A general model of family income distribution: Chicago and Cambridge reconciled

In the first part of the present study it is shown that the theories of personal income distribution developed in the past one hundred years are partial and incomplete even when integrated. Because they stop short of offering a promise of a general distribution theory, the second part of the study proposes a general scheme anchored upon an all-inclusive concept of both human and material capital. Prevailing inheritance models are evaluated in the third part of this study, while the basic model appears in the fourth. It is a theoretical model but is rooted in an actual economy, namely, Brazil. An emperical application of the model is given in the final section. Since income distribution involves social welfare, the study ends with a dynamic policy analysis in which optimal time paths of changes in different policy instruments are computed for the attainment of planned redistribution goals during specified time periods.     

SPECIAL ISSUE： DISTRIBUTION OF NATIONAL INCOME IN A TRANSITIONAL ECONOMY Who is the predator,who the prey？ --an analysis of changes in the state of China＇s national income distribution

本文以2004年经济普查后修订的资金流量表为基础，依次从国民收入的初次分配和再分配两个阶段，分析了1992—2005年期间我国国民收入在企业、政府和居民三部门之间分配格局的变化，重点讨论了自1996年以来居民收入占比下降的原因。在分析初次分配格局时，本文将每个部门的初次分配收入占比表示为各要素分配份额按各要素收入中该部门所占比重加权得到的加权平均值。利用这一表示方式，我们校正了资金流量表中的要素分配份额，重新计算了1993—2005年间的国民收入分配格局，并推算了2006和2007年的国民收入分配格局。测算结果表明，居民部门在全国可支配收入中的占比在1996年达到最高，此后逐年降低，截止N2005年，总共下降了12．72个百分点。在初次分配和再分配阶段，居民部门分别下降了10．71和2．01个百分点。与之相对应，企业和政府部门在初次分配中的占比分别上升了7．49和3．21个百分点；在再分配阶段，居民和企业部门收入占比都下降，由此导致政府部门进一步上升3．17个百分点。我们还发现，国民收入的要素分配中劳动收入占比下降和财产收入占比下降，是居民部门在国民收入初次分配中占比下降的两个主要原因。在2005—2007年间，主要受生产水净额占比上升的影响，居民部门在国民收入中占比进一步下降了3个百分点以上．     

Extending pension and savings scheme coverage to the informal sector: Kenya's Mbao Pension Plan

The Mbao Pension Plan is a voluntary individual account savings plan to which all workers in Kenya may contribute without regard to income or age. It is designed to provide a programme that is suitable for the unique nature of the informal sector and to encourage a savings culture for those workers. The key innovation is that low‐income workers can easily make small contributions at relatively low cost, considering the small contributions and small account balances. Participants can conveniently make contributions anytime and anywhere using their cell phones. This savings innovation is made possible by technological innovations that have reduced the costs of cell phones and airtime, and by the entrepreneurial innovation of mobile money. The plan is provided through private‐sector businesses.     

SPECIAL ISSUE： DISTRIBUTION OF NATIONAL INCOME IN A TRANSITIONAL ECONOMY Exploring high saving rates in China： an analysis based on the 1992-2003 China flow of funds accounts

本文以国家统计局公布的1992—2003年中国资金流量表为基础，从收入分配和部门储蓄倾向两个方面对居民、企业和政府等国内三个部门的储蓄率进行了比较分析。我们发现，尽管居民部门的储蓄率最高，但是，自1992年以来，它实际上呈逐步下降趋势，其主要原因在于居民部门获得的劳动报酬、财产收入和再分配收入均有所下降；企业储蓄率呈现缓缓上升趋势，主要原因并不在于企业盈利能力的提高，而在于其主要支出——对居民部门的劳动报酬支出和利息支出长期被稳定在较低的水平上；政府储蓄率在经历了上个世纪的低位徘徊之后，于2000年以后急剧上升，其主要原因在于，通过初次分配和再分配，政府的可支配收入在国民收入的分配中占据了越来越大的份额，同时政府部门的储蓄倾向也在不断提高。本文的政策建议是：为了实现以提高国内消费率为核心的经济发展战略，我国的经济运行应全面转向以改善收入分配结构、提高居民收入为重点的轨道上。为达此目的，加速财政政策向公共财政转型，增加公共支出和对居民的福利支出，在提高劳动生产率的基础上提高企业对劳动者的支付水平，应成为今后我国宏观调控的长期任务。     

