ABSTRACT I use longitudinal Canadian tax data directly linking the family incomes of adult daughters to the same‐age family incomes of their mothers observed decades earlier to explore differences in women's absolute income mobility at different ages, across various family compositions, and for different income concepts. I also examine non‐linearities in the absolute mobility profiles of women. I estimate that the overall absolute intergenerational family income mobility rate for Canadian women aged 40 years in 2019 was 64.7%. It was higher (70.7%) when family income was adjusted for the number of adults in the family. Absolute mobility rates are strongly associated with family status and composition. My analysis also highlights differences in individual income mobility rates for different intra‐family pairings. Finally, I present new evidence regarding the relative merits of the “copula & marginals” method discussed in recent studies and document a weak relationship between women's relative and absolute income mobility.
ABSTRACT We investigate the gender gaps in preferences for redistribution using data from the European Social Survey (ESS) over the period from 2002 to 2022. Combining individual socio‐economic and demographic characteristics, attitudinal factors, and macro‐level conditions, we confirm that women are generally more supportive of redistribution than men, but show that this gap is highly multidimensional. Through a Gelbach decomposition analysis, our study identifies differences in beliefs and attitudes, especially egalitarian values and political ideology, as primarily associated with the observed gaps. Additionally, we document that not all women are more redistributive than men. In fact, gender gaps are neither uniform across age groups nor along different country‐level conditions. Overall, the gender gap among adults is the most pronounced, even if this evidence varies along macroeconomic contexts, across welfare regimes, and over time. Our findings underscore the complexity of redistributive preferences, representing a challenge for future policy design from a gender‐sensitive perspective.
ABSTRACT This paper examines how on‐the‐job training affects labor productivity growth, both directly and through its interaction with other intangible assets such as knowledge codified in software and databases, research and development (R&D) and intellectual property assets, organizational know‐how and branding. Using EUKLEMS & INTANProd data over 2010–2021 for 17 industries in 28 countries, we apply a difference‐in‐differences approach within an augmented production function. Results show that business investment in training significantly enhances labor productivity growth, especially in industries with higher training investment intensity, with the strongest complementarities—particularly with organizational capital—observed in business services.
ABSTRACT The U.S. population is aging rapidly over the last few decades. In this article, we measure well‐being among older adults by estimating a well‐being index based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau. We find that multidimensional well‐being among older Americans improved over time. The percentage of older adults with the highest well‐being index increased from 16% in 2014 to 22% in 2023. Compared with the rest of the population, the average well‐being index among older adults was lower in value. Well‐being index was higher among Asians and Whites and lower among Blacks, American Indians, and Hispanics. Inequality in well‐being was of a much smaller magnitude than income inequality and it decreased over time.
ABSTRACT Once Distributional National Accounts (DINA) reconcile household survey incomes with macroeconomic aggregates, does Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) analysis still add value over DINA or microsimulation approaches that bypass the income‐generation circuit? We address this question by developing a Distributional SAM (D‐SAM) that embeds the DINA income concept within a macro‐consistent matrix and decomposes any redistributive outcome into a mechanical and a spillover component. A distinctive feature is that retained earnings enter as a separate endogenous account—brought in from outside the standard SAM structure—so that undistributed corporate income propagates through the multiplier circuit rather than being assigned mechanically. Applying the framework to Chile (2017), we find that spillovers are moderate in aggregate but concentrated where mechanical tools are blind: Under a 5%‐of‐GDP universal basic income, they absorb 15%–25% of the mechanical transfer for upper‐middle deciles and offset roughly 16% of the top‐decile mechanical loss through capital‐income channels. The added value of D‐SAM is therefore selective, largest for policies mediated by capital income.
