Government Intervention, Institutional Quality,
and Income Inequality: Evidence from Asia
and the Pacific, 1988–2014
Bertrand Blancheton and Dina Chhorn∗
We examine the linear and nonlinear long-run relationship between public
expenditure and institutional quality, and income inequality in Asia and the
Pacific. By applying panel cointegration methods using a dataset from 1988
到 2014, our main findings suggest that public expenditure and institutional
quality have negative long-run, steady-state effects on income inequality in Asia
and the Pacific. The effect of institutional quality has only a one-way Granger
causality link to income inequality. The existence of a nonlinear relationship
between public expenditure and institutional factors linked to income inequality
is also found. It implies that, at the early stage of institutional development, A
country whose economy has experienced higher public expenditure generates
rising income inequality; 然后, 从长远来看, when the country improves
its institutional quality, higher public expenditure results in lower income
不等式.
关键词: Asia and the Pacific, income inequality, institutional quality, 民众
expenditure
JEL codes: D63, E02, H53
我. 介绍
During the last few decades, the Asia and Pacific economies have achieved
impressive economic development compared to the global average; 然而, 这
region is lagging with respect to rising economic inequality (Alvaredo et al. 2018,
联合国 2018). Hollywood’s romantic dramedy, Crazy Rich Asians, 和
black comedy thriller from the Republic of Korea, Parasite, are recent pieces of
∗Bertrand Blancheton (corresponding author): University of Bordeaux, 法国. 电子邮件: bertrand.blancheton@u-
bordeaux.fr; Dina Chhorn: University of Bordeaux, France and University of Lausanne, 瑞士. 电子邮件:
dina.chhorn@u-bordeaux.fr and Dina.Chhorn@unil.ch. This project has received funding from the Region Nouvelle
Aquitaine and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Marie Skłodowska-Curie
grant agreement no. 734712. We would like to express our gratitude for the comments from the participants in the
6th Regulating for Decent Work Conference: Work and Well-Being in the 21st Century, held on 8–10 July 2019
in Geneva; and the Eighth Meeting of the Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, held on 3–5 July 2019 在
巴黎. We are also grateful to Olivier Bargain, Alexandru Minea, Sandrine Mesplé-Somps, Tanguy Bernard, Yannick
Bineau, Aaro Hazak, Kadri Männasoo, and Tuomas Malinen, as well as the managing editor and two anonymous
referees for helpful comments and suggestions. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) recognizes “China” as the
People’s Republic of China. The usual ADB disclaimer applies.
Asian Development Review, 卷. 38, 不. 1, PP. 176–206
https://doi.org/10.1162/adev_a_00162
© 2021 Asian Development Bank and
Asian Development Bank Institute.
在知识共享下发布
归因 3.0 国际的 (抄送 3.0) 执照.
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Government Intervention, Institutional Quality, and Income Inequality 177
social evidence that explain how far the highest income groups are from the rest of
society in some Asian countries. Piketty (2014) argued that it would be a mistake to
underestimate the importance of film and literature, 19th century novels especially,
which are full of detailed information about the relative wealth and living standards
of different social groups, the deep structure of inequality and the way it is justified,
and its impact on individual lives. According to the last updated data from Credit
Suisse’s global wealth report and Oxfam, the number of super-rich (millionaires
and billionaires) in the Asia and Pacific region—comprising Australia; 香港,
中国; 印度; 印度尼西亚; 日本; the People’s Republic of China (PRC); the Republic
of Korea; Taipei,中国; Thailand; and Viet Nam; among other economies—has
surpassed that of North America and Europe. In another sign of rising inequality,
Asia and the Pacific’s income Gini coefficient increased from 0.37 到 0.48 之间
1990 和 2014, while the gap in wealth equality is even wider; 此外, the Asia
and Pacific region is also the home of nearly two-thirds of the world’s working poor
(Costa 2018).
During the early stage of its economic development a half-century ago,
the Asia and Pacific region was widely known as a place where there were
countless internal conflicts, political instability, civil wars, and widespread poverty.
在那个时期, the region’s governments focused on offering basic needs and
instituting a minimum degree of social security, as well as securing the rule of
law for their citizens (Sobrado et al. 2014). As in most advanced economies, 作为
a society prospers, people’s expectations become more demanding in terms of
access to better government services—including the rule of law, accountability,
transparency—and a
and income
redistribution. As reported by the most recent findings, rising income and wealth
inequality is considered among today’s biggest challenges for governments around
世界, and the Asia and Pacific economies are no exception (斯蒂格利茨 2012,
Piketty 2014). In the long run, lessons from history show that an unequal society
can lead to global disaster, like what Europeans faced twice in the 20th century. 为了
that reason, this issue does matter above all.
improvement of welfare
simultaneous
In the modern era of globalization, many aspects—from an economy’s factor
endowments, trade openness, financial deepening, 地理, and institutions, 到
its historical trajectory and technological changes—have been detected to explain
不等式 (看, 例如, Kanbur and Zhuang 2013 and Hartmann et al.
2017). 所以, to address the inequality issue, 这是, without doubt, a matter of
controversy and complexity. Besides a variety of redistributive policies, 政府
intervention through public expenditure is normally prioritized in developing
经济体. This is because taxation mechanisms are viewed as less effective and
less efficient, thanks to the small size of tax revenues and low quality of governance
and institutions. Nyblade and Reed (2008) suggested that public expenditure is able
to function well and promote a more equal society only if the institutional quality
in some context (例如, low level of corruption and high political competition) 是
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178 Asian Development Review
allowed to do it. In Asia and the Pacific, 然而, the institutional framework has
been seen to progress slowly like a crab, moving forward then backward from time
to time. 因此, a closer look at this specific issue is required.
This paper aims to investigate the linear and nonlinear long-run relationship
between public expenditure and institutional quality, and inequality in Asia and
the Pacific. To realize this, we use a dataset covering eight countries in Asia and
the Pacific—Australia, 印度, 日本, Malaysia, the PRC, the Republic of Korea,
新加坡, and Thailand—from 1998 到 2014.
The contribution of this paper to the literature is as follows. First of all, 它
gives new empirical findings on the long-run impact of public expenditure and
institutional quality on income inequality, which previously has been extensively
studied only in the short run and medium run. Combining the strength of panel
fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and panel dynamic ordinary
least squares (DOLS) with Granger causality tests, our approach can examine
simultaneously the effect
in Asia and the Pacific of public expenditure and
institutional quality on income inequality, and the effect of income inequality
on public expenditure and institutional quality. 第二, the nonlinear panel
cointegration models are designed to investigate the nonlinear relationship of
public expenditure and institutional quality on income inequality across the sample
国家. This may be one of the pioneering theses in applying the nonlinear
long-run panel models to estimate a hypothesis, particularly in the Asia and Pacific
地区. Thirdly, it is applied to a new measurement. We used the World Inequality
Database (WID.world), first developed by Piketty and Zucman (2014), 我们
found a more available dataset for the Asia and Pacific countries in this study.
This new measurement provides further insight into the thinking of inequality. 我们的
dataset covers at least 26 年 (1988–2014) for almost all countries.
最后, this paper focuses on specific countries in Asia and the Pacific. 它
is complementary to the existing literature, which we found focused mainly on
the advanced economies in Europe and the United States (我们). 然而, 什么时候
the global economy changes, the standard model of economic thoughts should
also change. This matters for the Asia and Pacific economies, which might not
follow a similar pattern of development as that of other countries. As Robert Solow
解释了, there is no economic theory of everything (Todaro and Smith 2017).
在21世纪, when the center of gravity of the world economy has shifted
decisively from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, everything that happens in these
two regions will attract very strong public attention. Since the Asia and Pacific
region has not been empirically studied as extensively as Europe and the US, 这
study seeks to provide some insights in light of the controversial findings from some
previous studies.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section II considers the
literature review. Section III explains the empirical methodology and data, 和
then provides the testing results from panel unit root tests and panel cointegration
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Government Intervention, Institutional Quality, and Income Inequality 179
测试. Section IV looks at the overall regression results and presents a discussion of
结果. Section V discusses the robustness checks. The final section gives the
concluding remarks.
