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Like in the U.S., off-farm income represents a high and generally increasing percentage of average farm operator household income in Taiwan. Off-farm income accounted for about 80 percent of total farm household income in 2014. The contribution of off-farm income for farm household and rural development are too important to be ignored. The impacts of trade liberalization (e.g., WTO, FTA, or TPP) on Taiwan’s agriculture sector has been an important issue in policy debates. Most of the debates focus on decreases in major indicators, e.g., total output value in production agriculture sector, food security, food self-sufficiency rate and on-farm income of farm household. Almost all of them neglect or ignore those potential increases in off-farm employment and income from local economic growth with trade liberalization. In this study, we built the SAM-based GEMTEE (General Equilibrium Model for Taiwanese Economy and Environment) model—a recursive dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model that depicts the economy of Taiwan and its demographic structure through time. The GEMTEE model is a CGE model derived from the Monash-type CGE model (Dixon and Rimmer 2002) and is calibrated to the 2011 Social Accounting Matrix of Taiwan as the benchmark. Simulation results demonstrate that Taiwan’s GDP will increase by 1.78%, but total agriculture output will decrease by 0.9%. For per farm household income, although on-farm income decreases by NT$1,648, off-farm income will increase by NT$10,580. In total, per farm household income increases by NT$8,932 with cross-strait trade liberalization. With trade liberalization as the engine of growth and trade adjustment assistance (TAA) mechanism in work, economic growth in Taiwan’s agriculture may be maintained and in the long run off-farm income and employment will increase to provide a “safety net” for rural households.

A vast literature has examined the impact of family income on the health and development outcomes of children. Income may improve child outcomes through two mechanisms. First, income may improve development outcomes if it improves a family’s ability to purchase direct inputs into child education and health production such as reading material, educational equipment, and health care. Second, by reducing stress and conflict, additional income helps to foster an environment more conducive to healthy child development, regardless of the nature of specific expenditures. In this paper, we exploit changes in refundable tax benefit income in Canada to study these questions. Importantly, our approach allows us to make stronger causal inferences than has been possible in existing studies. Using variation in child benefits across province, time, and family type, we study expenditure patterns of families receiving child benefits. Our findings suggest that additional income may improve outcomes through both mechanisms: some benefit income is spent on direct education and health inputs, while some is spent on everyday items likely to improve the general conditions children face. Additionally, some families reduce spending on risky behavior items. Spending responses to benefit generosity appear to vary by income.Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.

En el presente trabajo se aborda la tributación de las rentas en especie en nuestro ordenamiento jurídico. Se comienza exponiendo sucintamente el concepto tributario de renta elaborado por la doctrina científica para, a continuación, proceder a analizar qué manifestaciones de la renta ha decidido someter a gravamen el legislador español y a través de qué tributos. Tras establecer el tratamiento fiscal que recibe la renta en nuestro sistema tributario, se analiza cuál es la posición concreta que ocupan las rentas en especie, aludiéndose a su definición legal y subsumiéndolas en el hecho imponible del Impuesto sobre la Renta de las Personas Físicas, con especial atención a los supuestos de exención recogidos en la normativa vigente. Se analizan las reglas de valoración de las rentas en especie contenidas en las normas tributarias, los problemas a los que la propia valoración puede dar lugar, así como la técnica tributaria del ingreso a cuenta y las obligaciones derivadas del mismo para el pagador de la renta en especie. Para concluir, y en aras a obtener una visión multidimensional, se alude a las limitaciones contenidas en la legislación laboral para los salarios en especie y a las posibles consecuencias, a efectos del Impuesto sobre Sociedades, que pueden derivarse para las personas jurídicas que abonen rentas en especie. This work adresses the taxation of income in kind in the spanish legal system. It begins by succinctly exposing the concept of taxable income elaborated by the scientific doctrine, and then proceeds to analyze which manifestations of income the Spanish legislator has decided to tax and through which taxes. After establishing what is the treatment taxable income receives in our legal system, an analysis is made of the specific position income in kind occupies, referring to its legal definition and the way it relates to the spanish Personal Income Tax, with special attention to the exemptions included in the current regulations. Then, we proceed to analyze the rules of valuation of income in kind contained in the tax laws, the problems inherent to the act of valuation itself, as well as the technique of payments on account and the obligations derived from it for the payer of income in kind. To conclude, and in order to obtain a multidimensional vision, reference is made to the limitations contained in labor legislation for wages in kind and the posible consequences, for the purposes of Corporation Tax, that may be derived for legal persons who pay income in kind

