Changes in Consumption Expenditures among Baby-boomers and Young-olds: Latent Transition Analysis

The aim of this study was to examine the longitudinal transition of consumption expenditures among both baby-boomers and young-olds in South Korea. We used data from the 6th (2016) and the 7th (2018) waves of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing (KLoSA). The final sample comprised 1,806 baby-boomers (age range=53-61 in 2016) and 1,483 young-olds (age range=65-74 in 2016). Consumption expenditures were observed with nine types of expenses: food, eating out, public education, private education, housing, health-care, clothing, cultural entertainment, and savings. According to the results from latent transition analysis (LTA), three consumption subgroups were identified among baby-boomers: “non-expenditure for education (NE, 69.7%)” group, “high-public education expenditures (PE, 10.7%)” group, and “high-public and private education expenditures (PPE, 19.6%)” group. For baby-boomers, NE and PE were more likely to remain the same type throughout the two waves, and PPE was most likely to move to NE two years later. Meanwhile, the consumption expenditures of young-olds were divided into “low-saving (LS, 63.7%)” group, “high-saving (HS, 40%)” group, and “education cost-centered (EC, 5.3%)” group. In the case of young-olds, the transition between the groups was unlikely to occur across the two waves which can be interpreted as having fewer life cycle changes than baby-boomers. This study suggests that it is necessary to take into account the difference between the generations when understanding longitudinal transition of consumption expenditures.

In Search of Pakistan’s Inclusive Growth: Evidence from Income and Non-Income Dimensions

Inclusive growth (INCL_GRTH) is a process through which economic opportunities are available for all segments of society without any discrimination of rich and poor. The aim of this study is to find how socio-economic factors affect poverty and how we may achieve INCL_GRTH and reduce poverty in a country like Pakistan. The study has used a poverty headcount ratio as a proxy for INCL_GRTH while the number of income and non-income poverty factors, including, per capita GDP, FDI inflows, agriculture value added, health expenditures, income inequality and education expenditures are highlighted as explanatory factors. The results show that poverty is substantially reduced by increasing education expenditures and FDI inflows, while per capita income, health expenditures and agriculture value added increases poverty in a country. The pro-poor growth estimates have confirmed that except agriculture value added, the remaining factors show anti-poor growth in a country, while agriculture value added gives marginal benefits to the poor as compared to the non-poor between the two time periods studied, that is 1980 and 2016.

The impact of budget deficit, public debt and education expenditures on economic growth in Poland

This paper investigates the relationship between economic growth in Poland and a few metrics of fiscal policy: budget deficit relative to GDP, the structure of public debt, education expenditures, and public consumption. We prove that with constant values of parameters of fiscal policy, over time the economy converges to the balanced growth path which is unique and globally asymptotically stable.Having calibrated the model with statistical data, we demonstrate that in the period of 2000–2016 economic growth in Poland was driven primarily by rapid improvement in the level of human capital (at a rate of 5.4% per annum), and secondarily due to the accumulation of capital (2.7% annually). If recent trends in fiscal policy are continued, the Polish economy will converge to the balanced growth path with GDP growing at 3.7%. This rate may be boosted, if fiscal policy is appropriately adjusted, for example by permanent reduction in budget deficit. We also analyse the effects of changes in the financing structure of public debt. Finally, we present several scenarios of increasing public and private spending on education.