二. Literature Review
A.
The Effect of Public Expenditure on Inequality
Besides taxes, government intervention may help to reduce inequality by
redistributing resources through public expenditure (Doerrenberga and Peichla
2014). In this perspective,
implement a wide range
the government might
of mechanisms through transfers involving education, 健康, social insurance,
住房, 基础设施, public investment, and other welfare programs (Gruber
2013). Progressive taxation is a common policy measure for reducing inequality,
not only individual but also corporate taxation may impact on individual income
and wealth (例如, Hazak 2009). Another public finance channel used to address
inequality is (进步) government spending, and there are many theories and
pieces of evidence to suggest that certain sorts of public spending policies are likely
to promote a more equal society.
例如, the human capital theory argues that investment in further
education tends to increase a person’s stock of skills and productivity (Gruber
2013). 因此, education may promote a better outcome in society. 在一些
particular contexts, government intervention—for instance, providing subsidies to
low-income families for early-education investments to mitigate young parents’
budgetary concerns—could have a significant role to play in providing equal
access to education, which consequently decreases income inequality and increases
intergenerational mobility (Juan and Muyuan 2016).
Empirically, although higher education has expanded significantly on a
global scale, it is suggested that we are living in a less equal world. One important
perspective is the contribution of human capital and investments in research and
development to growth along with convergence (Männasoo, Hein, and Ruubel
2018), but this alone does not guarantee that the benefits of increasing knowledge
intensity are equally or fairly distributed. In the Asia and Pacific region, we observe
that participation in higher education is increasing rapidly in most countries but,
同时, social mobility lags behind the development of higher education
(Marginson 2018). We also find rising wealth and income inequality in advanced
English-speaking countries even as they have many of the top universities in the
世界 (Piketty 2014). 然而, given that education from primary to tertiary is
free or almost free in European welfare countries—such as France, 德国, 和
Scandinavian countries like Denmark, 芬兰, and Sweden—we observe that they
are more equal societies in terms of wealth and income distribution. 根据
Marginson (2018), many higher education systems are more vertically stratified,
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180 Asian Development Review
with a larger stretch in status and resources between top universities and other
higher education institutions. Elite universities tend to be dominated by students
from advantaged backgrounds, blocking the potential for greater social mobility,
though their social composition varies from case to case.
在这方面, the effectiveness of distributive public policies would be
necessitated to go along with a particular assumption or hypothesis. There is much
evidence to argue that public expenditures that target the lower and lower-middle
social classes, which comprise the majority of the population, would produce a
more equal distribution of outcomes. This supports the idea that public policies
need to be involved in providing basic health insurance, compulsory education
(primary and secondary), unemployment insurance, housing subsidies, 和公众
基础设施 (Gruber 2013). Considering policy and implementation, 它成为了
not only complex but also complicated. Some studies suggest that although public
policies may be designed to target the most vulnerable or the most needy citizens
at the early stage, the benefits might end up going to the middle or elite social
类. It might be due to government failure, 腐败, or low quality of good
governance and institutions. This evidence can be found in many low-income and
middle-income developing countries (Anderson et al. 2017).
Another consideration is to view things in both the short and long run. 让我们
suppose we are living in a world where we have an equal degree of good governance
and institutions so that the government can function at the highest efficiency (lowest
rate of corruption or least possible government failure). 在这种情况下, 虽然
public expenditure tends to reduce inequality in the short run, it does not guarantee
that inequality is less likely to worsen in the long run. Bourguignon (2004) 状态
that too many income transfers, as opposed to transfers of wealth, can lower the
expected return from acquiring physical and human capital. They might distort
the economy and reduce savings and investment, and therefore the rate of growth.
According to Lee (2013), greater government income transfers may reduce people’s
incentive to work for themselves, and then the whole economy becomes less
dynamic. 最后, it could generate a possible economic recession in the long
跑步. If this hypothesis were right, citizens from the lower and middle classes would
find themselves struggling more than the higher social classes during the crisis.
因此, inequality might be rising subsequently.
乙.
The Effect of Institutional Quality on Inequality
According to Zhuang, de Dios, and Lagman-Martin (2010), we can associate
institutional quality with inequality in two different ways: (我) political institutions
and democracy, 和 (二) 腐败. 一方面, in relation to political factors,
it has been suggested that more equal income distribution would be better promoted
in a democratic society with more political rights. When political rights to vote are
extended to the majority of the population, the amount of redistribution is decided
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Government Intervention, Institutional Quality, and Income Inequality 181
by the median voter and this determines, directly or indirectly, the rate of growth of
经济 (Bourguignon 2004). 然而, it has failed to be verified empirically
in some cases where countries with a higher score of democracy are not necessarily
reducing inequality. It is subject to the fact that the political system alone cannot
explain inequality. 例如, despite having a lower score in democracy or
restrictive political rights, income distribution in many countries—such as East
European countries, the Republic of Korea, and Singapore—was relatively equal
as long as their respective societies functioned with a special political ideology.
而且, democracy is more likely to reduce inequality in countries with a
parliamentary rather than a presidential system (Zhuang, de Dios, and Lagman-
马丁 2010).
腐败, 另一方面, tends to increase income inequality for the
reason that it can lead to tax evasion, less effective administration, lower progressive
税收, less effective public expenditure, and lower investment. The problem would
potentially create political, 经济的, and social systems that favor only the rich
and hurt the poor (Pedauga, Pedauga, and Delgado-Márquez 2017). 相比之下,
some argue that corruption can lead to less inequality if the social benefit from
corrupted activities is greater than the social damage. Another recent study has
found that corruption tends to be associated with lower inequality in less developed
countries due to the existence of the informal sector in many developing countries
(Andres and Ramlogan-Dobson 2011). In the analysis of more disaggregated data,
Nyblade and Reed (2008) have linked corruption to inequality in two contexts:
(我) political competition and (二) 表决. The first involves corrupt actions to gain
personal benefits by the elites in society, which would increase inequality. 这
第二, 然而, involves buying votes by using, 例如, public budgets to
reach the mass of the population. This tends to decrease inequality because at least
the money goes to the poor people.
此外, there are multiple channels through which institutions may
impact inequality. 例如, various social norms may propagate inequality
among different population groups (例如, some ethnic groups, minorities, 和
女性), and rent-seeking opportunities may foster inequality and financial
constraints (例如, Männasoo, Maripuu, and Hazak 2018) that often have an
institutional background that may affect different
types of individuals and
companies differently.
Linking together government intervention through public expenditure and
inequality in the context of diverse institutional quality, we might consequently
presume that the distributive effect of public expenditure tends to reduce inequality,
given that an economy has high-quality governance and institutions. 如果这
hypothesis is not completely right,
the policies would not be implemented
有效地. 或者, in cases of low institutional quality or high corruption,
public intervention tends to increase income inequality because it would lead to tax
逃避, less effective administration, lower progressive taxes, less effective public
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182 Asian Development Review
expenditure, and lower investment. 然而, it is likely to promote more quality
outcomes only if the existence of social benefits, provided by public intervention, 是
linked to the mass of the population (IE。, the poor), such as social assistance or gift
giving during election. This hypothesis does not take into account its effects in the
medium and long run, which are complex by nature.
三、. Empirical Methodology
A.
数据
We collected data from various sources from 1988 到 2014 in the following
国家: 澳大利亚, 印度, 日本, Malaysia, the PRC, the Republic of Korea,
新加坡, and Thailand.
