Search results for "Income inequality"
showing 6 items of 36 documents
Nonlinearities in the Becker-Tomes-Solon model
2011
The aim of this paper is to explore nonlinearities in the relationship between parents and children earnings. We rst discuss a simple extension of the Becker-Tomes-Solon model accounting for nonlinearity. We then test the linearity of intergenerational transmission employing a set of 141 intergenerational mobility tables in 35 di erent countries at di erent time periods, and nd that linearity is rejected in 89 tables. We nally explore the correlation between the \strength of concavity" and income inequality. Our ndings suggest that more unequal societies tend to have a more concave intergenerational transmission process.
Aid for trade policy in developing and least developed countries: A GTAP simulation analysis
2011
Recent global initiatives on debt relief and development assistance call for increasing aid for trade to the poorest countries. We apply a multi-country computable general equilibrium model, to analyze if aid for trade offers the possibility that, instead of the developing and least developed countries’ being worse off—as so many were as the result of the last round of trade negotiations—they will actually be better off. Alternative aid for trade scenarios have been evaluated in terms of effectiveness and equity. Our findings show that aid for trade policies expand trade and alleviate inequalities. The developing and least developed countries will benefit mainly from aid for trade assistanc…
Productivity trends and income inequality in Latvia
2020
Increasing labour productivity is a key driver for prosperity. Although Latvia's productivity growth rates are among the highest in the EU, productivity growth has declined in recent years. With the productivity dynamics slowing down, the pace of convergence is also slower. The benefits of the recent economic recovery in Latvia have not been evenly distributed among households and income inequality has not diminished significantly. The recent OECD and academic studies point to a correlation between falling productivity and increasing income inequality. The more unequal a society is, the more it affects productivity growth and the sustainability of growth. Improving productivity has the pote…
Human Capital and Income Inequality: Some Facts and Some Puzzles
2012
Using a broad number of indicators from an updated data set on human capital inequality for 146 countries from 1950 to 2010, this paper documents several facts regarding the evolution of income and human capital inequality. The main findings reveal that, in spite of a large reduction in human capital inequality around the world driven by a decline in the number of illiterates of several hundreds of millions of people, the inequality in the distribution of income has hardly changed. In many regions, the income Gini coefficient in 1960 was very similar to that in 2005. Therefore, improvements in literacy are not a sufficient condition to reduce income inequality, even though they improve life…
Fiscal policy as an instrument for reducing income inequality: case of Latvia
2020
With the help of fiscal policy, government may influence both overall demand and the disposable income of the population, as well as solve social equality challenges in the society by allocating income among different groups of population. Income inequality in Latvia, which is expressed by the Gini index of disposable income, is the third highest in the European Union, so the question about the most effective instruments for reducing income inequality is pressing. Inequality results in reduced efficiency of social capital and economic distribution, worsening of population health indicators, rising social tension, increased crime and rising poverty, which can have a negative impact on long-t…
The Effects of the Value-Added Tax on Revenue and Inequality
2019
This paper examines the impact of the introduction of the value-added tax on inequality and government revenues using newly released macro data. We present both conventional country fixed effect regressions and instrumental variable analyses, where VAT adoption is instrumented using the previous values of neighbouring countries’ VAT systems as an instrument. The results reveal – in contrast to earlier work – that the revenue consequences of the VAT have not been positive. The results indicate that income-based inequality has increased due to the VAT adoption, whereas consumption inequality has remained unaffected. Peer reviewed