| 1. |
- Bengtsson, Erik, et al.
(författare)
-
Capital Shares and Income Inequality: Evidence from the Long Run
- 2016
-
Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This paper investigates the relationship between the capital share in national income and personal income inequality over the long run. Using a new historical cross-country database on capital shares in 19 countries and data from the World Wealth and Income Database, we find strong long-run links between the aggregate role of capital in the economy and the size distribution of income. Over time, this dependence varies; it was strong both before the Second World War and in the early interwar era, but has grown to its highest levels in the period since 1980. The correlation is particularly strong in Anglo-Saxon and Nordic countries, in the very top of the distribution and when we only consider top capital incomes. Replacing top income shares with a broader measure of inequality (Gini coefficient), the positive relationship remains but becomes somewhat weaker.
|
|
| 2. |
|
|
| 3. |
- Bengtsson, Erik, et al.
(författare)
-
Ekonomisk ojämlikhet
- 2020
-
Ingår i: Vad är ekonomisk historia?.
-
Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
|
|
| 4. |
- Bengtsson, Erik, et al.
(författare)
-
What Determines the Capital Share over the Long Run of History?
- 2020
-
Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This paper analyzes the determinants of the labor-capital split in national incomefor 20 countries since the late 1800s. Our main identification strategy focuseson unique historical quasi-experimental events: i) the introduction of universalsuffrage, ii) close election wins of left-wing governments, iii) decolonization, iv)unionization shocks, and v) wars. We also run instrumented panel regressions.Our findings show that the capital share decreased in response to radical institu-tional and political shifts, such as the introduction of universal suffrage in the early1900s, the undoing of colonialism and the implementation of redistributive policiesduring the post-war period. By contrast, the capital share increased following theerosion of trade unionism since the 1980s. Wars, despite destroying the capitalstock, generated windfall profits that increased the capital share.
|
|
| 5. |
- Bengtsson, Niklas, et al.
(författare)
-
Lifetime versus Annual Tax Progressivity : Sweden, 1968–2009
- 2012
-
Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This paper analyzes the evolution of tax progressivity in Sweden from both annual and lifetime perspectives. Using a rich micro panel with administrative records of incomes, taxes and benefits over the period 1968–2009, we calculate tax rates across the income distribution accounting for different tax bases as well as the role of transfers. The uniquely long time span also allows us to compute tax progressivity as realized over a cohort’s entire life cycle. Our main finding is that taxes are considerably less progressive over the lifetime than in any single year. In fact, life cycle taxes are close to proportional, bearing a redistributive effect of only a few percent. Intragenerational income mobility seems to be driving this result, although the Swedish economic crisis of the 1990s and the tax reforms of 1971 and 1991 are also important. Labor income taxes contribute less to progressivity in recent years, whereas transfers to unemployed and old-age pensioners have become increasingly important. These findings are robust to the use of different tax rates, tax bases, sample populations, rates of discounting and controls for reranking.
|
|
| 6. |
- Hammar, Olle, 1985-
(författare)
-
The Mystery of Inequality : Essays on Culture, Development, and Distributions
- 2021
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Essay I (with Daniel Waldenström): We estimate trends in global earnings dispersion across occupational groups by constructing a new database that covers 68 developed and developing countries between 1970 and 2018. Our main finding is that global earnings inequality has fallen, primarily during the 2000s and 2010s, when the global Gini coefficient dropped by 15 points and the earnings share of the world’s poorest half doubled. Decomposition analyses show earnings convergence between countries and within occupations, while within-country earnings inequality has increased. Moreover, the falling global inequality trend was driven mainly by real wage growth, rather than changes in hours worked, taxes or occupational employment.Essay II: I analyze the relationship between individualism and preferences for redistribution, using variation in immigrants’ countries of origin to capture the impact of cultural values and beliefs on personal attitudes towards income redistribution and equality. Using global individual-level survey data, I find strong support for the hypothesis that more individualistic cultures are associated with lower preferences for redistribution. At the same time, cultural assimilation in this dimension seems to take place relatively fast.Essay III (with Paula Roth and Daniel Waldenström): We provide new evidence on income inequality levels and trends in Sweden from 1968 to 2016. By combining data from tax and population registers, we construct a new dataset that includes the distribution of pre-tax total and post-tax disposable income for the full Swedish population since 1968. Our results indicate that the 1980s was the decade with the lowest level of overall income inequality in Sweden, while income inequality as measured by top income shares for the very top has increased steadily over the studied period.Essay IV (with Katarzyna Burzynska): We apply a panel of 331 microfinance institutions from 37 countries to investigate the relationship between social beliefs and microfinance financial performance over the period of 2003–2011. We find that microfinance institutions in countries with higher levels of trust and more collectivist culture have lower operating and default costs and charge lower interest rates. These results provide the first large cross-country evidence that social beliefs are important determinants of microfinance performance.
|
|