We used the pretax top 1% income share of the population to measure income
不等式. The data were taken from the World Inequality Database (WID.world),
first developed by Piketty and Zucman (2014). Our dataset is available for at
至少 26 年 (1988–2014) for most countries, except for the Republic of Korea
(1995–2014), Thailand (2000–2014), and Malaysia (a total of 13 years with missing
values and another 13 years with data between 1988 和 2014). To deal with missing
价值观, we applied the cubic-spline interpolation methods as explained by McKinley
and Levine (1998); Fichtenbaum and Shahidi (1988); and Bishop, Chiou, 和
Formby (1994). The rationale for using this indicator follows the theses of Malinen
(2016), who presented arguments linking income inequality to credit cycles, 和
Leigh (2007), who argued that there is a strong and significant relationship between
top income shares and broader inequality measures, such as the Gini coefficient.
According to Malinen (2016), the top 1% income share measures the share of
national income concentrated in the hands of the highest percentile of income
earners. As gross domestic product (GDP) 是, 在实践中, the national income
of a country, the share of total income received by the top 1% of earners can
also be presented as income of the top 1%
. 然而, to avoid the bias that the top 1%
income share cannot capture the full picture of the effect of public spending and
institutional quality in promoting economic opportunity for the poor and the middle
班级, we also employed version 8.2 of the Standardized World Income Inequality
Database (SWIID) of Solt (2019) for robustness checks. It is the estimate of the Gini
index of inequality in equivalized (square root scale) household disposable (posttax,
posttransfer) 收入, using the Luxembourg Income Study data as the standard. 这
SWIID dataset is available for nearly 100% of our eight sample countries in Asia
and the Pacific.
GDP
To make our estimation comparably reasonable, we used public expenditure
(share of GDP): Public expenditure
. Public expenditure comprises cash payments for the
operating activities of the government in providing goods and services. It includes
compensation of employees (例如, wages and salaries); interest and subsidies; grants;
GDP
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Government Intervention, Institutional Quality, and Income Inequality 183
social benefits; and other expenses such as rent and dividends (based on World Bank
definitions). To investigate the role of institutional quality, we used the average value
of the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI), which are found in the empirical
works of Zhuang, de Dios, and Lagman-Martin (2010); Kaufmann, Kraay, 和
Mastruzzi (2010); and Wong (2017). The WGI consists of six broad dimensions
of governance: (我) voice and accountability, (二) political stability and absence of
violence and terrorism, (三、) government effectiveness, (四号) regulatory quality, (v)
法律规则, 和 (六) control of corruption. The estimate of governance performance
in standard normal units ranges from approximately −2.5 (weak) 到 2.5 (强的).
The Asia and Pacific countries that are defined as having strong institutional quality
have an average WGI value that is “bigger or equal to zero”; 否则, 他们是
defined as having weak institutional quality. 所以, 澳大利亚, 日本, Malaysia,
the Republic of Korea, and Singapore are in a group of countries with strong
institutional quality. 印度, the PRC, and Thailand are in a group of countries with
weak institutional quality.
In addition to explanatory indicators, we added several major aggregated
variables as additional control variables (Appendix Table A.1). The country’s
openness is theoretically linked to income distribution (看, 例如, Heckscher
1919, Ohlin 1933, Samuelson 1953, and Melitz and Redding 2015). The sum
of imports and exports is used to measure trade openness (看, 例如,
Cameron 1978, Rojas-Vallejos and Turnovsky 2017, and Wong 2017). The level
of development is also linked to inequality. The general effect of GDP per capita on
income inequality is explained by the well-known inverted-U hypothesis developed
by Simon Kuznets: an increase in GDP per capita will increase overall economic
welfare and income disparity. Following the process of economic development,
inequality will increase during the first stage; after it arrives at the peak, 不等式
will decrease (Kuznets 1955). Changes affecting labor supply and labor demand
can also shift income inequality. Changes in population, measured by the annual
percentage growth in population, affect changes in labor supply and demand, 哪个
affect wages in the labor market. An increase in population is expected to increase
income inequality if the unemployment rate increases (看, 例如, Asteriou,
Dimelis, and Moudatsou 2014; Rojas-Vallejos and Turnovsky 2017; 黄 2017).
Oil rents (as a share of GDP) are used to account for resource-rich regimes that
can afford to gain legitimacy by redistributing revenue (Ross 2001, 黄 2017).
Taxation, in addition to public spending, may also target to improve the overall
economic well-being of a whole population, especially the poor. The effect on
income distribution depends on how the government targets specific population
groups through social protection, 教育, 和健康, 除其他外 (Selowsky
1979, Younger 1999).
The addition of listed control variables into the model may impair the
identification of individual coefficients in the presence of high multicollinearity.
As shown in Appendix Tables A.2 and A.3, the variance inflation factor and the
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184 Asian Development Review
数字 1. Average Value of Top 1% Income Share and Public Expenditure,
1988–2014 (% of GDP)
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GDP = gross domestic product.
来源: Authors’ calculations using the World Inequality Database. 1988–2014. WID.world (accessed December 3,
2018).
pairwise correlations among explanatory variables, 然而, did not reveal any
severe multicollinearity. The variance inflation factor was 4.04, well below the
critical level of 10. The pairwise correlation estimates confirmed that correlations
between variables were well below the critical levels.
The list of countries divided by regions, income status, and institutional status
along with descriptive statistics of the Asia and Pacific countries are reported in
Appendix Tables A.4 and A.5. India is the only lower-middle-income country from
南亚; the others are all from East Asia and the Pacific. Malaysia is the only
country with upper-middle-income status, but it is classified in the same group as
high-income countries with strong institutional quality. 数字 1 shows that public
expenditure followed a rising trend from the end of the 1980s to 2014. The top 1%
income share, 另一方面, evolves in a stable trend then starts increasing
from the early 1990s; 全面的, it also shows a rising trend from 1988 到 2014. 这
results give some evidence to the extent of the “trending hypotheses,” indicating a
possible long-term correlation between the variables. 然而, that can be a reverse
causality (IE。, public expenditure explains the top 1% income share and vice versa).
人物 2 shows a different pattern in each country. 澳大利亚, 印度,
Malaysia, and the Republic of Korea, show both a rising trend for public expenditure
and the top 1% income share. The PRC and Singapore show only a rising trend for
the top 1% income share and a nearly stable trend of public expenditure. This is the
Government Intervention, Institutional Quality, and Income Inequality 185
数字 2. Top 1% Income Share and Public Expenditure, 1988–2014 (% of GDP)
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GDP = gross domestic product.
来源: Authors’ calculations using the World Inequality Database. 1988–2014. WID.world (accessed December
3, 2018); and World Bank. 1988–2014. World Development Indicators. https://databank.worldbank.org/source/
world-development-indicators (accessed December 3, 2018).
opposite for Japan, where public expenditure is rising but the top 1% income share
is likely to become stable in the long run. Thailand shows a very different trend than
other countries, as there is a reverse trend between the variables.
To assess the long-run equilibrium association between the variables, 我们
performed several tests, including the panel unit root test, panel cointegration test,
and cointegration regression estimation.
乙.
Panel Unit Root Tests
We used three types of panel unit root tests. The first follows unit root
assuming individual unit root process, including the Im–Pesaran–Shin test (2003),
186 Asian Development Review
Augmented Dickey–Fuller (ADF)–Fisher test by Maddala and Wu (1999), 和
Phillips–Perron (PP)–Fisher test by Choi (2001). The second follows unit root
assuming common unit root process, including the Levin–Lin–Chu test (2002). 这
third allows for homoscedastic error processes across the panel, including the tests
of the Hadri Z-stat and heteroscedastic consistent Z-stat by Hadri (2000).
The panel unit root tests, 在本文中, are based on the following regression
方程:
(西德:2)yit = ρiyi,t−1 + αi + ηit + θt + εit
(1)
where αi are individual constants; ηit are individual time effects, and θt are the
common time effects. The null hypothesis of individual unit root process is that the
panel data has unit root, H0 : ρi = 0 ∀ i, (IE。, the series in I[0] are nonstationary).
