scholarly journals Wealth Inequality and Private Savings

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (107) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mai Dao

This paper explores the interaction between corporate ownership concentration and private savings, and by extension, the current account balance in Germany. As high corporate savings largely reflected capital income accruing to wealthy households and increasingly retained in closely-held firms, the buildup of external imbalances in Germany has been accompanied by widening top income inequality, rising private savings and compressed consumption rates. Rising corporate profits in an environment of high business wealth concentration account for 90 percent of the rise in the private savings rate and a third of the increase in the German current account surplus over 1999–2016.

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-57
Author(s):  
Scott S. Condie ◽  
Richard W. Evans ◽  
Kerk L. Phillips

This article examines Thomas Piketty’s thesis that there are no natural limits on the accumulation of wealth. We undertake our examination in the context of a simple general equilibrium model with infinitely lived dynasties. We show that extreme wealth accumulation does not happen in general equilibrium unless capital and labor are substitutes, an assumption which also leads to unbalanced growth. We also show that even with unbalanced growth, differences in rates of return and effective labor are not sufficient to cause unbounded inequality. Only permanent savings rate differences can lead to extreme wealth concentration. Finally, we show that while a flat wealth tax will not eliminate extreme wealth concentration, both a graduated wealth tax and a flat income tax will.


Author(s):  
Selim Başar ◽  
Murat Eren ◽  
Gürkan Bozma

Today developed and developing economies have many problems. Some of these problems are created by global conjuncture and the rest of them are originated by problems which can be seen in some specific economies. One of the most important problems of economies is low saving rate. Since low saving rate can cause through to inability to increase investments and inability to reduce current account deficit, to remain below potential growth. The governments which want to increase the level of savings may use the private pension system as a political tool to increase domestic savings and decrease current account deficit. In accordance with this development, the relationships between private pension system, savings rate and current account deficit have been examined by using panel causality test for 14 OECD countries over the period 2005-2014. The findings indicate that developments in the private pension system leads to improvement in the current account balance.


2006 ◽  
Vol 96 (1) ◽  
pp. 236-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Piketty ◽  
Gilles Postel-Vinay ◽  
Jean-Laurent Rosenthal

Using large samples of estate tax returns, we construct new series on wealth concentration in Paris and France from 1807 to 1994. Inequality increased until 1914 because industrial and financial estates grew dramatically. Then, adverse shocks, rather than a Kuznets-type process, led to a massive decline in inequality. The very high wealth concentration prior to 1914 benefited retired individuals living off capital income (rentiers) rather than entrepreneurs. The very rich were in their seventies and eighties, whereas they had been in their fifties a half century earlier and would be so again after World War II. Our results shed new light on ongoing debates about wealth inequality and growth.


2006 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-62
Author(s):  
Nawaz A. Hakro ◽  
Wadho Waqar Ahmed

This study is designed to assess the macroeconomic performance of fund-supported programs, and the sequencing and ordering of macroeconomic policies in the context of the Pakistan economy. The generalized evaluation estimator technique has been used to assess the macroeconomic impacts of the IMF supported programs. GDP growth, inflation rate, current account balance, fiscal balance and unemployment are used as the target variables in order to gauge economic performance during the program years. The vector of policy variables (that might have been adopted in the absence of programs) and the vector of foreign exogenous variables are also taken as explanatory variables in the model, so that the individual effect of the IMF supported programs could be assessed. The result suggests that as the IMF prescriptions were applied, the current account balance has worsened, the unemployment rate has significantly increased, and the inflation rate has increased during the years of fund-supported programs. Only the budget balance has shown signs of improvement. Furthermore an inadequate sequencing of reforms has contributed to the further worsening of the economic scenario during the program period.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (11) ◽  
pp. 220-240
Author(s):  
Mustafa IŞIK ◽  
Yakup ÖZSEZER ◽  
Fikriye IŞIK

