Browsing by Subject "Income inequality"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5

Capital income shares and income inequality in the European Union
(2013) Schmid, Kai Daniel; Schlenker, Eva
In this paper, we measure the effect of changing capital income shares upon inequality of gross household income. Using EU-SILC data covering 17 EU countries from 2005 to 2011 we find that capital income shares are positively associated with the concentration of gross household income. Moreover, we show that the transmission of a shift in capital income shares into the personal distribution of income depends on the concentration of capital income in an economy. Using fixed effect models we find that changing capital income shares play an important role in the development of household income inequality. Hence, in many industrialized countries income inequality has by no means evolved independently from the observed structural shift in factor income towards a higher capital income share over the last decades.
Financial development and its effects on the structure of banking systems, economic growth, and inequality
(2022) Gehrung, Marcel; Burghof, Hans-Peter
Besides the well-known factors for economic growth and income inequality such as globalization, technological progress, demographic change, or human capital acquisition, financial development is often overlooked. This dissertation uses the case of the Single Banking License on the harmonized European Financial Market to show how financial liberalization and the abolishment of financing constraints improve economic growth and closes the gap between top and bottom income shares in the European Union. In the second part of the thesis, with the use of a worldwide data set, we show that the actual access to financial services through a widespread network of bank branches and ATM machines is one of the major channels through which financial development affects economic growth and inequality. These two examples argue in favor of the supply-leading hypothesis of financial development. The third part of the thesis then gives proof for the demand-following side of financial development. By means of a novel and hand-picked data set of historical contracts for contractual saving for housing (Bausparen) from one of the first building societies in the Weimar Republic, the Gemeinschaft der Freunde Wüstenrot, we show how this new financial product spread geographically across the German Empire and across social classes. The fact that especially the upper lower class and lower middle class used CSH most frequently shows that CSH is a prime example of financial development. Meanwhile, the need for this new form of housing finance stems from an insufficient credit supply of common banks and only little subsidies by the state.
Robots and the skill premium : an automation-based explanation of wage inequality
(2017) Lankisch, Clemens; Prettner, Klaus; Prskawetz, Alexia
We analyze the effects of automation on the wages of high-skilled and low- skilled workers and thereby on the evolution of wage inequality. Our model explains the simultaneous presence of i) increasing per capita GDP, ii) de-clining real wages of low-skilled workers, and iii) an increasing skill-premium. These developments are consistent with the experience in the United States over the past decades and have the potential to contribute to the explanation of the rise in overall incomeinequality that we have observed since the 1980s.
The political Kuznets Curve for Russia : income inequality, rent seeking regional elites and empirical determinants of protests during 2011/2012
(2013) Kufenko, Vadim; Hagemann, Harald
The goal of this paper is to apply the theory of the political Kuznets curve to Russia and reveal the key determinants of the probability of recent protests during 2011-2012 in the Russian regions. We apply the political Kuznets curve in the time and spatial dimensions, and find mixed evidence: throughout time, we observe an almost linear and positive relation between income and income distribution, whereas in the spatial dimension there exists an evidence of a concave curve. Empirical investigation of the role of income inequality using the latent variable framework allows us to outmanoeuvre certain measurement issues and state that conventional measures of income inequality, such as the Gini coefficient, may not be able to predict protests. Instead, we use the relation of the governors? family income to the average family income in the region, a proxy for rent-seeking of regional elites, which turns out to be a positive, significant and robust determinant of the protests. Applying additional controls ensures the robustness of the results and highlights the fact that democracy score and the economic factors are also significant. Mapping the distribution of the protests provides information on the clustering effect.
The political Kuznets Curve for Russia : income inequality, rent seeking regional elites and empirical determinants of protests during 2011/2012
(2013) Kufenko, Vadim; Hagemann, Harald
The goal of this paper is to apply the theory of the political Kuznets curve to Russia and reveal the key determinants of the probability of recent protests during 2011-2012 in the Russian regions. We apply the political Kuznets curve in the time and spatial dimensions, and find mixed evidence: throughout time, we observe an almost linear and positive relation between income and income distribution, whereas in the spatial dimension there exists an evidence of a concave curve. Empirical investigation of the role of income inequality using the latent variable framework allows us to outmanoeuvre certain measurement issues and state that conventional measures of income inequality, such as the Gini coefficient, may not be able to predict protests. Instead, we use the relation of the governors? family income to the average family income in the region, a proxy for rent-seeking of regional elites, which turns out to be a positive, significant and robust determinant of the protests. Applying additional controls ensures the robustness of the results and highlights the fact that democracy score and the economic factors are also significant. Mapping the distribution of the protests provides information on the clustering effect.