The alternative hypothesis is as follows:
H1 : ρi < 0, i = 1, 2, . . . , N1, ρi = 0, i = N1 + 1, N2 + 2, . . . , N.
The same principle is applied for the Levin–Lin–Chu test, assuming common
unit root process. However, the null hypothesis of the tests of Hadri Z-stat and
heteroscedastic consistent Z-stat is that panel data has no unit root (the process
is stationary), and the alternative hypothesis is that the panel data has unit root (the
process is nonstationary).
According to the results of the panel unit root tests from Table 1, six among
six tests for the top 1% income share, public expenditure (% of GDP), trade
(% of GDP), per capita GDP at purchasing power parity (PPP), and tax revenue
(% of GDP), and four among six tests for population growth (annual %) emphasize
that the majority of tests become nonstationary at level; then, the series become
stationary after first difference, I (1).
C.
Panel Cointegration Testing
To estimate the panel cointegration model, the series of our variables must
be nonstationary at level, I (0), but become stationary at first difference, I (1). This
condition is confirmed in our model. We applied, therefore, the Pedroni residual
cointegration test (Pedroni 1999, 2004); Kao residual cointegration test (Kao 1999);
and Fisher–Johansen cointegration test (Maddala and Wu 1999).
The models for testing panel cointegration between income inequality and
public expenditure are structured as follows:
+ ηit + θt + εit
= αi + βiexpenseit
inequalityit
where (1, −βi) are country-specific cointegrating vectors, αi are individual
constants, ηit are individual time effects, and θt are the common time effects. The
null hypothesis is that H0 : βi = 1 ∀ i (i.e., there is no cointegration).
(2)
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Government Intervention, Institutional Quality, and Income Inequality 187
Table 1. Panel Unit Root Tests
Individual Unit Roots
Common
Unit Roots
Heteroscedastic
Series
Top 1%
income share
Public expenses
(% of GDP)
Institutional
quality
Trade
(% of GDP)
Per capita GDP
(PPP)
IPS
−0.732***
(0.232)
−0.207***
(0.418)
−1.704
(0.044)
0.169***
(0.567)
−0.834***
(0.202)
Population growth −1.212***
(annual %)
Oil rents
(% of GDP)
Tax revenue
(% of GDP)
(0.113)
−2.142
(0.016)
−0.053***
(0.300)
ADF-Fisher PP-Fisher
LLC
Hadri
20.845***
(0.185)
21.581***
(0.157)
32.045
(0.010)
12.266***
(0.726)
22.293***
(0.134)
32.619
(0.008)
24.299
(0.042)
22.1816***
(0.137)
0.358***
(0.640)
21.062***
(0.176)
17.752*** −0.826***
(0.339)
(0.205)
24.021*** −2.189
(0.089)
(0.014)
11.483*** −0.589***
(0.779)
19.556*** −1.265***
(0.241)
19.089***
(0.264)
24.906
(0.036)
16.556*** −1.3513***
(0.415)
(0.103)
3.011***
(0.999)
−4.178
(0.000)
(0.088)
(0.278)
3.807***
(0.000)
2.836***
(0.002)
2.410***
(0.008)
6.131***
(0.000)
3.514***
(0.000)
0.753
(0.226)
3.280***
(0.001)
4.030***
(0.000)
Hetero
Con Z-stat
3.318***
(0.001)
4.100***
(0.000)
4.792***
(0.000)
5.534***
(0.000)
2.763***
(0.003)
4.295***
(0.000)
4.670***
(0.000)
4.462***
(0.000)
ADF = Augmented Dickey–Fuller, GDP = gross domestic product, IPS = Im–Pesaran–Shin, LLC = Levin–Lin–
Chu, PP = Phillips–Perron, PPP = purchasing power parity.
Notes: All tests are taken using automatic selection of maximum lags; automatic lag length selection based on
Schwarz information criterion; Newey–West automatic bandwidth selection and Bartlett kernel; assumed asymptotic
normality and individual effects; and individual linear trends, except for public expenditure (% of GDP), which we
include only for individual effects. *** emphasizes that the process is nonstationary at level, then becomes stationary
at level I (1) after we reject or do not reject the null hypothesis.
Sources: Authors’ calculations using the World Inequality Database. 1988–2014. WID.world (accessed December
3, 2018); and World Bank. 1988–2014. World Development Indicators. https://databank.worldbank.org/source/
world-development-indicators (accessed December 3, 2018).
Tables 2, 3, and 4 report the results from the Pedroni residual cointegration
test, Kao residual cointegration test, and the Fisher–Johansen cointegration test with
a dataset from 1988 to 2014. According to the estimated results from various panel
cointegration tests, indicating that most of the statistics have a p-value of less than
the 1% and 5% level of significance, the null hypothesis of no cointegration can
be rejected. Therefore, we conclude that there is a high possibility of a long-run
equilibrium relationship between public expenditure and income inequality in the
Asia and Pacific countries.
IV. Results and Discussions
A.
Estimating a Cointegrating Regression
To obtain the long-run coefficients between the variables of interest, we took
into account two different but complementary estimators. First, we estimated with
the FMOLS by Phillips and Hansen (1990). Second, we estimated with the DOLS
by Stock and Watson (1993), and Mark and Sul (2003).
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188 Asian Development Review
Table 2. Pedroni Residual Cointegration Test
Within dimension
Panel v-Statistic
Panel rho-Statistic
Panel PP-Statistic
Panel ADF-Statistic
Between dimension
Weighted
Statistic
−1.278
−3.410***
−4.870***
−5.494***
Statistic
Prob
0.899 −0.562
0.000 −2.175**
0.000 −3.073***
0.000 −3.683***
Prob
0.713
0.015
0.001
0.000
Statistic
1.120
Group rho-Statistic
Group PP-Statistic
0.131
Group ADF-Statistic −0.366
Countries
Observation
8
216
Prob
0.869
0.552
0.357
ADF = Augmented Dickey–Fuller, PP = Phillips–Perron.
Notes: Null hypothesis = no cointegration. The tests were estimated with the
following assumptions: trend assumption (deterministic intercept and trend),
automatic lag length selection based on Schwarz information criterion with
lags from 0 to 5, and Newey–West automatic bandwidth selection and
Bartlett kernel. ***1% level of significance, **5% level of significance, *10%
level of significance.
Sources: Authors’ calculations using the World Inequality Database.
1988–2014. WID.world (accessed December 3, 2018); and World Bank.
1988–2014. World Development Indicators. https://databank.worldbank.org/
source/world-development-indicators (accessed December 3, 2018).
Table 3. Kao Residual Cointegration Test
ADF
Residual variance
HAC variance
RESID(−1)
D(RESID[−1])
Observations
t-Statistic
2.274**
1.414
0.792
−0.114**
−0.280***
216
Prob
0.012
0.012
0.001
ADF = Augmented Dickey–Fuller, HAC = heteroscedasticity- and
autocorrelation-consistent, RESID = residual.
Notes: Null hypothesis = no cointegration. The tests were estimated
with the following assumptions: trend assumption (no deterministic
trend), automatic lag length selection based on Schwarz information
criterion with a max lag of 1, and Newey–West automatic bandwidth
selection and Bartlett kernel. ***1% level of significance, **5% level of
significance, *10% level of significance.
Sources: Authors’
Inequality
Database. 1988–2014. WID.world (accessed December 3, 2018);
and World Bank. 1988–2014. World Development
Indicators.
https://databank.worldbank.org/source/world-development-indicators
(accessed December 3, 2018).
calculations
the World
using
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Government Intervention, Institutional Quality, and Income Inequality 189
Table 4. Fisher–Johansen Cointegration Tests
Hypothesized
No. of CE(s)
Fisher Stata
(from trace test)
None
At most 1
Observations
62.12***
37.45***
216
Prob
0.000
0.001
Fisher Stata
(from max-eigen test)
52.69***
37.45***
Prob
0.000
0.001
CE = cointegrating equation.
aProbabilities are computed using asymptotic chi-square distribution.
