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This paper is motivated by two parallel trends: the declining labor share of income and increasing inequality. Micro and macroeconomic data, covering up to 93 countries between 1970 and 2013, are used to assess whether the declining labor share of income has been a key factor driving growing inequality. The major conclusion is that changes in income inequality across a wide range of countries have been driven significantly by changes in the inequality of wages, while the distribution of income between labor and capital has not been a major factor.
Labor --- Macroeconomics --- Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions --- Factor Income Distribution --- Aggregate Factor Income Distribution --- Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs: General --- Labor Economics: General --- Labour --- income economics --- Income inequality --- Personal income --- Income distribution --- Labor share --- National accounts --- Income --- Wages --- Labor economics --- United States
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We identify structural breaks in economic growth in 140 countries and use these to define "growth spells:" periods of high growth preceded by an upbreak and ending either with a downbreak or with the end of the sample. Growth spells tend to be shorter in African and Latin American countries than elsewhere. We find that growth duration is positively related to: the degree of equality of the income distribution; democratic institutions; export orientation (with higher propensities to export manufactures, greater openness to FDI, and avoidance of exchange rate overvaluation favorable for duration); and macroeconomic stability (with even moderate instability curtailing growth duration).
Business & Economics --- Economic Theory --- Economic development --- Econometric models. --- Exports and Imports --- Macroeconomics --- Aggregate Factor Income Distribution --- Empirical Studies of Trade --- Trade: General --- International economics --- Income distribution --- Income --- Terms of trade --- Exports --- Income inequality --- Economic policy --- nternational cooperation --- United States
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We evaluate the impact of fiscal reforms on growth and inequality in Cambodia using a calibrated general equilibrium model with heterogeneous agents (Peralta-Alva et al., 2018). Over the last two decades, Cambodia’s consumption inequality and poverty have declined. However, income inequality is higher, and large gaps remain between urban and rural residents. At the same time, domestic revenue mobilization has improved substantially, but collection of tax revenue is biased towards non-progressive sources. We use the model to evaluate the growth and inequality impact of reforms that increase infrastructure spending by raising (i) VAT, (ii) property tax, or (iii) personal income tax. We find that using property taxes delivers the largest increase in GDP and reduction in inequality. Reaping the gains from property taxation will however require additional investments in tax administration.
Cambodia --- Economic conditions. --- Macroeconomics --- Aggregate Factor Income Distribution --- Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions --- Macroeconomics: Consumption --- Saving --- Wealth --- Income --- Personal income --- Consumption --- Income inequality --- Income distribution --- National accounts --- Economics
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This paper examines trends in income distribution in Brazil and the determinants of income inequality, including social expenditure. While recent data reveal reduced income inequality since the Real Plan of July 1994, the distribution of income is still among the most unequal in the world. Among the most important determinants of income inequality in Brazil is extreme disparity in educational attainment levels. Public expenditures on education, health, and social insurance have tended to exacerbate income inequality. A number of options for improving the equity and efficiency of Brazilian social expenditure merit further examination.
Macroeconomics --- Public Finance --- Aggregate Factor Income Distribution --- National Government Expenditures and Related Policies: General --- Education: General --- Public finance & taxation --- Education --- Income --- Income inequality --- Expenditure --- Income distribution --- National accounts --- Expenditures, Public --- Brazil
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There is growing concern in Europe over the impact of globalization on high and evenly shared living standards. These concerns have often surfaced in response to falling labor income shares in aggregate national income data. However, these data may tell little about the underlying distribution of incomes based on household disposable incomes. While summary measures of income distributions also suggest that inequality has increased in most industrialized countries, this development was very uneven and much less pronounced in euro-area countries, suggesting that broad phenomena such as trade liberalization and technological change may not be major drivers of inequality.
