财政学chap07.pptVIP

Chapter 7 – Income Redistribution: Conceptual Issues Public Finance Introduction Will provide framework for thinking about the normative and positive aspects of government income redistribution policy. Introduction Some question whether economists should be concerned with distributional issues. Value judgments embodied in the “right” income distribution. No scientific basis for the “right” distribution. Introduction Focus on efficiency alone has problems. That focus, too, is a value judgment. Multiple equilbria. Decision makers do care about the income distribution; economic analysis ineffective if it doesn’t consider this policy-maker constraint. Distribution of Income Can analyze household income, and see how equally or unequally the “pie” is distributed. Table 7.1 shows the percentage of money income among households for more than 30 years. Table 7.1 Distribution of Income Richest 20% receives about 50% of total income. Poorest 20% receives about 4% of total income. Inequality has increased over time. Distribution of Income:Poverty The poverty line is a fixed level of real income which is considered enough to provide a minimally adequate standard of living. Inherently arbitrary, but still a useful benchmark. Trends over time Differences across groups Distribution of Income:Poverty Poverty line for a family of four was $18,244 in 2001. Median household income more than double that, $42,228. Table 7.2 shows poverty rates for selected groups in 2001. Table 7.2 Distribution of Income:Poverty Poverty rates in U.S. in 2001 might be considered surprisingly high – 11.7% for population as whole. Concentrated among certain groups, such as female headed households, children, and minorities. Elderly have lower poverty rates than the U.S. average. Distribution of Income:Poverty Can also look at trends over time. See Table 7.3. Poverty considerably lower than in 1960s, but not much progress since 1970. Table 7.3 Interpretation Problems Poverty line (and poverty rate) is su