This study introduces a consistent nonparametric test for Relative Bipolarization Lorenz Dominance (RBLD), addressing a methodological gap wherein the Relative Bipolarization Location Curve (RBLC) criterion lacked a robust statistical implementation. We develop a consistent nonparametric test for RBLD that is asymptotically valid. Simulation results demonstrate its superior power in detecting "middle-class hollowing", a structural shift often missed by traditional inequality metrics. We apply this test to China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) data (2012-2020) and find two key results: (1) our cross-sectional analysis reveals a clear hierarchy of regional household consumption bipolarization where traditional LD tests are inconclusive; and (2) a dynamic evaluation of the Targeted Poverty Alleviation (TPA) policy using Panel Data (PD) sampling reveals a successful post-2016 reversal of worsening bipolarization, but an ultimately incomplete recovery for the most vulnerable regions. Our test thus provides a new diagnostic tool for a post-poverty-alleviation era focused on structural disparity.
Capital is notoriously heterogeneous, including physical, intangible, human and natural capitals, and this heterogeneity can make measurement very difficult. To bring structure to the wide range of capital assets, and inform measurement, we define five dimensions for classifying capital types: produced versus non-produced; fixed versus non-fixed; tangible versus intangible; standardized versus non-standardized; and exclusive versus non-exclusive. By cross-classifying these dimensions, we identify a range of capital types and draw lessons for measurement methodology. We find that assets are less difficult to measure when they are standardized and exclusive while non-standardized assets are hard to measure due to a lack of comparators and non-exclusive assets are hard to value since the market value does not include all its social value. We then suggest possible measurement strategies for the harder-to-measure capital types.
Common elementary price indices include Dutot, Carli, and Jevons, while less-known ones include Carruthers-Sellwood-Ward-Dal & eacute;n (CSWD) and harmonic indices. Recently, a new elementary index, the Dikhanov index, has been proposed, previously introduced independently by Allyn Young, Bert Balk, and Jens Mehrhoff. This paper presents the axiomatic properties of the Young-Balk-Mehrhoff-Dikhanov (YBMD) index and compares it with population elementary indices under log-normal price assumptions. Using simulations, biases, and Mean Squared Errors (MSEs) of sample indices are analyzed. Results show that the YBMD index is asymptotically unbiased, with bias and MSE decreasing as price correlations between periods increase. Notably, the study identifies scenarios where the sample YBMD index exhibits lower bias and MSE than the sample CSWD and Jevons indices, highlighting its potential advantages in practical applications.
We analyze the implications of incorporating the imputed external cost of carbon into welfare accounting. Specifically, we construct an emissions-adjusted welfare measure for OECD countries from 1960 to 2019 by deducting from per capita consumption the imputed external cost of observed CO2 emissions, valued at the social cost of carbon (SCC). Within the Jones-Klenow framework, this provides a partial environmental correction to welfare comparisons that preserves tractability and cross-country comparability. Our findings indicate that this emissions-adjusted welfare index is, on average, about 2% lower than the conventional measure in OECD countries, with smaller corrections in economies with lower incomes. Because the adjustment operates only through the consumption term, these estimates should be interpreted as a conservative consumption-side correction rather than as the full welfare effect of carbon pricing. We also find that in most OECD countries, consumption-based CO2 emissions exceed production-based emissions, resulting in a 0.6 percentage point larger welfare correction when the former are considered. A similar-magnitude effect emerges when using GHG instead of CO2. Furthermore, our analysis reveals a nonlinear relationship between the discount rate and welfare, emphasizing that SCC estimates and their welfare implications vary substantially across discounting and damage-function assumptions. Comparing our SCC benchmark with estimates from the literature, we show that while SCC values fluctuate across methodologies, the resulting welfare adjustment remains moderate but systematic.
The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 substantially expanded the Child Tax Credit (CTC). Early studies documented that the expanded CTC reduced poverty and food insufficiency, but there is little research on its impact on household spending, particularly child-related spending. We use data from the Consumer Expenditure Interview Survey and a difference-in-difference design to examine whether the expanded CTC increased spending overall, in major categories, and on specific items related to children's education and development. Our findings indicate that households used the CTC payments to enhance the well-being of both their children and the entire household. For each $100 of CTC payment, our models show that households spent $44, mainly on housing ($28) and food ($12). When examining child-related spending specifically-which overlaps with broader spending categories-households spent $16 per $100. We also find that the increase in child-related spending was larger for Asian-, Black-, and Hispanic-headed households than for White-headed households.