Notes: Null hypothesis = each series has unit root and no cointegration. The tests were estimated
with the following assumptions: trend assumption (quadratic deterministic trend) and tags interval in
first differences. ***1% level of significance, **5% level of significance, *10% level of significance.
Sources: Authors’ calculations using the World Inequality Database. 1988–2014. WID.world
(accessed December 3, 2018); and World Bank. 1988–2014. World Development Indicators. https:
//databank.worldbank.org/source/world-development-indicators (accessed December 3, 2018).
Besides using logarithm public expenditure (% of GDP) as the explanatory
variable, we included several macroeconomic variables that may influence income
inequality. We included logarithm trade (% of GDP), GDP per capita at PPP (current
international US dollars), population growth (annual %), oil rents (% of GDP), and
tax revenue (% of GDP).
The regression is structured to estimate the following equation:1
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inequalityit
= αi + β (cid:4)
+ β (cid:4)
5
1expenseit
(cid:2)oilit + β (cid:4)
6
+ β (cid:4)
2
(cid:2)tradeit + β (cid:4)
(cid:2)taxit + ηit + θt + εit
3
(cid:2)gdpit
+ β (cid:4)
4
(cid:2)popit
(3)
where αi are individual constants; ηit are individual trends; θt is the common
time effect; (1, −β (cid:4)
, −β (cid:4)
6) are cointegrating vectors between
5
1
logarithm public expenditure (% of GDP), trade (% of GDP), GDP per capita at
PPP (current international US dollars), population growth (annual %), oil rents
(% of GDP), and tax revenue (% of GDP), and εit is an idiosyncratic error.
, −β (cid:4)
2
, −β (cid:4)
4
, −β (cid:4)
3
, −β (cid:4)
One of the key advantages in using the FMOLS and the DOLS estimations
is that we can deal with the spurious regression and draw causal effects with the
nature of time series that are nonstationary at level. In this case, the standard
ordinary least squares (OLS) and the generalized method of moments estimators
are inconsistent. McCallum (2010) and Sollis (2011) made a huge contribution
in arguing the problems of “spurious regressions.” McCallum (2010) suggested
so-called spurious regression relationships, which are generally accompanied by
clear signs of residual autocorrelation. In our study, the spurious relationships
between the series at level I (1), or the nonintegrated variables inequalityit and
expenseit, can be resolved by estimating the whole autocorrelation structure. It is
1We applied the same identification strategy by using institutional quality (instiit ) and the interaction term
between public expenditure (% of GDP) and institutional quality (expense × instiit ) as the explanatory variable in
equation (3).
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190 Asian Development Review
solved in simulations, which result in test statistics closing to true values and not
yielding spurious results. However, Sollis (2011) argued that the spurious regression
problem can be solved by using an autocorrelation correction. It is shown that if the
relevant data generation processes contain higher-order terms, this solution is not
as effective as in the first-order case.
In this study, suppose we have two I (1) random vectors with panel
observations, inequalityit and expenseit, with large cross section and time series
dimensions. By pooling the cross section and time series observations, the strong
effect of residuals is attenuated while retaining the signal of expenseit. In this
regard, while the time series is spurious, applying all-time series data in cross
sections reduces the limiting variance in a panel regression and provides a consistent
estimate of (some) long-run regression coefficient (Malinen 2016). According
to Kao and Chiang (2001), the simulations of the sampling behavior show that
although the FMOLS estimator provides better estimations than the standard OLS
and the generalized method of moments estimators, the DOLS outperforms the
other estimations.
The resulting FMOLS estimator is asymptotically unbiased and has the
fully efficient mixture normal asymptotics, allowing for standard Wald tests using
asymptotic chi-square statistical inference (Sobrado et al. 2014). Complementary
to the FMOLS, the panel DOLS is estimated with fixed effects; fixed effects and
heterogeneous trends; and fixed effects, heterogeneous trends, and common time
effects. The model takes into account cross-sectional dependence by introducing
a common time effect, and the estimators are asymptotically normally distributed
(Mark and Sul 2003).
In equation (3), although the FMOLS and the DOLS estimators can
provide improvements compared to the OLS estimator, we might face other
statistical issues—including (i) cointegration between the explanatory variables,
(ii) possible endogeneity problem of spurious correlation, and (iii) potential serial
correlation—that require us to estimate with great caution.
First of all,
the FMOLS and the DOLS estimators do not allow for
cointegration between the explanatory variables. In our estimations, we include the
leads and lags of the first differences of logarithm trade (% of GDP), GDP per capita
at PPP (current international US dollars), population growth (annual %), oil rents
(% of GDP), and tax revenue (% of GDP).
Secondly, to address an endogeneity problem of spurious correlation between
the panel DOLS
inequalityit and expenseit, and other explanatory variables,
estimation assumes that μit is supposed to be correlated most with ρi leads and
lags of (cid:2)expenseit. The possible endogeneity can be controlled by projecting εit
into these pi leads and lags (Hämäläinen and Malinen 2011):
μit =
pi(cid:2)
s=−pi
ξ (cid:4)
i,s
(cid:2)expensei,t−s
+ εit∗ = ξ (cid:4)
i
(cid:2)zit + ε∗
it
(4)
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3
Government Intervention, Institutional Quality, and Income Inequality 191
is a random vector with panel observation, and ξ (cid:4)
where zit
projection dimensions. The projection error ε∗
(cid:2)expenseit, and therefore the estimated equation is transformed as follows:
is a vector of
i zit
it is orthogonal to all leads and lags of
inequalityit
= αi + β (cid:4)
+ β (cid:4)
5
1expenseit
(cid:2)oilit + β (cid:4)
6
(cid:2)tradeit + β (cid:4)
+ β (cid:4)
2
(cid:2)taxit + ηit + θt + ξ (cid:4)
(cid:2)gdpit
i zit + εit
3
+ β (cid:4)
4
(cid:2)popit
(5)
Finally, to address the potential serial correlation between equilibrium error,
εit, and leads and lags of other cross sections (cid:2)expense ji
, j (cid:5)= i, the panel DOLS
computes the same form of second-order asymptotic bias as pooled OLS. Overall,
the estimation of equation (5) is consistent under the condition which T → ∞ then
n → ∞. Equation (5) therefore can be feasibly estimated in a panel with small to
moderate n (Mark and Sul 2003).
We started our regression by estimating individually the impact of public
expenditure (% of GDP) (expenseit ), institutional quality (instiit ), and interaction
term between public expenditure (% of GDP) and institutional quality (expense ×
instiit ) on income inequality, measured by the top 1% income share. A few
necessary steps were taken: first, we estimated with the constant (level) and
no trend; second, we estimated with the constant (level) and trend; finally, we
introduced the control variables in our regression, including first differences of
logarithm trade (% of GDP) ((cid:2)tradeit ), GDP per capita at PPP ((cid:2)gdpit ), annual
population growth ((cid:2)popit ), oil rents (% of GDP) ((cid:2)oilit ), and tax revenue (% of
GDP) ((cid:2)taxit ). Only the estimations with the control variables are shown.
Table 5 presents results from the FMOLS and the DOLS estimations
using the dataset from 1988 to 2014. For the FMOLS estimation, the long-run
variance estimates—Bartlett kernel, Newey–West fixed bandwidth—were used for
coefficient covariances. We also used pooled estimation as panel method and
fixed leads and lags specification to address the possible endogeneity and serial
correlation discussed above. For the DOLS estimation, the same long-run variance
estimates were used for coefficient covariances. The pooled estimation as panel
method and automatic leads and lags specification were estimated. The first, second,
and third leads and lags of the first differences of control variables were estimated
as instruments for the explanatory variables. However, only the results from the first
leads and lags are shown.
