Income inequality and labour income share in G20 countries: Trends, Impacts and Causes

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Income Share ◽  
Labour Income

scholarly journals Financialisation and the slowdown of labour productivity in Portugal: A post-Keynesian approach

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diogo Correia ◽  
Ricardo Barradas
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Economic Performance ◽  
Labour Productivity ◽  
Personal Income ◽  
Integration Process ◽  
Income Share ◽  
Portuguese Economy ◽  
The Portuguese Economy

The aim of this paper is to conduct a time series econometric analysis in order to empirically evaluate the role of financialisation in the slowdown of labour productivity in Portugal during the period from 1980 to 2017. During that time, the Portuguese economy faced a financialisation phenomenon due to the European integration process and the corresponding imposition of a strong wave of privatisation, liberalisation and deregulation of the Portuguese financial system. At the same time, Portuguese labour productivity exhibited a sustained downward trend, which seems to contradict the well-entrenched mainstream hypothesis on the finance–productivity nexus. Based on the post-Keynesian literature, we identify four channels through which the phenomenon of financialisation has impaired labour productivity, namely weak economic performance, the fall in labour’s share of income, the rise of inequality in personal income and an intensification of the degree of financialisation. The paper finds that lagged labour productivity, economic performance and labour income share positively impact labour productivity in Portugal, while personal income inequality and the degree of financialisation negatively impact labour productivity in Portugal. The paper also finds that the main triggers for the slowdown of labour productivity in Portugal are the degree of financialisation and personal income inequality over the last decades.

scholarly journals Working for Less: Income Inequality and the Diminishing Share of Labor in China’s National Wealth

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 81
Author(s):  
Songtao Wang ◽  
Tristan Kenderdine ◽  
Zhen Qi
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Gini Coefficient ◽  
Labor Income ◽  
Income Share ◽  
Income Gap ◽  
National Wealth ◽  
Labor's Share

This paper demystifies variation in labor’s share of national labor income in China from the perspective of the income gap. We extend the gross national labor income function by introducing a Gini coefficient to support our argument that the share of gross national labor income decreases with an increasing Gini coefficient. The hypotheses are tested using provincial data from 1996 to 2010: (1) the Gini coefficient’s ‘inverted U’ shape partially contributes to the U-shaped evolution of the labor income-share; (2) China’s 15 per cent decline in the labor income share can be explained by the widening income gap during that time. 

On the Squeezing of the Middle Class: Overview and Prospects for the EU-15

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 325-342
Author(s):  
Olga Salido ◽  
Julio Carabaña
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Technological Change ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Member States ◽  
Middle Classes ◽  
Income Share ◽  
Empirical Results ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Eu

This article was inspired by Atkinson and Brandolini’s work on the economic middle classes and deals with the evolution of the income share of the middle class compared with that of the extreme classes in the EU-15 (the EU’s first 15 member states) over the last two decades. Our research draws on the paradox of the EU officially assuming dominant ideas about rising inequalities and the squeezing of middle-class income produced by globalization and technological change while at the same time producing and disseminating empirical evidence contrary to this view. We first synthesize this evidence, also contributing some additional analyses of Eurostat data, confirming that the income share of the middle class has not changed in the past two decades, as could be expected from the invariance in income inequality. We finally put forward some considerations about the theoretical implications of these empirical results and the interaction between ideas and empirical evidence in political societies and organizations.

scholarly journals Labour market flexibilization and income distribution in Europe

2021 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-185
Author(s):  
Philips Arestis ◽  
Jesús Ferreiro ◽  
Carmen Gómez
Keyword(s):  
Income Distribution ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Employment Protection ◽  
Employment Protection Legislation ◽  
Temporary Workers ◽  
Real Wages ◽  
Income Share ◽  
Labour Income ◽  
Protection Legislation

This paper analyses the role played by the flexibilization of labour markets on functional income distribution. Specifically, we analyse whether employment protection legislation affects the evolution of labour income share, measured by the size of compensation of employees as a percentage of GDP, the sum of wages and salaries as a percentage of GDP and the size of the adjusted wage share, in twenty European economies. Our study?s results show that the evolution of labour income share is explained by the economic growth, the growth of employment and unemployment rates, and the growth of real wages. Regarding the role played by the flexibility of the labour market, and specifically of the employment protection legislation, only employment protection for temporary workers has a significant impact on the evolution of labour shares. Our results show that stricter provisions on the use of fixed-term and temporary agency contracts have a positive impact on the growth of labour shares.

scholarly journals A Meta-Analysis of the Association between Income Inequality and Intergenerational Mobility

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 237802311988128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernesto F. L. Amaral ◽  
Shih-Keng Yen ◽  
Sharron Xuanren Wang-Goodman
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Gini Coefficient ◽  
Intergenerational Mobility ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
Income Share ◽  
Income Elasticities ◽  
Great Gatsby ◽  
The Gini Coefficient ◽  
Over Time

We provide an overview of associations between income inequality and intergenerational mobility in the United States, Canada, and eight European countries. We analyze whether this correlation is observed across and within countries over time. We investigate Great Gatsby curves and perform metaregression analyses based on several papers on this topic. Results suggest that countries with high levels of inequality tend to have lower levels of mobility. Intergenerational income elasticities have stronger associations with the Gini coefficient compared to associations with the top 1 percent income share. Once models are controlled for methodological variables, country indicators, and paper indicators, correlations of mobility with the Gini coefficient lose significance but not with the top 1 percent income share. This result is an indication that recent increases in inequality at the top of the distribution might be negatively affecting mobility on a greater magnitude compared to variations across the income distribution.

scholarly journals Labour income inequality in Mexico: Puzzles solved and unsolved

2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 203-219
Author(s):  
Raymundo M. Campos-Vazquez ◽  
Nora Lustig
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Labour Income

Monetary Policy and the Top 10%: A Time-Series Analysis Using ARDL and ECM

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadeen Omar ◽  
Christian Richter
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Monetary Policy ◽  
Interest Rate ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Dynamic Models ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Main Hypothesis ◽  
Income Share ◽  
Distributed Lag ◽  
The Impact

Abstract For the past decades, income inequality has been on the rise, and so is the frequency of its mentions in recent speeches by central bankers. With the heightened importance of the topic, this research aims to study the impact of monetary policy on income inequality. The study used dynamic models for the analysis, namely; the Error-correction Model (ECM) and the Auto-regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model to determine the relationship in both the short- and long-run. The data used were the top 10% income share and the short-term interest rate. Our main hypothesis is that changes in the short-term interest rate have a significant impact on the top 10% income share. We draw time-series evidence from a sample of nine economies at different stages of development: United States, United Kingdom, Russia, Germany, France, Greece, China, South Africa and Chile. The findings support the hypothesis with interestingly varying effects across our sample. These results provide important implications that can contribute in bettering policy setting and add to the discussion of the role of central banks in reducing income inequality.

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