Since Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century in 2014, scientific interest into theimpact of income inequality on society has been on the rise. However, little is known about the mediating role of income inequality in the relationship between market institutions and subjective well-being. Using panel analysis on a sample of 21 OECD countries to test the effects of five different types of economic freedom on income inequality, we find that fiscal freedom, free trade and freedom from government regulation increase income inequality, whereas sound money decreases income inequality. Income inequality is found to have anegative effect on life satisfaction. Mediation tests show that income inequality mediates the influence of fiscal freedom, free trade and freedom from government regulation on life satisfaction.

We explore the relationship between natural disasters and income inequality in Sri Lanka as the first study of this nature for the country. The analysis uses a unique panel data set constructed for the purpose of this paper. It contains district inequality measures based on household income reported in six waves of the Household Income and Expenditure Survey of Sri Lanka during the period between 1990 and 2013, data on disaster affected population and other economic and social indicators. Employing a panel fixed effects estimator, we find that contemporaneous natural disasters and their immediate lags significantly and substantially decrease inequality in per adult equivalent household income as measured by the Theil index. Findings are robust across various inequality metrics, sub-samples and alternative estimators such as Ordinary Least Squares and System GMM. However, natural disasters do not affect household expenditure inequality. Either households behave as if they have a permanent income or all households reduce their expenditure proportionately irrespective of their income level in responding to natural disasters. Natural disasters decrease non-seasonal agricultural and non-agricultural income inequality but increase seasonal agricultural income inequality. Income of richer households is mainly derived from non-agricultural sources such as manufacturing and business activities and non-seasonal agricultural activities. Poorer households have a higher share of agricultural income.

We use data from the Household Expenditure Survey and Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey to document facts about consumption and income inequality among households in Australia, emphasising the role of the rents imputed to home owners for conclusions about inequality. Consistent with other developed economies, consumption inequality in Australia is lower on average than income inequality. Both have increased since the early 1990s, with income inequality increasing by more. We decompose the trend in income inequality into four components: (i) changes in observed household characteristics; (ii) changes in the returns to unobserved skills; (iii) changes in the size of persistent income shocks; and (iv) changes in the size of transitory income shocks. We find that changes in the size of persistent and transitory income shocks, rather than changes in observed household characteristics, explain most of this trend. Since the middle of the 2000s, the source of income inequality has shifted from transitory to persistent factors, which is consistent with the rise in consumption inequality over the corresponding period. We find that accounting for imputed rents lowers estimates of the level of inequality in Australia, but has a negligible effect on the trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the relationship between financial structure and income inequality in China and explores a channel for changes of financial structure to influence income inequality. Our res...

This paper presents a simple post-Kaleckian model of distribution and growth that incorporates personal income inequality and interdependent social norms. The model shows in an easily accessible manner that macroeconomic effects of changes in personal and functional income distribution can potentially reinforce or dampen each other. The resulting variety of demand and growth regimes is due to different distributional effects on consumption demand. Therefore, the second part of the paper investigates the empirical relevance of the additional demand regimes by estimating aggregate consumption functions with variables for personal and functional income distribution for the United States and Germany. We find similar effects of functional income distribution for both countries. However, for the US, we find positive long-run effects of personal income inequality on consumption. The effect is strongest for the top 10% income share and the Gini index and less strong for the top 5% and 1% income shares. While this is evidence for relative consumption patterns, it also supports the view that the ?super rich? are a relatively distant class for most people - questioning the notion of expenditure cascades from the very top to the very bottom. In contrast, for Germany we fail to find compelling evidence for effects of personal income distribution.