Labor --- Macroeconomics --- Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions --- Wage Level and Structure --- Wage Differentials --- Aggregate Factor Income Distribution --- Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs: General --- Labour --- income economics --- Income inequality --- Wages --- Income distribution --- Income --- Labor share --- National accounts --- United States
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This paper assesses the distributional impact of the recent VAT reform in the Philippines and evaluates alternative methods to mitigate the effects of the reform on poor households. The reform was progressive and relatively well targeted. To alleviate the impact of the reform on the poor, several mitigating measures were introduced. Although these measures reduced the adverse impact of the VAT reform for all households, a sizable amount of the benefit accrued to high-income households. Targeted transfer schemes have the potential to deliver a much higher percentage of benefits to the poor.
Macroeconomics --- Taxation --- Aggregate Factor Income Distribution --- Business Taxes and Subsidies --- Education: General --- Macroeconomics: Consumption --- Saving --- Wealth --- Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics: Household Analysis: General --- Public finance & taxation --- Education --- Income --- Value-added tax --- Consumption --- Household consumption --- Economics --- Spendings tax --- Philippines
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This paper examines the effects of inflation and associated financial instability on income distribution. Using both pooled cross country and single country time series models, the level of inflation, inflation variability, and the variability of the nominal exchange rate are shown to impact negatively on overall income equality. Looking at disaggregate measures of income distribution, the issue as to whether inflation is a progressive or regressive tax is found to be negatively correlated with the level of development and the sophistication of the financial structure. The paper argues that these results point towards financial variables as a partial way of rectifying the generally poor explanatory power of both cross-country and time series models of income distribution.
Foreign Exchange --- Inflation --- Macroeconomics --- Aggregate Factor Income Distribution --- Price Level --- Deflation --- Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions --- Currency --- Foreign exchange --- Income distribution --- Personal income --- Consumer price indexes --- Purchasing power parity --- National accounts --- Prices --- Income --- Price indexes --- United States
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A method of testing the relative importance for consumption of risk sharing behavior and changes in current income is proposed and estimated using data across Canadian provinces. The focus of the estimation is less on whether or not the risk sharing model can be rejected than on how much each of these hypotheses can contribute to explaining overall variation in consumption. Both types of behavior are found to be statistically significant, but the risk sharing model is found to explain considerably more of the growth in consumption than does changes in income.
Macroeconomics --- Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis --- Macroeconomics: Consumption --- Saving --- Wealth --- Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions --- Aggregate Factor Income Distribution --- Consumption --- Income --- Personal income --- Disposable income --- Government consumption --- National accounts --- Economics --- National income --- Canada
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The paper focuses on distributional consequences of macroeconomic adjustment. The preferences of economic agents over the level of the real exchange rate derived from standard models are monotonic, with agents favoring either an infinitely appreciated or depreciated rate. To generate less extreme preferences, a model is presented where appreciation would depress economic activity, while a large depreciation would hit the tradable sector by limiting the availability of labor, offsetting the favorable price effect. The model is in the spirit of the dependent economy model, but built on explicit microfoundations. The results can be used to analyze political economy aspects of macroeconomic adjustment.
Foreign Exchange --- Labor --- Macroeconomics --- Political Economy --- Open Economy Macroeconomics --- Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs: General --- Labor Economics: General --- Aggregate Factor Income Distribution --- Labour --- income economics --- Currency --- Foreign exchange --- Political economy --- Real exchange rates --- Wages --- Income --- Labor economics --- Economics
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This paper studies the main determinants of the sharp decline in Colombia’s private saving rate which accompanied the steep deterioration of the country’s external current account deficit in the 1990s. The paper rejects current arguments pointing to a consumption boom and corporate behavior as the main causes of the decline. It concludes that: private consumption, explained mainly by permanent income, has only increased moderately in the 1990s; household behavior—not corporate behavior—determines private saving; and tax increases do not entirely explain the fall of private saving. Thus, reliance on external saving could be reduced by increasing public saving.
Macroeconomics --- Macroeconomics: Consumption --- Saving --- Wealth --- Aggregate Factor Income Distribution --- Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions --- Private savings --- Consumption --- Income --- Private consumption --- Personal income --- National accounts --- Saving and investment --- Economics --- Colombia
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