For control variables,
trade openness (% of GDP) has positive and
statistically significant cointegrating coefficients (significant at 1%) when we
estimated with public expenditure (% of GDP) for both FMOLS and DOLS.
It becomes negative and statistically significant (significant at 10%) when we
estimated with institutional quality and the interaction term between public
expenditure (% of GDP) and institutional quality. Per capita GDP shows a mix of
direction; yet the majority of coefficients are statistically significant at the 1% or
(at least) 5% level. The estimated result of the population growth rate also shows
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Government Intervention, Institutional Quality, and Income Inequality 193
a mix of direction. It becomes negative and statistically significant (significant at
1%) when we estimated with public expenditure (% of GDP) for both FMOLS
and DOLS; however, it becomes positive and significant at the 5% level when
we estimated with institutional quality and the interaction term between public
expenditure (% of GDP) and institutional quality for the DOLS. The majority of
oil rents (% of GDP) and tax revenue (% of GDP) show only one direction as there
is a negative relationship for oil rents (% of GDP) and a positive relationship for tax
revenue (% of GDP).
Based on our findings, the globalized forces, as explained by trade (% of
GDP), do increase income inequality in the Asia and Pacific countries. Yet, it is
not implied that the benefits from trade globalization go only to the rich or the
top income earners. It is possible that the living standards of poorer citizens also
increase, but not as much as for the rich; therefore, we found the current discontent
with globalization in the Asia and Pacific countries is not as intense as in Europe
and North America. In the most advanced economies (i.e., European and North
American countries), there is a growing belief that globalizing forces are not all
good; both ordinary citizens and policy makers think that life was better in the
old days and that the fruits of globalization might go only to top earners and
the rest of the world (Gray 2017, Willige 2017). According to Shanmugaratnam
(2017), various social trends that have occurred in the advanced economies over
the last few decades could explain this phenomenon, including stagnant wages, an
overall decline in social mobility, a loss of sense of togetherness, and a growing
mentality of “us against them.” The estimated results are verified by the Kuznets
inverted-U hypothesis. GDP per capita is likely to increase income inequality
during the first stage of economic development but decrease it in the long run.
According to Blancheton and Chhorn (2019), this result confirms the fact that there
is a rising number of people joining the global middle-income class, thanks to an
increase in the living standards of people in Asia and the Pacific, especially in
India and the PRC, which together account for 36.4% of the global population. The
global middle-income class is defined as follows: “[T]hose households with daily
expenditures between $10 and $100 per person at PPP. This excludes those who are
considered poor in the poorest advanced countries and rich in the richest advanced
countries” (Mahbubani 2014, 23). Because rapid demographic growth has enabled
strong economic growth, especially in the Asia and Pacific countries, an increase in
population has not led to an increase in income inequality. Meanwhile, higher oil
rents and higher tax revenue, respectively, decrease and increase income inequality.
Public expenditure (% of GDP) is found to be negative and statistically
significant. The estimated value of cointegrating coefficients varies between
−0.2552 (significant at 5% for FMOLS) and −0.20004 (significant at 10% for
DOLS). Institutional quality is found to be negative and statistically significant
with a coefficient of 1.5132 (significant at 10%) only if we estimated with DOLS.
When we estimated with the interaction term between public expenditure (% of
GDP) and institutional quality, we also found negative and significant coefficients
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for both FMOLS and DOLS. The results suggest that whenever the Asia and Pacific
countries improve their institutional quality enough, higher public expenditures are
likely to reduce income inequality.
Compared to countries in Europe and North America, the Asia and Pacific
countries have relatively weaker institutional quality. However, as discussed in the
previous section, it is likely that better institutional quality does not guarantee a
more equal society, or at least weaker institutional quality is not an obstacle to
promote the welfare of lower-income citizens. In the modern age of a global single
market, even with less effective governance and institutions, some giant or big
economies are still able to attain economic growth that is sufficient to allow millions
of poor to become middle-income families. For instance, it has been said that the
PRC grows because of its government, driven by strong public intervention, while
India grows despite its government, driven by market forces even with less effective
governance (Mahbubani 2014). Rising trade openness and economic growth in
these economies might lead to higher inequality overall, but strong government
intervention, through public spending and subsidies, as well as robustly rising
incomes help to promote significantly the poor’s living standard. In the same way,
with impressive progress in higher education and research and development, along
with rising social mobility, some authors argue that “The American Dream Is Alive.
In China” (Hernández and Bui 2018). Considering institutional and political factors
in our study, it might be relevant to review the theory of the founding father of
economic reform in the PRC, Deng Xiaoping, who said the following: “It doesn’t
matter whether the cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice” (Li 1977, 107).
Therefore, it does not matter whether it is democracy or communism, but whether
the political institutions target the majority of the people, especially the poor and
the more vulnerable.
B.
Granger Causality Tests
Many studies have emphasized that
income inequality hurts economic
growth, which then leads to greater demand for redistribution through public
expenditure and taxes in many societies (Kennedy et al. 2017, Tanninen 1999). This
may cause the reverse effect between public expenditure and income inequality.
The same logical reasoning is also applied for institutional quality. For example,
the interaction of political and income inequality may play a part in blocking the
adoption of good institutions (Chong and Gradstein 2007). To address this issue,
the Granger causality tests can be statistically applied to estimate whether public
expenditure may influence income inequality or vice versa.
In this paper, we used the pairwise Granger causality tests (Granger 1969).
We thus estimated the bivariate regressions of the following form:
yt = α0 + α1yt−1 + · · · + αlyt−l + β1xt−1 + · · · + βlxt−l + εt
xt = α0 + α1xt−1 + · · · + αlxt−l + β1yt−1 + · · · + βlyt−l + εt
(6)
(7)
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Government Intervention, Institutional Quality, and Income Inequality 195
Table 6. Tests for Granger Noncausality between Public Expenses
and Institutional Quality and the Top 1% Income Share
Explanatory Variable (x)
Dependent Variable (y)
Obs
F-Statistic
Prob
Public expenses (% of GDP)
Top 1% income share
Public expenses (% of GDP)
Institutional quality
Countries
Years
Top 1% income share
Public expenses (% of GDP)
Institutional quality
Public expenses (% of GDP)
8
1988–2014
150
69
1.591
1.339
0.649
6.642***
0.207
0.265
0.526
0.002
GDP = gross domestic product.
Notes: The null hypothesis is that the explanatory variable (x) does not cause the dependent variable (y).
***p < 0.01, **p < 0.05, and *p < 0.1.
Sources: Authors’ calculations using the World Inequality Database. 1988–2014. WID.world (accessed
December 3, 2018); and World Bank. 1988–2014. World Development Indicators. https://databank.
worldbank.org/source/world-development-indicators (accessed December 3, 2018).
where l is a lag length, which corresponds to reasonable beliefs about the longest
time over which one of the variables could help predict the other (Granger 1969).
From equations (6) and (7), dependent variable y can cause explanatory variable x
and, at the same time, explanatory variable x can cause dependent variable y.
The joint null hypotheses of the model are as follow: “y does not
Granger-cause x” and “x does not Granger-cause y.” We can reject the null
hypothesis if the F-statistics, which are the Wald statistics for the joint hypothesis,
have a reported p-value at the 1%, 5%, or 10% level of significance.
Table 6 presents the results of Granger noncausality tests between public
expenditure (% of GDP) and institutional quality and the top 1% income share in
all the Asia and Pacific countries in our dataset. We have no evidence that public
expenditure (% of GDP) influences the top 1% income share. It is identical that the
influence of the top 1% income share cannot be used to forecast public expenditure
as a share of GDP. In the case of institutional quality, we also do not have enough
evidence to emphasize that the top 1% income share drives institutional quality;
however, we have enough evidence at the 1% level of significance to reject the null
hypothesis (i.e., institutional quality would forecast the public expenditure as a share
of GDP).
V. Robustness Checks
A.