The question of how money and happiness are associated is still debated. This study tested two hypotheses that aim to explain this association: (1) money increases happiness, and (2) happy people make more money. Using data from the World Values Survey ( N = 64,923, k = 81 nations), we tested whether earning status (primary vs. non-primary earner) moderates the association between income and happiness. The two theories make different predictions regarding this moderation effect: if money increases happiness, household income should predict happiness equally, regardless of earning status. If happy people earn more money, household income should predict the well-being of primary earners more strongly. Multilevel models indicated that data were consistent with the money-increases-happiness hypothesis: income predicted happiness equally for primary earners, secondary earners, and homemakers who do not contribute to household income directly.

We document that households in the UK with extremely low measured income tend to spend much more than those with merely moderately low income. This phenomenon is evident throughout three decades worth of microdata and across different employment states, levels of education and marital statuses. Of the likely explanations, we provide several arguments that discount over-reporting of expenditure and argue that under-reporting of income plays the major role. In particular, by using a dynamic model of consumption and saving, and paying special attention to poverty dynamics, we show that consumption smoothing cannot explain all the apparent dissaving.

National income is generated through national production in the form of ‘value added’; it is expended on goods and services in the form of ‘disposable’ or ‘net’ income. In this paper, I investigate what happens in between. The circuit of income flows generated in this way is comparable to the circuit of product flows, in its complexity. It can be analysed, so the tenet of the paper, in a similar way, by means of well-known tools of input–output (IO) analysis; this on the pre-condition, however, that you draw out the institutional framework of an economy in similar detail as is now customarily done for production units in IO analysis. Existing data do not suffice for the purpose, at present; this paper shows, by way of some exemplary calculations, what insight into the mechanism of national income distribution is gained if the necessary data, normally in the form of a large social accounting matrix, are provided.

Many Unemployment Insurance (UI) recipients do not find new jobs before exhausting their benefits, even when benefits are extended during recessions. Using Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) panel data covering the 2001 and 2007 to 2009 recessions and their aftermaths, we identify individuals whose jobless spells outlasted their UI benefits (exhaustees) and examine household income, program participation, and health-related outcomes during the six months following UI exhaustion. For the average exhaustee, the loss of UI benefits is only slightly offset by increased participation in other safety net programs (e.g., food stamps), and family poverty rates rise substantially. Self-reported disability also rises following UI exhaustion. These patterns do not vary dramatically across household demographic groups, broad income level prior to job loss, or the two business cycles. The results highlight the unique, important role of UI in the U.S. social safety net.

We examine the effect of the EITC on the poverty and income of single mothers with children using a quasi-experimental approach that leverages variation in generosity due to policy expansions across tax years and family sizes. We find that the income increasing effects of the EITC are concentrated between 75 and 150 percent of income-to-poverty with little effect at the lowest income levels and at levels of 250 percent of poverty and higher. We use these results to show that by failing to capture the indirect effects of the credit on earnings, static calculations of the antipoverty effects of the EITC may be underestimated by almost 50 percent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the Korea Labor and Income Panel Study from 1998 to 2010, we measure income mobility and determinants of income ranks and mobility. Empirical outcomes reveal that income mobility is quite limited for both the poorest and the richest income households. Moreover, a macro economic shock had heterogeneous impacts on each income group and the low-income class was highly vulnerable to it. Given the long-lasting impacts of early stage factors and initial endowment on income, this paper calls for policies to support citizens suffering from illness, family breakdown, poor initial conditions, and aging.

This article examines multinational public goods provision under multilateral income transfers and productivity differences across countries. Under a planner who uses linear approximation for utility maximization, we show that (1) a country is an income receiver if it has a higher productivity than the average in producing public goods, enabling it to provide more public goods; (2) the amount of transfers can be pinned down for all countries with an adjustment cost; (3) each country obtains an identical utility increment; and (4) the country with the lowest adjustment cost is the best candidate for the planner country. All results are derived based on well-known information regarding the cost of producing the public goods and income levels.