Using monthly, seasonal and annual panel data from rural India from 2010 to 2014, we comprehensively analyze how households smooth consumption and adjust their asset portfolios in response to income shocks, identified by exogenous deviations of rainfall from historical patterns. First, we explore intra-consumption adjustments and the role of household assets as a buffer stock. We find that, while households adjust their consumption basket from nonfood to food items in response to income shocks in the short term to smooth consumption, part or all of the income shock is passed through to consumption over the medium to long term. Second, we examine the differential roles of various household assets depending on the initial level of each asset based on a threshold model, and find that asset-rich households tend to use a variety of assets, including machinery, capital assets, and livestock as a buffer stock, while asset-poor households only rely on capital assets as a coping mechanism. Third, we estimate the relative roles of autarkic asset-based strategies and informal village risk-sharing, highlighting the importance of the latter. Our results support the hypothesis that informal risk-sharing mechanisms are an important strategy for rural households to smooth consumption.
Employing data from the China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) from 2013 to 2019 and utilizing regression-based approaches, this study examines how the public pension system (PPS) marginally affects overall income inequality, inequality of opportunity (IOp), and poverty in China. Our results show that PPS alleviates overall income inequality and diminishes poverty, but is not effective in reducing IOp. Particularly, it worsens IOp among the elderly households. Age disparity is alleviated by the PPS, while the disparities between hukou and residential provinces are significantly raised. Furthermore, the quantile-based analysis indicates that PPS has diverse marginal impacts on households across the income distribution. Our findings suggest that policy efforts should focus on these persistent challenges, with reforms on pension and other institutional issues.
Prior studies assessing welfare across countries have utilized measures that combine country-level outcomes in income and life expectancy. However, this perspective remains blind to the fact that two countries may have the same life expectancy and/or average income but very different underlying distributions. In this paper, I introduce a new preference-based measure of social welfare that is sensitive to within-country disparities in lifespan and income. To illustrate the measure, I compare welfare levels and trends for the EU and US using different sets of preference parameters. The results reveal that welfare levels and trends are highly sensitive to several normative assumptions, particularly the degree of inequality aversion. Moreover, I find a close connection between the degree of inequality aversion and the assumed level of rank-order correlation between income and lifespan. Overall, the results highlight the need for measures of welfare that are explicit about different value judgments.
Measuring service prices remains particularly challenging due to their inherent heterogeneity and lack of standardization, unlike goods whose prices are easily captured through scanner data. This study exploits newly available scanner data from approximately 1000 Japanese restaurants covering the period 2018-2025, which record detailed information on every order. We construct indices for prices, quantities, and sales. Although restaurant items are highly heterogeneous and less standardized than goods, price indices remain stable across different formulas. The indices exhibit only minimal biases from intratemporal (cross-sectional) and intertemporal substitution. Moreover, scanner-based restaurant prices align closely with CPI measures.
China, accounting for one-quarter of the world's elderly, is projected to transition to a super-aged society by 2035, with major socio-economic and environmental implications. This study links Chinese provincial multi-regional input-output (MRIO) tables with the global input-output system, integrating SNA and SEEA satellite accounts (value added, employment, and carbon emissions) and applying a seven-factor structural decomposition analysis (SDA) to capture effects by aging population consumption in 2005-2020. Results show a shift from output-led to demography-driven growth, with the aging ratio adding USD 516 billion to value added during 2015-2020, surpassing per capita elderly consumption. Aging demand drives heterogeneous interprovincial impacts and large international spillovers, shaped by trade-linked economies and global supply chains. Case studies of Jiangsu and Guangdong reveal distinct import linkages and decarbonization trajectories. Findings highlight strategies to expand high-value-added, labor-intensive, low-carbon sectors, strengthen interprovincial coordination, and reorient trade policy toward imports that deliver integrated sustainability benefits.