Nonlinearity Analysis
Though government intervention and institutional factors linking to income
inequality seem to be linear, the relationship may be generated by different
mechanisms at different
intervention and institutional
factors. This can lead to thinking about a nonlinear analysis. We included the
levels of government
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nonlinear analysis into the methodology, following the studies of Tan and Law
(2012), predicting a hump or inverted U-shaped relationship between income
inequality and financial factors in line with Shahbaz et al. (2015), studying the
Kuznets curve between financial development and income inequality in line with
Rojas-Vallejos and Turnovsky (2017), and exploring the nonlinear relationship
between tariff reductions and income inequality. The square term of the explanatory
variable is included into the equation as follows:2
inequalityit
= αi + β (cid:4)
+ β (cid:4)
4
1expenseit
+ β (cid:4)
(cid:2)popit
5
+ β ∗
(cid:2)oilit + β (cid:4)
(cid:2)tradeit + β (cid:4)
1 expense2
it
3
(cid:2)taxit + ηit + θt + εit
+ β (cid:4)
2
6
(cid:2)gdpit
(8)
From equation (8), the U-shaped nonlinear relationship between public
> 0; 然而, the inverted
< 0. This is also applied
expenditure and inequality predicts β (cid:4)
1
U-shaped nonlinear relationship predicts β (cid:4)
1
for the institutional quality.
< 0 and β ∗
1
> 0 and β ∗
1
桌子 7 shows the estimated results from the FMOLS and DOLS estimations.
We followed the same identification strategy as a linear approach in the previous
部分. We estimated public expenses (% of GDP) and its square value by
introducing the control variables in our regression. It is also applied for institutional
质量. The long-run variance estimates—Bartlett kernel, Newey–West fixed
bandwidth—were used for coefficient covariances for both the FMOLS and DOLS
estimations. We also took pooled estimation as panel method and fixed leads and
lags specification to address possible endogeneity and serial correlation as discussed
above for FMOLS. For the DOLS estimation, the pooled estimation as panel method
and automatic leads and lags specification were estimated. The first leads and lags
of the first differences of control variables are estimated as instruments for the
explanatory variables.
According to the estimated results, public expenditure shows positive and
statistically significant cointegrating coefficients at the 1% level for FMOLS and at
这 10% level for DOLS. Its square value shows negative and statistically significant
cointegrating coefficients at the 1% level for FMOLS and at the 10% level for
DOLS. The institutional quality also shows the same direction of coefficient,
although the significance level is different. Linking together, we obtained thus the
inverted U-shaped nonlinear relationship of public expenditure and institutional
quality on income inequality. 更确切地说, at the early stage of institutional
发展, a country whose economy has experienced higher public expenditure
generates rising income inequality; 然后, in the long run when the country improves
its institutional quality, the higher public expenditure results in lower income
不等式.
2We also applied the same identification strategy by using institutional quality (instiit ) and square institutional
质量 (insti2
它 ) as explanatory variables.
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Government Intervention, Institutional Quality, and Income Inequality 197
桌子 7. Nonlinearity Analysis of Public Expenses, Institutional Quality,
and the Top 1% Income Share
Public expenses (% of GDP)
Public expenses (% of GDP), squared
Institutional quality
Institutional quality, squared
(西德:2)Trade openness (% of GDP)
(西德:2)GDP (per capita at PPP)
(西德:2)Population growth (annual %)
(西德:2)Oil rents (% of GDP)
(西德:2)Tax revenue (% of GDP)
Adjusted R2
国家
Years
观察结果
Panel Fully Modified
Least Squares (FMOLS)
Panel Dynamic Least
Squares (DOLS)
模型 1
模型 2
模型 3
模型 4
0.417***
(0.979)
−0.117***
(0.022)
0.053***
(0.019)
−0.673***
(0.243)
−1.497
(1.598)
−1.670**
(0.748)
0.344
(0.251)
0.469
8
1988–2014
106
0.882***
(0.181)
−0.322*
(0.182)
0.049***
(0.013)
0.825***
(0.140)
−1.958***
(0.733)
0.473
(0.328)
0.089
(0.138)
0.964
8
1988–2014
92
0.109*
(0.312)
−0.319*
(0.089)
0.672**
(0.152)
−0.227*
(0.711)
−1.963
(1.987)
−0.281**
(0.535)
0.870*
(0.235)
0.724
8
1988–2014
16
0.328
(1.196)
−0.251***
(0.652)
0.030
(0.025)
−0.138**
(0.508)
0.96***
(0.298)
−0.208
(0.244)
0.372***
(0.040)
0.997
8
1988–2014
35
GDP = gross domestic product, PPP = purchasing power parity.
Notes: Data in parentheses indicate standard errors. The regression results were estimated with the FMOLS
and the DOLS methods. For the FMOLS, the regressions were estimated with the following assumptions:
panel method (pooled estimation); cointegrating equation deterministics (常数 [等级] and/or trend); 和
long-run covariance estimates (Bartlett kernel, Newey–West fixed bandwidth). For the DOLS, the regressions
were estimated with the following assumptions: panel method (pooled estimation); cointegrating equation
deterministics (常数 [等级] and/or trend); and automatic leads and lags specification (based on Schwarz
information criterion, max = *). Long-run variance (Bartlett kernel, Newey–West fixed bandwidth) was used
for coefficient covariances. ***p < 0.01, **p < 0.05, and *p < 0.1.
Sources: Authors’ calculations using the World Inequality Database. 1988–2014. WID.world (accessed
December 3, 2018); and World Bank. 1988–2014. World Development Indicators. https://databank.worldbank.
org/source/world-development-indicators (accessed December 3, 2018).
B.
Alternative of Measuring Inequality
Although this study brings new insight into the thinking of inequality using
a new measurement of the top income segment, it may face bias in that the top 1%
income share cannot capture the effect of public spending and institutional quality
in promoting the economic opportunity of the poor and the middle-income class.
To see the complete picture, we also used the SWIID (version 8.2) as the robustness
check (Solt 2019). Notice that the SWIID is the Gini index of inequality in the
equalized household market (pretax, pretransfer income).3
3For details, see Fredrick Solt. “Using the SWIID in Stata.” https://osf.io/tj7ck/download.
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We applied the same identification strategy for both the linear and nonlinear
long-run approaches for the estimations of the top 1% income share. In Table 8,
we estimated separately public expenditure and institutional quality, the squares
of public expenditure and institutional quality, and the interaction term between
public expenditure and institutional quality. We obtained higher values for adjusted
R-squared and the number of observations. This is likely due to having a more
complete SWIID database compared to the top 1% income share. The SWIID
dataset is available for nearly all of our eight sample countries in Asia and the
Pacific.
We obtained nearly similar results as estimating with the top 1% income
share, considering the direction and significance level of the cointegrating
coefficients. We presumed therefore that public expenditure and institutional quality
drive inequality reduction, and that the effects follow the inverted U-shaped
nonlinear relationship in the long run.
VI.
Conclusion
Inequality has indeed mattered not only in the past but also in the present and
the future. Therefore, the legitimacy of this issue has always been in the equation.
Many studies have linked inequality to government intervention and institutional
quality, but most of them were not quantitatively estimated to understand the
long-run equilibrium relationship. Thus, the main objective of our paper is to
examine the significance of such a long-run relationship, in both linear and
nonlinear analysis, by applying the strength of FMOLS and DOLS, as well as
the Granger causality tests. We used a dataset for eight countries in Asia and
the Pacific—Australia, India, Japan, Malaysia, the PRC, the Republic of Korea,
Singapore, and Thailand—from 1998 to 2014.