This paper discusses findings of a study that investigated income, savings and consumption patterns of low income people, and critical factors that influence the use of microcredit- a form of small instant loans targeted for low income people- for household income and consumption smoothing. The sample of the study consisted of households from low income communities living in a lower-middle income country- Sri Lanka. It was found that microcredit borrowers were using the loans for purposes that can be identified as income and consumption smoothing, which is beyond the ideas and intended practice of microcredit. The findings suggests that the consequences of using microcredit for income and consumption smoothing could be costly for households and the society at large. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

This study analyzes income distribution types, both individual and functional, in terms of the first and the last quintiles in Turkey from 2006 to 2015. In this respect, the study first reveals how income types represented by functional income distribution are distributed for the first and last quintiles. Secondly, the inequalities arising within different income types obtained by the respective income quintiles are involved to the analysis. TURKSTAT Income and Living Conditions Survey dataset has been used in the study. With regards to methodology, first the variations that occurred in the shares obtained by households in different income categories for the first and last income quintiles have been used from 2006 to 2015. The improving or deteriorating effects of the relevant income quintiles on income inequality have been put forth for these variations. Then, the Lorenz curves and the Gini coefficients have been used to assess the distribution within each income category. According to the findings of the study, items that increase income equality for the first quintile are salaries and wages, pensions and survivors’ benefits, property income and other social transfers. On the other hand, casual incomes, entrepreneurial incomes, household transfers and rental incomes are the income categories that deteriorate income equality against the first income quintile. While wages and salaries have a positive effect on establishing income equality within this category, rental and property income are the types of income that reveal the most unequal distribution within themselves.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify how consumption of 12 goods – alcohol, cigarettes, fast food, items sold at vending machines, purchases of food away from home, cookies, cakes, chips, candy, donuts, bacon, and carbonated soft drinks – varies across the income distribution by calculating their income-expenditure elasticites. Design/methodology/approach Data on 22,681 households from 2009-2012 from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Expenditure Survey were used. The data were analyzed using ordinary least squares regressions and Cragg’s double hurdle model which integrates a binary model to determine the decision to consume and a truncated normal model to estimate the effects for conditional (y>0) consumption. Findings Income had the greatest effect on expenditures for alcohol (0.314), food away from home (0.295), and fast food (0.284). A one percentage-point increase in income (approximately $428 at the mean) translated into a 0.314 percentage-point increase in spending on alcoholic beverages (approximately $1 annually at the mean). Income had the smallest influence on tobacco expenditures (0.007) and donut expenditures (−0.009). Research limitations/implications Percentage of a household’s discretionary budget spent on the studied goods falls substantially as income gets larger. Policies targeting the consumption of such goods will disproportionately impact lower income households. Originality/value This is the first manuscript to calculate income-expenditure elasticities for the goods studied. The results allow for a direct analysis of targeted consumption policy on household budgets across the income distribution.

Entrepreneurship has declined among households younger than 50 years, while it has grown among older households over the past few decades. We hypothesize that this divergence results from younger households having less diversified income from sources unrelated to business income such as capital income and annuity income than is the case for older households. Using data from the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finance, we calculate descriptive and multivariate statistics. We find that income diversification from capital income has declined for both younger and older households, while the role of income diversification in people working as entrepreneurs has fallen among younger households and stayed constant among older ones. We also find some tentative evidence that income diversification from Social Security and annuity income plays a role in determining entrepreneurship for older households, but has no effect among younger households. Our results suggest that cash income, unrelated to risky ...

Few studies have attempted to identify a causal link between family income and child health, especially in developing countries. This article takes advantage of an exogenous income shock created by China’s rural tax reform between 2000 and 2003 to study the causal impact of household income on child health. The analysis finds that an increase in family income significantly raises children’s height-for-age z-scores. These effects are robust to alternative specifications and a comprehensive set of controls. The article also investigates possible mechanisms generating this result. We find that with a higher income level, better nutritional intake partially accounts for the improvement in child health.

The paper analyzes the distributional effects of social transfers in Bulgaria in the period 2000-2014, using income inequality decomposition by factor components. The results suggest that social transfers mitigate income inequality, but this effect varies depending on the type of transfer. Pensions exert the strongest influence due to their significant share in total income, which also rises over time. Family allowances are pro-poor in nature, but because of their small share in beneficiaries’ total income, their impact on overall inequality is much weaker. “Other social benefits” have the weakest inequality-reducing effect, which is due to their higher concentration towards the richest decile and increasing share in total income. Despite the inequality-decreasing impact of social transfers, we argue that they should not be regarded as the sole remedy for the sharp income disparities in the country, but need to be accompanied by relevant active labor market policies.