Lessons from China on different approaches to pension coverage extension

Achieving universal pension coverage is both an aspiration and a challenge for many developing economies. Traditional contributory schemes are less effective in extending pension coverage to workers who are not in the formal sectors of the economy. As an alternative, non‐contributory schemes have gained popularity in recent years. China’s pension reforms mirror this global trend. The introduction of a contribution‐based pension scheme for urban employees (Employees’ Pension) was followed by a scheme for rural and urban residents (Residents’ Pension), which is partly government financed and partly contributory, with multiple options for premium payment. This study uses nationally representative survey data collected in 2016 to compare the inclusiveness of the two schemes. It finds that access to the Residents’ Pension scheme is more equal than the Employees’ Pension. Lower status workers in terms of education, employment, income and hukou‐migration are more likely to participate in the Residents’ Pension as opposed to the Employees’ Pension, compared with higher status workers. The Chinese experience suggests that a workable solution for pension extension in low‐ and middle‐income countries is to have a scheme that is flexible, affordable and responsive to the diverse needs of the population.     

Expanding social health protection in Cambodia: An assessment of the current coverage potential and gaps,and social equity considerations

The Royal Government of Cambodia recently launched its National Social Protection Policy framework to strengthen and expand social security and assistance. To inform social health protection policy, we examine socio-economic survey data and administrative coverage data to assess the coverage potential of existing coverage mechanisms and current gaps; and compare equitable contribution rates. Over 53 per cent of the population currently has no social health protection coverage mechanism, and about 16 per cent of the population who do have access to a mechanism are not yet enrolled. Current expansion efforts focus on the formal employee scheme, primarily benefiting individuals from higher income households. In addition, recent coverage expansion to some informal workers leaves significant gaps, particularly among the informal sector. We find out-of-pocket health care expenditure to be an excessive share of income among lower wealth quintile individuals and conclude they are financially vulnerable. Finally, we illustrate that an equitable approach to individual, monthly health care contributions among the lower three quintiles has a severely limited potential for revenue generation, and collection costs could exceed the amount collected. Therefore, we recommend that vulnerable groups should be exempted from contribution payments as social health protection is expanded.     

SPECIAL ISSUE： MIGRANT WORKERS IN THE COURSE OF URBANIZATION Migrant workers in China： a general survey

本文通过对相关实证研究文献的疏理,从农民工总量规模、结构分布、对输出地贡献和对输入地影响四个方面对中国农民工的总体性状况进行了描述与分析。在总量规模的分析中,我们需要注意各调查的统计口径,值得注意的是,根据最新发布的农普调查数据,农村外出从业劳动力已达1．3亿,此处数据不含随外出从业劳动力外出的非劳动力人口。外出务工经商者以初中文化的青壮年为主,行业分布以制造业、建筑业和服务业为主,长距离迁移占很高比例。农民工跨区域转移这种就业结构变动对我国经济增长贡献巨大,已有研究估计对GDP增量贡献在20％左右。从输出地来看,总的影响是积极的,特别是收入状况的改善,但也留下了数量庞大的留守族。     

Metropolitan Earnings Inequality: Union and Government‐Sector Employment Effects*

Objective. This study examines the effects of union density and government‐sector employment on earnings inequality in Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in the United States. Methods. Data on 167 MSAs from the 2000 Census are analyzed using standard regression techniques. Four measures of Atkinson's index (e=0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 3.0) are used as the measure of earnings inequality for full‐time, year‐round workers. Results. MSAs with greater union density and greater government‐sector employment have lower earnings inequality. The progressive effect of union density is strongest for earners in the middle of the distribution and less beneficial for workers at the bottom of the distribution. Government employment is generally associated with lower levels of earnings inequality, but state and federal government employment have the strongest effects. Conclusion. Even in the late 1990s, unions and government‐sector employment remain effective at reducing earnings inequality.     

Income inequality and the distribution of ownership of productive resources: Theory and application with lognormal distribution

Inequality in the distribution of income is mainly a consequence of inequalities in the distribution of ownership of means of production and of variation in bargaining power across owners of different types of “resource portfolios”. This study explores analytically the relationship between these variables within a static framework which assumes that the distribution of income within the population can be reasonably described by a lognormal probability density function. It further provides an application of the conceptual framework for the Israeli family-farm sector.     

Advances in input-output modeling: A review article

This paper takes the lead from the volume Advances in Input-Output Analysis, edited by K. Polenske and S. Skolka and then proceeds into a state-of-the-art assessment. The volume contains proceedings of the most recent international conference on input-output techniques. Contributions to the volume are appraised in assessing extensions of the input-output approach into the areas of short-run forecasting, regional analysis, environmental problems, income distribution, and dynamic analysis. The integration of the input-output model into more sophisticated economic models is then considered. The required improvements in the specification of the trade sector, the demand side, supply constraints, and technology are discussed.     

