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The Evolution of Income Concentration in Japan, 1886-2002: Evidence from Income Tax Statistics

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  • Chiaki Moriguchi
  • Emmanuel Saez

Abstract

This paper studies the evolution of income concentration in Japan from 1886 to 2002 by constructing long-run series of top income shares and top wage income shares, using income tax statistics. We find that (1) income concentration was extremely high throughout the pre-WWII period during which the nation underwent rapid industrialization; (2) a drastic de-concentration of income at the top took place in 1938-1945; (3) income concentration has remained low throughout the post-WWII period despite the high economic growth; and (4) top income composition in Japan has shifted dramatically from capital income to employment income over the course of the 20th century. We attribute the precipitous fall in income concentration during WWII primarily to the collapse of capital income due to wartime regulations and inflation. We argue that the change in the institutional structure under the occupational reforms made the one-time income de-concentration difficult to reverse. In contrast to the sharp increase in wage income inequality observed in the United States since 1970, the top wage income shares in Japan have remained remarkably stable over the recent decades. We show that the change in technology or tax policies alone cannot account for the comparative experience of Japan and the United States. Instead we suggest that institutional factors such as corporate governance and union structure are important determinants of wage income inequality.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 12558.

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Date of creation: Oct 2006
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12558

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  1. Jean-Marc Burniaux & Thai-Thanh Dang & Douglas Fore & Michael Förster & Marco Mira d'Ercole & Howard Oxley, 1998. "Income Distribution and Poverty in Selected OECD Countries," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 189, OECD Publishing.
  2. Motohiro Morishima, 1991. "Information sharing and collective bargaining in Japan: Effects on wage negotiation," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 44(3), pages 469-485, April.
  3. Lindert, Peter H. & Williamson, Jeffrey G., 1985. "Growth, equality, and history," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 341-377, October.
  4. Simon Kuznets & Elizabeth Jenks, 1953. "Shares of Upper Income Groups in Income and Savings," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number kuzn53-1, October.
  5. John M. Abowd & David S. Kaplan, 1999. "Executive Compensation: Six Questions That Need Answering," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 13(4), pages 145-168, Fall.
  6. Piketty, Thomas & Postel-Vinay, Gilles & Rosenthal, Jean Laurent, 2004. "Wealth Concentration in a Developing Economy: Paris and France, 1807-1994," CEPR Discussion Papers 4631, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  7. Lindert, Peter H, 1986. "Unequal English Wealth since 1670," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(6), pages 1127-62, December.
  8. Minami, Ryoshin, 1998. "Economic Development and Income Distribution in Japan: An Assessment of the Kuznets Hypothesis," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 22(1), pages 39-58, January.
  9. Martin Feldstein, 1997. "The Effect of Marginal Tax Rates on Taxable Income: A Panel Study of the1986 Tax Reform Act," NBER Working Papers 4496, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  10. Fumio OHTAKE, 2008. "Inequality in Japan," Asian Economic Policy Review, Japan Center for Economic Research, vol. 3(1), pages 87-109.
  11. Emmanuel Saez & Michael R. Veall, 2005. "The Evolution of High Incomes in Northern America: Lessons from Canadian Evidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(3), pages 831-849, June.
  12. Okazaki Tetsuji, 1993. "The Japanese Firm under the Wartime Planned Economy," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 175-203, June.
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Cited by:
  1. Claudia Sanhueza & Ricardo Mayer, 2011. "Top Incomes in Chile using 50 years of household surveys : 1957-2007," Estudios de Economia, University of Chile, Department of Economics, vol. 38(1 Year 20), pages 169-193, June.
  2. Ross Finnie & Ian Irvine, 2006. "Mobility and Gender at the Top Tail of the Earnings Distribution," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 37(2), pages 149-173.
  3. Anthony B. Atkinson & Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez, 2009. "Top Incomes in the Long Run of History," NBER Working Papers 15408, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  4. Jean-Pascal Bassino & Kyoji Fukao & Ralph Paprzycki & Tokihiko Settsu & Tangjun Yuan, 2010. "Regional Inequality and Industrial Structures in Pre-War Japan: An Analysis Based on New Prefectural GDP Estimates," Global COE Hi-Stat Discussion Paper Series gd10-138, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
  5. Jesper Roine & Daniel Waldenström, 2011. "Common Trends and Shocks to Top Incomes: A Structural Breaks Approach," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(3), pages 832-846, August.
  6. Foellmi, Reto & Wuergler, Tobias & Zweimüller, Josef, 2009. "The Macroeconomics of Model T," CEPR Discussion Papers 7612, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  7. Fumio Ohtake & Shinji Takenaka, 2007. "Attitudes toward the Income Gap: Japan-U.S. Comparison," ISER Discussion Paper 0687, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University.
  8. Roine, Jesper & Waldenström, Daniel, 2011. "On the Role of Capital Gains in Swedish Income Inequality," Working Paper Series 2011:7, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
  9. Jess Benhabib & Alberto Bisin & Shenghao Zhu, 2011. "The Distribution of Wealth and Fiscal Policy in Economies With Finitely Lived Agents," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 79(1), pages 123-157, 01.
  10. Jess Benhabib & Alberto Bisin, 2006. "The distribution of wealth and redistributive policies," Levine's Working Paper Archive 122247000000001162, David K. Levine.

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