Background Previous research has shown that a mismatch between one's own socioeconomic status (SES) and the SES of the surrounding context can lead to maladaptive outcomes, such as increased social stigma and low levels of belongingness (Johnson, Richeson, & Finkel, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100, 2011, 838; Ostrove, The Journal of Social Issues, 59, 2003, 771). This study examines an adolescent population, as contextual comparisons should be especially salient at this time. Methods Participants included over 900 adolescents at age 15 involved in a multisite longitudinal study. Results Results showed that lower relative income status predicted increased social dissatisfaction, internalizing and externalizing problems, after controlling for family SES. Moreover, the effect of relative income was indirectly related to these problems through social dissatisfaction. Exploratory multigroup analyses by gender suggested that the adolescent girls may be driving the effects of relative income. Conclusions Findings are discussed in regard to adolescent socioemotional functioning, as well as the implications for gender differences related to relative income status.

There is much discussion about usefulness of book-tax differences in evaluating firm performance. This study contributes to this discussion assessing the information content of estimated and actual taxable income for Finnish corporate data from 2012-2013. The findings for year 2012 show that book income has higher explanation power of stock returns than other income concepts. However, estimated taxable income does not bring any incremental explanatory power to book income whereas actual taxable income contains more relative and also incremental information. The findings show that the explanation power of estimated taxable income in high earnings quality firms is comparable with that of book income but insignificant in low earnings quality firms. On the contrary, the explanation power of actual taxable income is lower in high earnings quality firms and higher in low earnings quality firms. For high earnings quality firms, neither of the taxable income concepts brings incremental information to book income. For low earnings quality firms, estimated taxable income does not bring any incremental information to book income whereas actual taxable income does. For these firms, actual taxable income brings significant incremental information also to estimated taxable income. For year 2013, anticipated significant tax rate reduction largely mitigated the relevant relationships between returns and income concepts.

This study examines the impact of bank income source diversification on risk-return trade off, of commercial banks in an emerging economy. Considering eleven commercial banks for the period from 2002 to 2015, the paper examines non-interest income and its components against the risk-adjusted returns to explore the relationships among them. Results confirmed that non-interest income is riskier than interest income, but offers potential diversification benefits to shareholders. This is followed by the negative correlation between the interest income and non-interest income. Moreover, risk adjusted return on equity is positively affected by higher non-interest income activities, indicating that a marginal increase in non-interest income improves the shareholders? risk return trade off. However, interest income, which has a significant negative relationship with risk-adjusted return on equity indicate that increase in interest income has been associated with worsening the risk return tradeoff for shareholders. Further, comparative analysis of non-interest income and risk-adjusted returns shows that foreign exchange income and other income categories have major influence on the shareholders risk and return. However, fee based income has no explanatory power over risk adjusted return. The findings of the study have important policy implications on the regulators in the implementation of capital adequacy requirements which adjust with the bank?s risk exposure.

The paper discusses financial reporting of comprehensive income of companies in the food and beverage sector in the Republic of Serbia. The aim of the research is to examine whether the introduction of the concept of net comprehensive income has brought significant information for users of financial statements. The analysis has been conducted on a sample of 132 companies from the mentioned sector on the basis of financial statements for 2014. We find that there is very high positive correlation between net income and net comprehensive income; that there is no statistically significant difference between net income and net comprehensive income; that there is no statistically significant difference between the return on equity calculated by using net income and the return on equity calculated by using net comprehensive income; and that net comprehensive income is more volatile in time than net income.

Stimulated by the switch away from price support in the early 1990s (the Mac Sharry reform), direct income payments have now become the central policy tool in EU agriculture. More than 70 per cent of the common agricultural practices (CAP) budget is now accounted for by these ‘single’ payments, which are largely decoupled from production. To receive these payments, farmers are required to comply with minimal ‘cross-compliance’ standards related to food safety, hygiene, the environment, animal welfare, and land management. On the basis of a review of both the payment scheme and the cross-compliance conditions, it is argued that further reform could make the system more targeted. This not only concerns the income support objective but also agriculture’s contribution to the provisioning of public goods and green services.

