Fiscal StudiesPub Date : 2024-06-28DOI: 10.1111/1475-5890.12369
Tuuli Paukkeri, Terhi Ravaska, Marja Riihelä
{"title":"Examining inequalities: from labour markets to social outcomes in Finland","authors":"Tuuli Paukkeri, Terhi Ravaska, Marja Riihelä","doi":"10.1111/1475-5890.12369","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-5890.12369","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Finland is known for low income inequality by international comparison. In this paper we provide a long-run perspective on inequalities in Finland, and show that inequality is higher in the 21<sup>st</sup> century compared with many previous decades. We discuss the drivers of inequality in more detail, focusing on wages, earnings, employment and education, and also social outcomes such as partner-finding and family formation in the working-age population. The collective wage-setting system is a likely contributor to the relatively low and stable wage and earnings inequality among working indviduals. However, women fare worse in the labour market than men, despite having a higher education level on average. We also find that individuals who are out of work or have low education have a lower probability of finding a partner, indicating that social inequalities are linked with those in the labour market. Finally, we discuss the importance of redistribution as well as changes in tax legislation that have contributed to an increasing concentration of capital income, which has been an important factor in increasing households’ disposable income inequality.</p>","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":"45 2","pages":"225-241"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1475-5890.12369","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141488528","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fiscal StudiesPub Date : 2024-06-28DOI: 10.1111/1475-5890.12367
Arizo Karimi, Charlotte Lucke, Mårten Palme
{"title":"Components of the evolution of income inequality in Sweden, 1990–2021","authors":"Arizo Karimi, Charlotte Lucke, Mårten Palme","doi":"10.1111/1475-5890.12367","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-5890.12367","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper documents how the inequality of household equivalent disposable income has changed in Sweden over the period 1990–2021. We find that income inequality has unambiguously increased. Measured by the Gini coefficient, inequality increased from around 0.19 to almost 0.3 by the end of 2020. We then analyse the backgrounds to this change by measuring the importance of changes in different components of the overall income distribution: the wage distribution; the distribution of hours of work; capital incomes; income differences between labour market participants and non-participants; income redistribution through income taxes and benefits; and, finally, the effect of increased immigration to Sweden.</p>","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":"45 2","pages":"187-204"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1475-5890.12367","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141488523","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fiscal StudiesPub Date : 2024-06-28DOI: 10.1111/1475-5890.12379
James Banks, Richard Blundell, Antoine Bozio, Jonathan Cribb, David Green, James P. Ziliak
{"title":"Changing labour market and income inequalities in Europe and North America: a parallel project to the IFS Deaton Review of Inequalities in the 21st century","authors":"James Banks, Richard Blundell, Antoine Bozio, Jonathan Cribb, David Green, James P. Ziliak","doi":"10.1111/1475-5890.12379","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-5890.12379","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The evolution of labour market and disposable income inequalities over recent decades in high-income countries has generated intense interest in academia and the wider public. The extent to which there have been common trends, or diverging experiences, across a broad range of different countries, remains relatively understudied. The papers in this two-part special issue seek to provide the bases for consistent comparisons across 17 North American and European countries. In this Introduction we provide background for the cross-country project, which has been conducted in parallel to the wider IFS Deaton Review of Inequalities. In addition, we provide brief summaries of key trends and findings in the four English-speaking countries and four Nordic countries, as well as a companion paper on gender pay gaps across all 17 countries.</p>","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":"45 2","pages":"111-117"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1475-5890.12379","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141488524","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fiscal StudiesPub Date : 2024-06-28DOI: 10.1111/1475-5890.12372
Patrick Bennett, Kjell Salvanes
{"title":"Changing patterns of inequality in Norway: the roles of gender, education, immigration and unions","authors":"Patrick Bennett, Kjell Salvanes","doi":"10.1111/1475-5890.12372","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-5890.12372","url":null,"abstract":"<p>We assess the evolution of inequality over time in Norway and the underlying factors which determine such changes. Inequality is low in Norway, and remains relatively unchanged from 1980 to 2019. However, these aggregate measures mask persistent inequalities across sex, education and immigrant status. Among men, inequality increases from 1980 while the opposite is true for women. Low-educated workers fare increasingly worse over time relative to middle- and high-educated workers. Despite this, the earnings of women lag behind those of lower-educated men and considerable gender gaps exist. While immigration increases considerably, immigration itself does not drive the rise in inequality among men. Decomposing the importance of unions for earnings reveals that the declining importance of unionisation for earnings among men in the bottom half of the distribution may be an important factor behind rising inequality.</p>","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":"45 2","pages":"205-224"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1475-5890.12372","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141488527","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fiscal StudiesPub Date : 2024-06-28DOI: 10.1111/1475-5890.12373
Jonathan Cribb
{"title":"Labour market and income inequalities in the United Kingdom, 1968–2021","authors":"Jonathan Cribb","doi":"10.1111/1475-5890.12373","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-5890.12373","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper examines trends in working-age labour market and disposable income inequalities in the United Kingdom from 1968 to 2021 using microdata harmonised with 16 other high-income countries. In the UK, the 1980s was a period of rising labour market inequalities and inequality in disposable incomes. Since the 1980s, changes have been more modest. Changing hours of work and changes in family structure have been important for understanding trends in individual and household earnings inequalities, respectively. Tax and benefit reforms have also played an important role in driving disposable income inequalities, with notable redistribution towards low-income households between 1997 and 2010. We also provide evidence on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. Disposable income inequality fell slightly as increases in state benefits during the pandemic boosted incomes of poorer households.</p>","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":"45 2","pages":"131-142"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1475-5890.12373","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141488520","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fiscal StudiesPub Date : 2024-06-28DOI: 10.1111/1475-5890.12368
