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Decomposing changes in income inequality into vertical and horizontal redistribution and reranking, with applications to China and Vietnam

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Wagstaff, Adam

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Abstract

It is acknowledged that the lack of any systematic link between growth and income inequality does not necessarily mean that economic growth is not accompanied by major changes in the underlying income distribution. The author uses a method devised to decompose the redistributive effect of a tax to analyze the extent to which vertical redistribution associated with changing incomes over time is offset or reinforced by horizontal redistribution and re-ranking. He uses panel data from China and Vietnam over a period when both countries grew spectacularly as they transitioned from planned to market economies, and yet experienced smaller annual percentage increases in income inequality. The results suggest that substantial amounts of horizontal redistribution and re-ranking in both China-and to a lesser extent Vietnam-more than offset pro-poor vertical redistribution. Without the horizontal redistribution and re-ranking, the Gini coefficient for China might have fallen between 1989 and 1997-substantially so.

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Paper provided by The World Bank in its series Policy Research Working Paper Series with number 3559.

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Date of creation: 01 Apr 2005
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Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3559

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Keywords: Inequality; Governance Indicators; Poverty Impact Evaluation; Environmental Economics&Policies; Economic Theory&Research;

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  1. Branko Milanovic, 1999. "Explaining the increase in inequality during transition," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 7(2), pages 299-341, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Lambert, Peter J & Aronson, J Richard, 1993. "Inequality Decomposition Analysis and the Gini Coefficient Revisited," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 103(420), pages 1221-27, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Ravallion, Martin, 2004. "Competing concepts of inequality in the globalization debate," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3243, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  4. Schiller, Bradley R, 1977. "Relative Earnings Mobility in the United States," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(5), pages 926-41, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Philippe Van Kerm, 2004. "What Lies Behind Income Mobility? Reranking and Distributional Change in Belgium, Western Germany and the USA," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 71(281), pages 223-239, 05. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. van de Ven, Justin & Creedy, John & Lambert, Peter J, 2001. " Close Equals and Calculation of the Vertical, Horizontal and Reranking Effects of Taxation," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 63(3), pages 381-94, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  7. James J. Heckman & Xuesong Li, 2003. "Selection Bias, Comparative Advantage and Heterogeneous Returns to Education," NBER Working Papers 9877, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Ravallion, Martin & Lokshin, Michael, 2004. "Gainers and losers from trade reform in Morocco," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3368, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  9. David Dollar & Aart Kraay, 2004. "Trade, Growth, and Poverty," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 114(493), pages F22-F49, 02. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  10. Ravallion, Martin & Shaohua Chen, 2004. "China's (uneven) progress against poverty," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3408, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
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  11. Wagstaff, Adam & van Doorslaer, Eddy & van der Burg, Hattem & Calonge, Samuel & Christiansen, Terkel & Citoni, Guido & Gerdtham, Ulf-G. & Gerfin, Michael & Gross, Lorna & Hakinnen, Unto, 1999. "Redistributive effect, progressivity and differential tax treatment: Personal income taxes in twelve OECD countries," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 73-98, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Duclos, Jean-Yves & Jalbert, Vincent & Araar, Abdelkrim, 2000. "Classical Horizontal Inequity and Reranking: an Integrated Approach," Cahiers de recherche 0002, Université Laval - Département d'économique. [Downloadable!]
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Zhu, Nong & Luo, Xubei, 2008. "The impact of remittances on rural poverty and inequality in China," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4637, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  2. Zhu, Nong & Luo, Xubei, 2006. "Nonfarm activity and rural income inequality : a case study of two provinces in China," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3811, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  3. Saccone Donatella, 2008. "Educational inequality and educational poverty. The chinese case in the period 1975-2004," Department of Economics Working Papers 200808, University of Turin. [Downloadable!]
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