This paper investigates the influence of country risks, including economic, financial, and political risks, on income inequality for a broad sample of 110 countries. Our empirical results reveal that higher economic and political risks generally lead to higher inequality. Lower income country appears to have higher income inequality. Furthermore, with the consideration of the non-monotonic effect of country risk, the improvement of income distribution is only sustainable dynamically after a certain threshold level of country risk has been brought down. Policymakers should improve the level of country stability by exploring the benefits of country risk reduction in order to improve income distribution.

Recent research indicates that there is a gap in life expectancy between the rich and the poor. This raises the question: should we on egalitarian grounds use income-based equity weights when we assess benefits of alternative benevolent interventions, so that health benefits to the poor count for more? This article provides three egalitarian arguments for using income-based equity weights under certain circumstances. If income inequality correlates with inequality in health, we have reason to use income-based equity weights on the ground that health inequality is bad. If income inequality correlates with inequality in opportunity for health, we have reason to use such weights on the ground that inequality in opportunity for health is bad. If income inequality correlates with inequality in well-being, income-based equity weights should be used to mitigate inequality in well-being. Three different ways in which to construe income-based equity weights are introduced and discussed. They can be based on relative income inequality, on income rankings and on capped absolute income. The article does not defend any of these types of weighting schemes, but argues that in order to settle which of these types of weighting scheme to choose, more empirical research is needed.

In this paper I investigate the intergenerational income association and its transmission channels amid China's economic transition period using urban data from the Chinese Household Income Projects in 1995 and 2002. The estimated intergenerational income elasticity is 0.43 and 0.51 for cohorts educated prior to and after the market reform respectively, and reaches 0.71 among households with above average income in the post-reform era. Besides the conventional channel of education, this paper estimates the contribution from social capital and ownership of work unit across cohorts and income groups. There is weak evidence that prior to market reform, ownership of work unit contributes most to the intergenerational income persistence for households with below average income, while social capital leads the three contributors in households with above average income. However, in the post-reform era, parents with below average income invest statistically significantly in children's education which contributes most to the intergenerational income persistence. The leading contributor in families with above average income shifts to social capital. Possible explanations for such a shift lie in the ability and incentive of parents from different income categories to invest in their children. The results are tested through a series of robustness checks, and provide empirical support for promoting policies on the equality of opportunity.

The article considers the scope of Pareto improvement through an inequality-inducing income transfer in a society where multiple pure public goods are provided by voluntary contribution only from the rich individual. In contrast to the case of single public good, here we show that in presence of only one poor individual in the society such an income transfer can never be Pareto improving. JEL Classification: H41, D63, D31, H23

Indonesian government has planned a policy in both accelerating the economic growth and reducing the income inequality. The improvement of income equality in Indonesia is conducted specifically through tax and transfer system. The progressive tax system is conducted to redistribute income and to reduce income inequality (measured by Gini index). The efficiency of a low tax system gave rise to suspicion that the system is not effective for reducing income inequality. This study examines the effect of fiscal policy on income ineaquality and economy growth in Java. To achieve the objective of study, the changes of macroeconomic indicators, tax system efficiency, and the changes of the income distribution is analysed using a panel data regression model. The results showed that the redistribution value of district/city is negative, indicating that the redistribution through taxes is not effective. In practice, the applicable tax system tends to widen the income inequality. The relation between equity income and economic growth show greater influence in the region with high income, whereas in regions with low income, incidence of such influence is very small indeed.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the long-term differences in household income and their causes in the people’s commune through a panel of micro-data. Design/methodology/approach The income mobility method (including static Gini mobility and dynamic income transition matrix) as well as the multinomial logit model) are employed in this paper. Findings Empirical results indicate that differences in household income were relatively low during the people’s commune period. In addition, both Gini mobility and income transition matrix analyses show that income mobility in the long term was faster than that in the short term, suggesting income mobility was beneficial for low-income earners in the long term, i.e., there was an pro-poorness. The major factor influencing household income was the structure of family population, not the quantity of labor input. Originality/value This paper is the first using income mobility method to study farmers’ income disparity and conducting factor decomposition on it in the people’s commune period. The micro-data on production team level applied in the paper is of high value, and the paper is helpful to understand the low efficiency of the people’s commune.