Bradley L. Hardy, Elizabeth Krause, James P. Ziliak
{"title":"Income inequality in the United States, 1975–2022","authors":"Bradley L. Hardy, Elizabeth Krause, James P. Ziliak","doi":"10.1111/1475-5890.12368","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-5890.12368","url":null,"abstract":"<p>We examine trends in household disposable income inequality and potential mechanisms shaping inequality through changes to work, wages, earnings, marriage, and the tax and transfer system in the United States over the nearly five-decade period from 1975 to 2022. Overall after-tax and transfer income inequality increased more than 25 per cent since the mid-1970s, and by as much as 50 per cent when comparing the 90<sup>th</sup> and 10<sup>th</sup> percentiles. While there has been substantial upgrading in formal education credentials among both men and women – an inequality-reducing development – those with fewer credentials have increasingly been less likely to work and marry, each of which could result in higher inequality. The latter effects are exacerbated by those selecting into marriage and cohabitation being more likely to partner with those holding similar educational credentials and earning power. Moreover, the decline in work among the less skilled coincided with the transformation of the safety net to rewarding work. These demographic and policy changes have resulted in a pulling apart of the US income distribution.</p>","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":"45 2","pages":"155-171"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1475-5890.12368","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141488521","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fiscal StudiesPub Date : 2024-06-12DOI: 10.1111/1475-5890.12371
Rafael Carranza, Brian Nolan
{"title":"Assessing income redistribution: what are the key analytic choices?","authors":"Rafael Carranza, Brian Nolan","doi":"10.1111/1475-5890.12371","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1475-5890.12371","url":null,"abstract":"<p>We present the extent of divergence in the literature on the stylised facts about income redistribution in rich countries. Analytical choices that underpin this divergence are then identified and investigated empirically using microdata for 30 European countries. In terms of direct redistribution via cash transfers and direct taxes, whether social insurance pensions are treated as redistribution – the conventional approach – or as market income – as in some recent studies – is seen to be critical. When the analysis is extended to include indirect taxes and non-cash benefits from state spending, they work in opposite directions and generally have only a limited net redistributive impact. Being able to attribute the benefits of such spending to households in more satisfactory ways is a priority. Whether household survey data are ‘corrected’ to include missing incomes at the top as well as imputed rent of owner-occupiers and undistributed profits of companies is also seen to have a substantial impact on the scale of measured redistribution. Finally, extending the scope of redistributive analysis to include all of national income, as in recent studies from a Distributional National Accounts perspective, is investigated. This underlines the implications of including state spending on collective goods such as security and infrastructure, without a clear rationale for how it is meaningfully allocated across households.</p>","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":"45 4","pages":"501-519"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1475-5890.12371","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141350831","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fiscal StudiesPub Date : 2024-05-08DOI: 10.1111/1475-5890.12364
Santiago Lago-Peñas, María Cadaval-Sampedro, Ana Herrero-Alcalde
{"title":"Fiscal consolidation and voting: on the electoral costs of budgetary stability","authors":"Santiago Lago-Peñas, María Cadaval-Sampedro, Ana Herrero-Alcalde","doi":"10.1111/1475-5890.12364","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1475-5890.12364","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In this paper, we analyse the potential impact of policies aimed at fostering fiscal sustainability on citizens’ preferences. A survey specifically designed for this purpose quantifies citizens’ knowledge and concern about fiscal imbalances and the institutional framework that addresses them in Spain, and their possible electoral reactions to public spending cuts and tax increases. Using both ordered and unordered multinomial probit models, we corroborate that citizens tend to disapprove of retrenchment policies. However, the effect on citizens’ voting intentions varies depending on their political ideology. We confirm that left-wing voters supporting the incumbent coalition parties prefer austerity policies based on the revenue side of the budget, while right-wing voters tend to approve retrenchments based on the expenditure side to a larger extent.</p>","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":"45 4","pages":"559-581"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1475-5890.12364","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140938007","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fiscal StudiesPub Date : 2024-03-25DOI: 10.1111/1475-5890.12363
Marko Ledić, Ivica Rubil, Ivica Urban
{"title":"Using tax records to correct for under-representation of top income sources in surveys","authors":"Marko Ledić, Ivica Rubil, Ivica Urban","doi":"10.1111/1475-5890.12363","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1475-5890.12363","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Top incomes tend to be under-represented in survey data, making survey income distributions unrepresentative of the true ones in terms of the amount of total income and, if some of its components (sources) are missing relatively more than others, in terms of the structure of total income by components. Since the correct structure is important for some analyses, correction is warranted. Using Croatian survey and tax records data, we show that the survey correction method of Blanchet, Flores and Morgan (2022), based on reweighting and replacement of top incomes using tax records data – which corrects total income – can fail to correct its structure by components. This happens when some income components – in our case, primarily capital income – are missing much more than others, making the structure substantially different from the correct one and difficult to correct through reweighting and replacement of total income. As a solution, we propose a pre-correction and a post-correction, each involving income replacement based on tax records data, as supplements to the Blanchet et al. method. Either supplement substantially improves the correction of both total income and its structure by source.</p>","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":"45 4","pages":"521-541"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140384028","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fiscal StudiesPub Date : 2024-03-11DOI: 10.1111/1475-5890.12362
{"title":"A symposium on tax and welfare policy – new perspectives on old issues: preface","authors":"","doi":"10.1111/1475-5890.12362","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-5890.12362","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":"45 1","pages":"5"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2024-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140104476","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}