Trends in Social Security in East Africa: Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda

As elsewhere in the world and in Africa in particular, social security in the member countries of the East African Community (Kenya, United Republic of Tanzania, and Uganda) has long been provided through voluntary assistance under the traditional extended family system. Later, and more specifically after independence in the early 1960s, when the region had a major increase in the number of employees in the formal sector — both public and private — who were mainly located in urban centres, formal social security schemes started to gain recognition among employed workers. Thus over the years, the urban population became increasingly detached from rural communities where the traditional extended family system was most effective. In addition, their general standards of living rose to such levels that if they ceased to earn employment income for one reason or another their livelihood could not be sustained through the extended family system. The above social security development trends have resulted even today in societies examining and determining ways to improve social protection beyond the formal sector so as to ensure arrangements are put in place for a large part of the working population to be provided with social security insurance during their working life and after retirement.     

Comparing the Pension Promises of 30 OECD Countries

This paper takes a microeconomic approach to compare prospective pension benefits in the 30 OECD countries. It shows entitlements gross and net of taxes and social security contributions for male and female single workers based on 2002 pension rules and parameters. The models cover all public and private mandatory sources of retirement income for full‐career private‐sector workers across a broad earnings range. The paper shows that average earners in OECD countries can expect a post‐tax pension of about 70 per cent of their earnings after tax. The average minimum retirement benefit is just under 29 per cent of national average earnings.     

Tea and Sympathy or Teetering on Social Work? An Investigation of the Blurring of the Boundaries Between Voluntary and Professional Care

As the voluntary sector, particularly the use of volunteers, has been promoted and given greater importance and responsibility by the government, and statutory personal social services have been attacked, the boundaries between voluntary and professional care have become blurred. This article investigates this phenomenon using data from a study of a Home-Start scheme, which employs two part-time professional workers to organize a pool of volunteers. It looks at the reality of the provision of voluntary care from the perspective of the volunteers, the organizers of the scheme, and those for whom they provide a service. The gender perspective is considered as a crucial aspect in the “blurring of the boundaries”. It is argued that the new rhetoric of the flexibility and adaptability of welfare provided by the voluntary sector hides the increasing use of women volunteers, to offer sophisticated and intensive care. This creates a dilemma. In some cases, the women volunteers and their organizers feel that the essential nature of the care and the responsibility they are expected to take on are inappropriate and should be fulfilled by professional workers. On the other hand, the clients feel that its voluntary nature is an essential part of this care and that it could not be provided by paid statutory workers.     

Market Transition and Gender Segregation in Urban China*

Objectives. This article analyzes the impact of the new form of economic segmentation, which emerged in urban China during the market transition, on gender segregation and earnings differentials. Methods. I compare both over‐time and across‐city change in gender segregation, and use a series of multi‐level cross‐classified models based on data at three levels: a 1995 national sample of individual workers, industry‐sector data for 1990 and 1995, and city‐level data for 1995. Results. Gender segregation by ownership sector has declined over time now that the state sector has become differentiated and its relative economic advantages wanes. Both earnings differentiation and gender segregation among industries have increased with marketization. In the most marketized cities, the earnings of workers of both sexes in jobs with high rates of female entry are penalized, indicating that marketization exacerbated the negative effect of job feminization on earnings. Conclusions. These findings lend support for the “queuing” perspective that a decline in jobs' relative wages leads to feminization. The making of the Chinese market economy has created a new set of institutional arrangements, which includes that between job feminization and wages.     

Adjustment costs in labour markets and the distributional effects of trade liberalization: Analytics and calculations for Vietnam

This paper explores the implications of different labour market adjustment formulations for the analysis of trade liberalization across different sectors and households in the Vietnamese economy using computable general equilibrium (CGE) models. The model is calibrated to a model admissible Vietnamese data set for 1997.We use five different adjustment cost treatments in analyzing the effects of trade liberalization in Vietnam. We compare simulation results from each and show how different treatments can significantly affect the distributional impacts of policy reforms, such as the trade liberalization. First, labour is treated as fully mobile across all sectors in the economy. Second, the sectors of economy are broken down into the two blocks of agricultural and industrial-service sectors and labour markets are treated as segmented by sector block. No mobility of labour between blocks is allowed while labour within each sector block remains fully mobile. The third is the same as the second, but movement within each agricultural and industrial-service sector block involves transactions costs. In the fourth, mobility of workers from the agricultural to industrial-service sectors and vice versa is possible with transactions costs. Finally, we calibrate the model with unemployment but no adjustment costs for labour reallocation to explore how model results differ in terms of adjustments in the labour market and welfare effects.Our results indicate significant differences in the impacts from trade liberalization across these cases. The redistributional impact of trade liberalization is sharper against poor rural households with segmented labour markets and with transactions costs, while aggregate efficiency gains are similar to no adjustment cost analyses. The conclusion is the choice of model structure for labour markets is crucially important for the perceived distributional impacts of trade liberalization.     

