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Spain is Different: Falling Trends of Inequality

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  • Josep Pijoan-Mas

    (CEMFI)

  • Virginia Sanchez-Marcos

    (Universidad de Cantabria)

Abstract

In this article we characterize the evolution of inequality in hourly wages, hours of work, labor earnings, household disposable income and household consumption for Spain between 1985 and 2000. We look at both the Encuesta Continua de Presupuestos Familiares and the European Household Community Panel. Our analysis shows that inequality in individual net labor earnings and household net disposable income has decreased substantially. The decreases in the tertiary education premium and in the unemployment rate have been key ingredients to understand this falling trend. Public transfers have played a crucial role in smoothing out the inequality arising in the labor market, but instead the Spanish family does not seem to have been an important insurance mechanism. Regarding household consumption, inequality has fallen much less than inequality in household net disposable income, with the decrease mostly concentrated in the second half of the eighties. This suggests that the reduction in income inequality has affected the sources of permanent differences between households only during the second half of the eighties. Our estimates of the earnings process for the period are consistent with this view. (Copyright: Elsevier)

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File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.red.2009.10.002
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Bibliographic Info

Article provided by Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics in its journal Review of Economic Dynamics.

Volume (Year): 13 (2010)
Issue (Month): 1 (January)
Pages: 154-178

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Handle: RePEc:red:issued:09-199

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Related research

Keywords: Wage inequality; Income inequality; Consumption inequality;

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References

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  1. Jonathan Heathcote & Kjetil Storesletten & Giovanni L. Violante, 2005. "Two Views of Inequality Over the Life Cycle," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 3(2-3), pages 765-775, 04/05.
  2. Richard Blundell & Ian Preston, 1998. "Consumption Inequality And Income Uncertainty," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 113(2), pages 603-640, May.
  3. Josep Oliver Alonso & Xavier Ramos & José Luis Raymond-Bara, 2001. "Recent trends in Spanish Income Distribution: A Robust Picture of Falling Income Inequality," Working Papers wp0107, Department of Applied Economics at Universitat Autonoma of Barcelona.
  4. Josep Pijoan-Mas & Virginia Sánchez-Marcos, 2009. "Spain Is Different: Falling Trends Of Inequeality," Working Papers wp2009_0910, CEMFI.
  5. Olympia Bover, 2008. "Wealth inequality and household structure: US vs. Spain," Banco de España Working Papers 0804, Banco de España.
  6. Pedro Albarrán & Raquel Carrasco & Maite Martínez-Granado, 2007. "Inequality for Wage Earners and Self-Employed: Evidence from Panel Data," Banco de España Working Papers 0734, Banco de España.
  7. Dolado, Juan José & Rica, Sara de la & Llorens, Vanessa, . "Ceilings or floors? Gender wage gaps by education in Spain," Open Access publications from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid info:hdl:10016/3212, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.
  8. Dolado, Juan José & Felgueroso, Florentino & Jimeno, Juan F., . "Youth Labour Markets in Spain: Education, Training and Crowding-Out," Open Access publications from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid info:hdl:10016/3269, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.
  9. José María Casado García, 2008. "From Income to Consumption: Measuring Households Partial Insurance," Working Papers 2008-09, FEDEA.
  10. Pijoan-Mas, Josep, 2005. "Precautionary Savings or Working Longer Hours?," CEPR Discussion Papers 5322, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  11. Zvi Eckstein & Éva Nagypál, 2004. "The evolution of U.S. earnings inequality: 1961?2002," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, issue Dec, pages 10-29.
  12. MaCurdy, Thomas E., 1982. "The use of time series processes to model the error structure of earnings in a longitudinal data analysis," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 83-114, January.
  13. Orazio Attanasio & Hamish Low & Virginia Sánchez-Marcos, 2005. "Female Labor Supply As Insurance Against Idiosyncratic Risk," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 3(2-3), pages 755-764, 04/05.
  14. Richard Blundell & Luigi Pistaferri & Ian Preston, 2004. "Consumption inequality and partial insurance," IFS Working Papers W04/28, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
  15. Manuel A. Hidalgo, 2008. "Wage Inequality in Spain, 1980-2000," Working Papers 08.08, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Economics.
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Citations

Blog mentions

As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
  1. ¿Vale la pena estudiar? (VI) La inusual caída de la ganancia salarial resultante de la educación avanzada
    by Luis Garicano in Nada Es Gratis on 2010-12-08 23:30:40
  2. Desigualdad, educación y construcción
    by Cives in Politikon on 2012-04-26 14:49:41
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Cited by:
  1. Bonhomme, Stephane & Hospido, Laura, 2012. "The Cycle of Earnings Inequality: Evidence from Spanish Social Security Data," IZA Discussion Papers 6669, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  2. Raquel Carrasco & Juan F. Jimeno & A. Carolina Ortega, 2011. "Accounting for changes in the Spanish wage distribution: the role of employment Composition effects," Banco de España Working Papers 1120, Banco de España.
  3. Biavaschi, Costanza & Eichhorst, Werner & Giulietti, Corrado & Kendzia, Michael J. & Muravyev, Alexander & Pieters, Janneke & Rodríguez-Planas, Núria & Schmidl, Ricarda & Zimmermann, Klaus F., 2012. "Youth Unemployment and Vocational Training," IZA Discussion Papers 6890, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  4. Aitor Lacuesta & Sergio Puente & Pilar Cuadrado, 2009. "Omitted variables in the measure of a labour quality index: the case of Spain," Banco de España Working Papers 0835, Banco de España.
  5. Pijoan-Mas, Josep & Sánchez-Marcos, Virginia, 2009. "Spain is Different: Falling Trends of Inequality," CEPR Discussion Papers 7489, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  6. Romain Ranciere & Nathaniel A. Throckmorton & Michael Kumhof & Claire Lebarz & Alexander W. Richter, 2012. "Income Inequality and Current Account Imbalances," IMF Working Papers 12/8, International Monetary Fund.
  7. Raquel Carrasco & Juan F. Jimeno & A. Carolina Ortega, 2012. "Declining returns to skill and the distribution of wages : Spain 1995-2006," Economics Working Papers we1231, Universidad Carlos III, Departamento de Economía.
  8. Virginia Maestri & Andrea Roventini, 2012. "Inequality and Macroeconomic Factors: A Time-Series Analysis for a Set of OECD Countries," LEM Papers Series 2012/21, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
  9. Aitor Lacuesta & Sergio Puente & Ernesto Villanueva, 2011. "The schooling response to a sustained increase in low-skill wages: evidence from spain 1989-2009," Banco de España Working Papers 1208, Banco de España.
  10. Virginia Maestri & Roventini, A. (Andrea), 2012. "GINI DP 30: Stylized Facts on Business Cycles and Inequality," GINI Discussion Papers 30, AIAS, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies.
  11. Nao Sudo & Michio Suzuki & Tomoaki Yamadai, 2012. "Inequalities in Japanese Economy during the Lost Decades," CARF F-Series CARF-F-284, Center for Advanced Research in Finance, Faculty of Economics, The University of Tokyo.
  12. Manuel Hidalgo, 2009. "Are Within-Groups `Abilities' Distribution Constant on Time?," Working Papers 09.15, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Economics.

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