The literature on income concentration largely focuses on pre-tax income; the current study provides new data concerning both pre- and post-tax top income shares in Switzerland, from the 1945–2012 period. Redistribution due to progressive income taxes increased until the 1970s, and since then, the highest-income households have avoided increased cantonal income taxes by taking residence in low-tax cantons. Lower-level top income groups are less mobile than the highest-level groups, but have benefited from tax policy reforms since the 1980s. Nonetheless, despite fiscal federalism, redistribution and post-tax income concentration have been exceptionally stable in Switzerland.

That the high growth-rising inequality phenomenon – experienced by many high growth developing economies in the recent past – may lead to discontent among the poor is a well-discussed issue. This paper argues that as the demand for higher quality of the public services rises with income, the rising income in the hands of the rich leads to their dissatisfaction about the quality of available public services, thereby inducing them to form their own club for self-provision of the public services whenever possible. This, however, results in a lowering of quality available to the others outside the club despite less crowding at the publicly provided facilities.

Drawing on the author's work, this lecture presents evidence on U.S. income and wealth inequality. It presents series for top income and wealth shares, and the distribution of economic growth by income groups. It discusses the mechanisms behind the evolution of U.S. income and wealth inequality from historical and comparative perspectives. It analyzes the role of public policy and in particular taxation in the evolution of inequality. (JEL D31, F66, J24)

A basic income is typically defined as an individual’s entitlement to receive a regular payment as a right, independent of other sources of income, employment or willingness to work, or living situation. In this article, we examine what it means for the state to institute a right to basic income. The normative literature on basic income has developed numerous arguments in support of basic income as an inextricable component of a just social order, but there exists little analysis about basic income within a jurisprudential or philosophical rights perspective. In our view, strong reasons of either a principled or a pragmatic nature in support of instituting a basic income scheme nevertheless often fall short of ascribing to basic income a distinctive Hohfeldian rights status. This article aims to partially redress this gap by examining two sets of questions. First, what are the implications – ethical and practical – of adopting basic income as a legal right as opposed to a mere policy? Second, we also enquire whether there should be such a right: what, if anything, is the ethical foundation that warrants granting basic income a distinctive legal rights status? This article suggests that any such foundation must be grounded in comparative evaluation and discusses several comparative strategies available to basic income advocates. The aim of this article is not to offer a definite argument in favor of a legal right to basic income, but to chart several lines of argument that a rights perspective might add to the contemporary discussion.

The household income is an important economic indicator because it determines the scale of the household sector consumption and its delay in future in terms of saving and investing. Many factors influence the magnitude of household income and one of these factors is taxation. Given the significance of tax payments not only for household income, and through them – for the national economy, the object of the current study is the household income and in particular the impact of the taxation framework on the formation of disposable income. The aim of the study is to examine the changes in the monetary income of households in the Republic of Bulgaria as a function of the implemented tax reforms in the period following the country’s accession to the EU.

Concerns about rising income inequality are based on comparing income distributions over time. It is important to remember that such distributions are snapshots of a single year, and that the same households do not necessarily appear year after year in the same quintile of the distribution. Paying attention to mobility, as well as inequality, gives us a richer picture of the income possibilities for households over time. We document changes in a measure of income mobility over the past 40 years, a period in which income inequality has increased. We find a modest level of movement through the distribution, particularly across generations. Nevertheless, the income quintile of one's parents still has a sizeable effect on how just how high one is likely to rise or how low one may fall.

The phenomenal economic growth in China has been accompanied by a rapid increase in income inequality. This paper reviews the historical trends and patterns of income inequality in China, discusses the potential causes underlying rising income inequality, and applies the functional distribution of income approach in understanding China’s income inequality. This analytical approach highlights how rising return to capital relative to wage incomes can be an important source for increasing income inequality in China. The paper provides the evidence which shows that the rapid economic growth in China has been relying on a model that pays high returns to various kinds of capital including financial capital and real estate, while the ownership of capital is very unequal. This finding prompts us to rethink about the causes of China’s income inequality and to formulate appropriate policies based on the new way of understanding this pressing issue of income distribution in China.