不稳定就业与农民工市民化悖论：基于劳动过程的视角

本文旨在从劳动过程的视角，将不稳定就业作为一种资本积累方式进行政治经济学的理论分析，并使用具有全国代表性的调查数据和企业访谈案例，结合广义倾向值匹配等方法进行经验论证。本研究梳理出不稳定就业的一般特征及其对当代中国农民工群体的影响，并尝试从国家与资本的双重运作逻辑中去理解经济转型期农民工市民化的困境。研究发现，在资本积累及劳动过程全球化的背景下，中国形成了规模庞大的农民工及其不稳定就业现象。资本通过控制农民工就业流动而达成最大限度地获取利润的目标，无需承担劳动者的再生产成本。这就从根本上导致了农民工市民化的悖论：不稳定就业有助于提高农民工个体的工资水平，但是不利于其家庭成员随迁。这种资本积累方式的隐蔽性在于，所谓的农民工流动自由其实是雇主通过掐尖式用工以保证资本的利润率。不稳定就业不会提升农民工的群体性收入，反而强化了群体内部的竞争。     

增加农民收入的几点思考

发展农村经济,有效增加农民收入,是当前一个亟待研究和解决的重大问题。要解决好这个问题,应从以下方面着手建构新的国民收入分配体系,增加对“三农”的投入,建立和完善农产品价格支持政策;加快农村产业结构调整的步伐,提高农业整体效益。拓宽农民就业渠道,有效增加农民收入;加快城镇化步伐,促进农业富余劳动力转移;以三个转变强化销售,拉动农村经济结构调整和产业化建设;加快农业科技进步,推动农村经济发展。     

Provident funds in Asia: Some lessons for pension reformers

As the British were dismantling their empire in the 1950s, they generally left behind a pension legacy consisting of two elements. One was a conventional defined benefit pension scheme for government workers, basically budget–supported. The other was a provident fund for those in the industrial and urban formal sector. Some components of the empire chose to ignore London's advice to create a provident fund — notably Hong Kong, which only recently has created an employer–based system for its workforce. Three features traditionally define state provident funds: central management (with some contracting–out exceptions), a formal structure of individual accounts, and lump sum withdrawals. The term has begun to migrate, however. In Hong Kong, the new mandatory system is called a mandatory provident fund, though it works on a very decentralized basis through employers and requires workers to make their own investment choices. The term is also used in Thailand to describe various schemes that apply to government workers and some private sector firms, along with an evolving pensions system. This paper will concentrate on the four "classic", colonial–era–derived provident funds of Singapore, Malaysia, India and Sri Lanka.     

Financing and managing epidemiological-economic crises: Are we ready for another outbreak?

An epidemiological-economic crisis presents countries with two significant challenges, in addition to the health challenge - a growing deficit due to fiscal policy measures, and a shortage of essential workers needed to manage the crisis successfully. In this study, we propose an outline for economic readiness in case of a future crisis in general, and a pandemic outbreak in particular. Through the establishment of a dedicated income-based tax-financed budget aimed at funding government excess expenditure during a crisis, and by adopting a reserve program in the essential sector of the economy, social and economic costs can be reduced.     

Ageing in “Poor Household” or Ageing into Poverty? Tackling the Policy Dilemma of Redistribution

The policy issue of how to target poor households rather than provide universal coverage takes the primary place in the question of redistribution where resources are limited. The Government of India's social protection programs, particularly the old age pension for the informal sector of the economy, has taken a targeting approach. In this article we show that there is a case for universal coverage since ageing households experience greater exclusion from market-based protection as well as from informal (household-based) protection. We make the argument for universal coverage on two grounds: first, a targeted approach has resulted in leakage, indicating that non-poor elderly individuals in the unorganized sector also require some sort of support. Though they are valid, we do not resort to traditional arguments against targeting, such as that it creates institutional lock-in mechanisms and stigmatizes the recipients. Second, the loss of income on age-related matters (e.g. hospitalization) or the ability of elderly individuals to gain credit is not particularly class-specific, although the targeting policy implies it is. The article is based on the secondary data source of the National Sample Survey, primary data sources, particularly those conducted by the authors in Kerala and Maharashtra and specifically designed for the ageing population, and ethnographic observations from fieldwork.