthropy by households at the top of the income distribution might help ameliorate income inequality, and that tax policies should take this into account. Much of the research in economics on giving has been focused on middle-income households, so we know very little about the motives for giving by the very rich. We provide some initial evidence on what drives the giving of the richest Americans. First, we extrapolate anthropological evidence on how status concerns might influence philanthropy. Second, since the richest own a significant amount of equity, we use the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Act of 2003 to see how their giving responded to unanticipated tax cuts, particularly for dividends. Third, we consider the welfare implications of philanthropy as opposed to alternative models for redistributing the wealth of the extremely rich.

Agricultural Trade and Ultra-Poor in Pakistan: An Application of CGE Model

2021 ◽  
pp. 097639962110106
Author(s):  
Saud Ahmad ◽  
Muhammad Aamir Khan ◽  
Usman Mustafa
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
World Economy ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Real Income ◽  
Agricultural Trade ◽  
Public Welfare ◽  
Trade Policies ◽  
Agriculture Sector ◽  
Lower Extent ◽  
Potential Impact

In the modern integrated world, the synthesis of countries for trade is often viewed as a crucial source of income and growth disparities across nations. Well-known channels of economic theory can trace the growth effects of trade. However, there is a substantial conflict among empirical studies regarding gains from agricultural trade. Therefore, this study examines the economy-wide impact of agriculture trade liberalization/protection on agriculture production, agriculture trade, income redistribution and public welfare. An extension of the GTAP model known as MyGTAP is employed and the world economy is disaggregated into 20 regions and 11 sectors with Pakistan as a home country. Further, results explore greater gains from an increased level of liberalization towards the agriculture sector in terms of agriculture production, real factors’ wage, terms of trade and household welfare. Rural households enjoy relatively higher real income and income inequality declines in Pakistan in the case of liberalization and protection. However, comparatively protectionism reduces inequality by the lower extent, and said study also points out that neither change in real gross domestic product nor public welfare turns out to be a good indicator of assessing potential impact of trade policies on income inequality.

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