Does access to money predict social behavior? Past work has shown that money fosters self-sufficiency and reduces interest in others. Building on this work, we tested whether income predicts the frequency and type of social interactions. Two studies using large, nationally representative samples of Americans ( N = 118,026) and different measures of social contact showed that higher household income was associated with less time spent socializing with others (Studies 1 and 2) and more time spent alone (Study 2). Income also predicted the nature of social contact. People with higher incomes spent less time with their families and neighbors and spent more time with their friends. These findings suggest that income is associated with how and with whom people spend their time.

Social security policies often focus on replacement rates, which indicate retirement income or social security benefits in relation to preretirement income. The higher replacement rate among the pensioners would ensure that the ageing society would have sufficient income to lead a normal life after retirement. This study examined factors that influencing the income replacement rate of Malaysian Employee Provident Fund (EPF) retirees. The analysis was based on a nationwide survey conducted in 2013–2014 among EPF retiree. A logit model was used to evaluate the likelihood of selected socio-demographic and economic factors contributing to income of the retirees. The results indicated that around 62 % of elderly has lower retirement income compared to their preretirement income and it makes them more vulnerable to unpredictable events and financial conditions. The study suggested that the income replacement rate of elderly could be strengthened by investing in ageing workforce, raising retirement age, enhancing educational achievements of low income groups and restructuring employment. These may in turn increase the availability of skilled workers, enhancing the national productivity, increase the income security of retirees, reduce poverty, and develop economic growth of the country.

The attitude of the least advantaged people to income inequality is important in regard to social stability, which is also a major concern of the government and researchers in China. This paper aimed to investigate the perceptions and attitudes of the least advantaged people toward income inequality in China. An empirical analysis was conducted on farmers’ attitudes to income inequality based on a questionnaire survey of 308 farmers in four villages in Yingshan, Hubei Province. Our results show that the respondents consider the income inequality as severe, and ability, hard work, and individual choices are the major determinant factors of income. It is shown that farmers in less developed areas are more likely to accept income inequality, and they ascribe this to their own failure rather than to social injustice. However, it is not the case that people living in poverty-stricken areas are satisfied with anti-poverty policies; and these policies are expected to be further improved to increase the i...

This study uses the Propensity Score Matching to examine the income impact of different credit sources on accessed households in the Northern Mountains of Vietnam. Results show that overall rural credit serves an important role in improving household income with respect to total income, per capita income and nonfarm income. However, different credit affects recipients heterogeneously. Whereas a significant increase in household income can be achieved through accessing commercial and informal loans, there is no significant increase of all income components associated recipients of preferential credit. These results imply that a successful credit scheme needs to consider variations in transaction costs, disbursement scheme, loan characteristics and typical socio-economic conditions of credit recipients.

Globally income inequality is on the rise. With growing income inequality, market outcomes are no longer Pareto efficient as it is benefiting only a small group of individuals. Working with the World Values Survey data, this paper aims to provide an additional perspective on income inequality in Malaysia. We find evidence that individuals' underlying beliefs, ideologies and education level are important determinants of their attitudes toward income distribution. In addition, the paper concludes that individuals' preference for income distribution is significantly shaped by the experiences and economic condition in their local communities. States that are poorer and more ethnically diverse prefer more equal income.

Unilateral transfers, and notably remittances, are a growing source of income for developing countries. However, Gross National Income (GNI), which is widely used as an indicator for living standards, does not record them. Gross National Disposable Income (GNDI), by contrast, includes both income and unilateral transfers, thus providing a more exhaustive account of people's available income in an open economy. Yet, GNDI is rarely available in major reports and is sometimes confused with the GNI. This article calculates the GNDI for 27 countries amongst the world's top remittance receivers and demonstrates the usefulness of this measure for analysis and policy making in developing countries. The article also provides some critical insights into the role of income and unilateral transfers in the balance of payments.