Tourism sector is one of the major driving forces to develop the Turkish economy which provides the positive contributions with new employment opportunities and the national income and payments. With aid of this developments in economy by tourism, it has also increased the interaction with alternative areas. Health Tourism is also one of the special areas in which provides to the country high added value and foreign currency exchange income. Since the revenue outcome by health tourism is reaching up to 100 billion dollars, the national policy of health tourism enable countries has been undertaken as a high interested point of investment needed area. The critical threshold of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is 4 to 5 percent as a current account balance and this deficient outcome in Turkey mostly takes on 5 to 4 percent which is a considered as a critical threshold. Health Tourism is expected to play a key role in bringing the values to the positive levels and therefore the focus is becoming on this area by health sector. Developing countries such as India, Singapore, and Thailand meet their foreign trade deficits with the income where they have obtained from this specific sector and the level of growth in this sector is at certain rate every year. The health Tourism is very crucial and significant sector for such a country Turkey, who has current budget deficit, and it is real economic sense. With Covid-19 crisis, the plans related with health tourism is re-evaluated by the coordination between Turkish Ministry of Health, Ministry of Tourism and Ministry of Economy. Especially, with the infrastructure works carried for public and city hospitals has been capable of providing health tourism services within the organization which is called “USHAŞ (International Health Services)”. The health tourism sector offers significant opportunities for Turkey during Covid-19 pandemic effects on our current account deficit and the decline in economic recovery of our tourism industry and losses. With health tourism created opportunities is already in an increasing trend, to contribute to the country’s economy much faster by increasing target markets with public-private cooperation.


2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 70-93
Author(s):  
Chirok Han ◽  
Kwanho Shin

Since the currency crisis in 1998, Korea has experienced continuous current account surpluses. Recently, the current account surplus increased more rapidly—amounting to 7.7 percent of GDP in 2015. In this paper, we investigate the underlying reasons for the widening of Korea's current account surpluses. We find that the upward trend in Korea's current account surpluses is largely explained by its demographical changes. Other economic variables are only helpful when explaining short run fluctuations in current account balances. Moreover, we show that Korea's current account surplus is expected to disappear by 2042 as it becomes one of the most aged economies in the world. Demographic changes are so powerful that they explain, quite successfully, the current account balance trends of other economies with highly aged populations such as Japan, Germany, Italy, Finland, and Greece. When we add the real exchange rate as an additional explanatory variable, it is statistically significant with the right sign, but the magnitude explained by it is quite limited. For example, to reduce the current account surplus by 1 percentage point, a 12 percent depreciation is needed. If Korea's current exchange rate is undervalued 4 to 12 percent less than the level consistent with fundamentals, it is impossible to reduce Korea's current account surplus to a reasonable level by adjusting the exchange rate alone. Another way to reduce current account surplus is to expand fiscal policies. We find, however, that the impact of fiscal adjustments in reducing current account surplus is even more limited. According to our estimates, reducing the current account surplus by 1 percentage point requires an increase in budget deficits (as a ratio to GDP) of 5 to 6 percentage points. If we allow endogenous movements of exchange rate and fiscal policy, the impact of exchange rate adjustment increases by 1.6 times but that of fiscal policy decreases that it is no longer statistically significant.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-32
Author(s):  
Imtiaz Arif ◽  
Lubna Khan ◽  
Fatima Farooq ◽  
Tahir Suleman

This study is aimed to investigate the impact of international trade and trade duties upon the current account balance of the balance of payment of N-11 countries. Two constituents of each factor have been considered for the purpose of analysis. For International trade, import (IMPT) and export (EXPT) of goods and services have been considered whereas, for trade duties, taxes on international trade (TOIT) and customs and other import duties (CID) have been taken as the research variables whereas, current account balance (CAB) has been taken as the dependent variable. For the purpose of analysis panel data of N-11 countries for 27 years from 1990 to 2016 has been tested using different econometric technique such as Panel unit root test, Panel co-integration test, Hausman test, Panel regression analysis and Panel causality analysis. The results demonstrate that overall research variables are co-integrated and having long term relationship and affecting each other in the conventional manner. Notably, it is observed via results that in case of N-11 countries the CAB itself is the regulating factor and all other factors are adjusted according to the movement of CAB. The study provides recommendations for the rectification of current account deficit position and also provides scope for future research as well.


2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tayyaba Idrees ◽  
Saira Tufail

According to the Harberger-Laursen-Metzler (HLM) effect, an exogenous temporary increase in the terms of trade leads to an improvement in the current account balance. This paper uses a recursive vector autoregression to investigate empirically the existence of the HLM effect in Pakistan, using a time series dataset for the period 1980–2009. Two important results emerge. First, real income deteriorates with an improvement in the terms of trade. Second, the current account balance also responds negatively to innovations in the terms of trade, which implies that the HLM effect does not exist in Pakistan.


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