Several studies show that mortality decreases as income increases, but when studying mortality inequalities, income components matter, especially those relating to health conditions such as disability benefits. This analysis, which refers to the elderly in Italy, uses an innovative integrated database of the Population Register and the Income Integrated Database by Istat. The 2018 residents, their 2018 individual disposable income and the deaths observed during 2019 are analyzed. The disability benefits effect is assessed comparing Mortality Rate Ratios, estimated by Negative Binomial regression models, by income classes with and without disability benefits. Our findings show that the relationship between income and mortality is strongly affected by disability benefits. When these are disregarded, an income gradient emerges in mortality: lower income individuals experience higher mortality rates. In contrast, when individual income includes disability benefits, the poorer individuals show lower mortality rates because disability benefits shift the frailest individuals to higher income classes.
This study examines the role of inherited circumstances in labor market inequality of opportunity in Chile. We estimate their contribution as the change in total inequality after removing their influence. Since this contribution may differ depending on whether it is measured before or after removing the influence of other factors, we use the Shapley decomposition method. Traditional path-dependent decompositions misrepresent the role of circumstances by ignoring their interaction with inter- and intra-group inequality-overstating (Gini) or understating (entropy-based measures). Circumstances explained 27%-28% of inequality in 2022 using entropy measures, and 17% when emphasizing outcomes for the poorest. In contrast, the Gini index attributes 36% of inequality to circumstances. Despite some fluctuations, inequality of opportunity has remained persistent and a key driver of overall inequality since the financial crisis. We also apply a Recentered Influence Function decomposition to examine the specific contributions of different population groups.
When prices are expected to rise, consumers are incentivized to engage in intertemporal substitution. This effect tends to be larger for longer-term storable goods, because consumers stockpile these goods for future consumption. Using Japan's consumption tax hike in 2014, I examine consumers' purchasing behavior and find the following. First, price-sensitive consumers significantly increased purchases of storable goods before the tax hike, but not purchases of less storable goods. Second, consumers frequently buying lower-quality goods increased purchases of storable goods, while reducing purchases of less storable goods. These purchasing patterns suggest that some consumers faced liquidity constraints and prioritized purchases of long-term storable goods over short-term storable goods. By characterizing a discontinuity in consumers' purchasing patterns, I estimate the proportion of liquidity constrained consumers.
One of the most dramatic changes in the American retirement income system since 1980 has been the replacement of many traditional defined benefit (DB) pension plans with defined contribution (DC) ones. The main research question is whether this transformation was beneficial to American households, particularly Blacks and Hispanics. Based on the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), Black and Hispanic households are found to have made remarkable progress in retirement income and poverty reduction over 1989-2007. Replacement rates rose for Black households but declined for Hispanics. However, over 2007-2022, while whites experienced continued steady growth in median retirement income, there was almost no change for Blacks and Hispanics. Whites also experienced continued steady growth in mean retirement income, while Blacks underwent much slower growth and Hispanics saw an absolute decline. Poverty rates will rise steeply for Blacks but change little for whites and Hispanics. Income replacement rates will rise for all three groups.
The global financial crisis (GFC) highlighted the crucial role of real estate markets for financial stability and revealed significant weaknesses in the quality, timeliness, and coverage of real estate price indices. Since then, policymakers and statistical institutes have expanded the scope of residential and commercial real estate statistics and strengthened methodological guidance. This paper reviews key developments in real estate price measurement since the GFC, covering data availability, index methodology, and institutional infrastructure. We compare the strengths and weaknesses of the main index construction methods, including hedonic, repeat sales, hybrid and state-space approaches, and discuss their relevance for both financial stability monitoring and cost-of-living measurement. Special attention is given to the challenges involved in compiling commercial real estate (CRE) price indices. We also examine new data sources-such as list prices, energy performance certificates and geospatial information-and recent work integrating machine learning tools into index compilation.