As reported by our estimated results,
there are negative long-run,
steady-state effects of government intervention (measured by public expenditure
as a share of GDP) and institutional quality (measured by the WGI) on income
inequality (measured by the top 1% income share in the World Inequality Database
first developed by Piketty and Zucman [2014]) in the sample countries in Asia
and the Pacific. The effect of institutional quality has only a one-way Granger
causality link to income inequality. The existence of a nonlinear relationship
between public expenditure and institutional factors linking to income inequality is
also found. It implies that, at the early stage of institutional development, a country
whose economy has experienced higher public expenditure generates rising income
inequality; then, in the long run when a country improves its institutional quality,
the higher public expenditure results in lower income inequality. The findings also
suggested a nonlinear relationship in the long run when we estimated results with
the Gini index of inequality of the SWIID (version 8.2).
To develop a full picture of how government intervention and institutional
factors influence inequality in the long run, additional studies are needed. Firstly,
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Government Intervention, Institutional Quality, and Income Inequality 199
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200 Asian Development Review
it might be possible to use other tools of public intervention through government
expenditure at a more disaggregated level, which are extensively studied in
short- and medium-run analyses. Secondly, we could compare the Asia and Pacific
countries to other countries like those in Latin America that have had similar
economic and political development paths. Finally, while using the average values
of the WGI, we have not taken a closer look at their six subcategories because each
dimension can be subject to a different explanation of inequality. While the average
score of the WGI is higher, it does not mean that these subcategories are all equally
higher. It should thus be subject to further investigation as institutional quality at
the very first level of aggregation might not be rational enough to differentiate its
effect.
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Table A.1. Control Variable Definitions and Sources
Description and ID
Sources
World Bank national accounts data,
OECD national accounts data files
World Bank ICP database
Appendix
Variable
Trade (% of
GDP)
GDP per
capita at
PPP
(current
international
US dollars)
Population
growth
(annual %)
Trade is the sum of exports and imports
of goods and services measured as a
share of gross domestic product. ID:
NE.TRD.GNFS.ZS
GDP per capita based on PPP is GDP
converted to international dollars
using PPP rates. An international
dollar has the same purchasing power
over GDP as the US dollar has in the
United States. GDP at purchaser’s
prices is the sum of gross value added
by all resident producers in the
economy plus any product taxes and
minus any subsidies not included in
the value of the products. It is
calculated without making deductions
for depreciation of fabricated assets or
for depletion and degradation of
natural resources. Data are in current
international dollars based on the 2011
ICP round. ID: NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD
Annual population growth rate for year t
is the exponential rate of growth of
midyear population from year t − 1 to
t, expressed as a percentage.
Population is based on the de facto
definition of population, which counts
all residents regardless of legal status
or citizenship. ID: SP.POP.GROW
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Derived from total population.
Population source: (1) United Nations
Population Division. World Population
Prospects: 2019 Revision, (2) Census
reports and other statistical
publications from national statistical
offices, (3) Eurostat: Demographic
Statistics, (4) United Nations
Statistical Division. Population and
Vital Statistics Report (various years),
(5) US Census Bureau: International
Database, and (6) Secretariat of the
Pacific Community: Statistics and
Demography Programme.
Continued.
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Government Intervention, Institutional Quality, and Income Inequality 205
Variable
Oil rents (%
of GDP)
Table A.1. Continued.
Description and ID
Sources
Oil rents are the difference between the
value of crude oil production at world
prices and total costs of production.
ID: NY.GDP.PETR.RT.ZS
Estimates based on sources and methods
described in World Bank. 2011. The
Changing Wealth of Nations:
Measuring Sustainable Development
in the New Millennium. Washington,
DC.
Tax revenue
Tax revenue refers to compulsory
International Monetary Fund,
(% of GDP)
transfers to the central government for
public purposes. Certain compulsory
transfers such as fines, penalties, and
most social security contributions are
excluded. Refunds and corrections of
erroneously collected tax revenue are
treated as negative revenue. ID:
GC.TAX.TOTL.GD.ZS
Government Finance Statistics
Yearbook and data files, and World
Bank and OECD GDP estimates.
GDP = gross domestic product, ICP = International Comparison Program, PPP = purchasing power parity, OECD
= Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, US = United States.
Sources: Authors’ calculations using the World Inequality Database. 1988–2014. WID.world (accessed December
3, 2018); and World Bank. 1988–2014. World Development Indicators. https://databank.worldbank.org/source/
world-development-indicators (accessed December 3, 2018).
Table A.2. Pairwise Correlation among Control Variables
trade
gdp
pop
oil
tax
Trade (% of GDP) [trade]
Significance level
Observation
Per capita GDP (at PPP) [gdp]
Significance level
Observation
Population growth (annual %) [pop]
Significance level
Observation
Oil rents (% of GDP) [oil]
Significance level
Observation
Tax revenue (% of GDP) [tax]
Significance level
Observation
1
216
0.4*
0.0
200
0.4
0.5
216
0.3
0.3
173
0.1
0.4
191
1
200
−0.02
0.8
200
−0.1
0.1
161
0.4*
0.0
179
1
216
0.4*
0.0
173
0.2*
0.01
191
1
173
0.1
0.3
148
1
191
GDP = gross domestic product, PPP = purchasing power parity.
Note: *1% level of significance.
Sources: Authors’ calculations using the World Inequality Database. 1988–2014. WID.world
(accessed December 3, 2018); and World Bank. 1988–2014. World Development Indicators. https:
//databank.worldbank.org/source/world-development-indicators (accessed December 3, 2018).
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Table A.3. Variance Inflation Factor among Control
Variables
Variable
Public expenses (% of GDP)
Tax revenue (% of GDP)
Per capita GDP (at PPP)
Population growth (annual %)
Oil rents (% of GDP)
Trade (% of GDP)
Mean VIF
VIF
5.7
4.6
4.4
3.95
3.2
2.4
4.04
1/VIF
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.3
0.3
0.4
GDP = gross domestic product, PPP = purchasing power parity,
VIF = variance inflation factor.
Note: Top 1% income share is used as dependent variable.
Sources: Authors’ calculations using the World Inequality Database.
1988–2014. WID.world (accessed December 3, 2018); and World Bank.
1988–2014. World Development Indicators. https://databank.worldbank.
org/source/world-development-indicators (accessed December 3, 2018).
Table A.4. List of Countries
Country
Region
Income Status
Institutional
Status
Australia
People’s Republic of China
India
Japan
Republic of Korea
Malaysia
Singapore
Thailand
Source: Authors’ compilation.
East Asia and Pacific High income
Strong quality
East Asia and Pacific Upper-middle income Weak quality
Lower-middle income Weak quality
South Asia
Strong quality
East Asia and Pacific High income
Strong quality
East Asia and Pacific High income
Strong quality
East Asia and Pacific Upper-middle income
East Asia and Pacific High income
Strong quality
East Asia and Pacific Upper-middle income Weak quality
Table A.5. Eight Countries in Asia and the Pacific
Obs Mean Median Max Min Std Dev Skewness Kurtosis
Top 1% income share
178
Public expenses (% of GDP) 205
152
Institutional quality
216
Trade openness (% of GDP)
200
GDP per capita
216
Population growth
173
Oil rents (% of GDP)
191
Tax revenue (% of GDP)
12.0
17.0
0.6
106.7
4.1
1.3
1.5
14.2
10.6
15.8
0.5
54.9
4.2
1.2
0.9
13.7
0.0
23.5
26.8
10.8
1.7 −0.6
13.3
439.7
4.9
3.0
5.3 −1.5
0.0
9.6
8.1
24.9
4.6
4.1
0.8
109.1
0.5
0.9
1.9
4.2
1.0
1.0
−0.0
1.6
−0.6
0.8
1.9
0.9
3.3
3.1
1.5
4.3
2.6
4.5
2.0
3.1
GDP = gross domestic product.
Notes: Asia and the Pacific comprises Australia, India, Japan, Malaysia, the People’s Republic of China, the Republic
of Korea, Singapore, and Thailand. Data are from 1988 to 2014.
Sources: Authors’ calculations using the World Inequality Database. 1988–2014. WID.world (accessed December
3, 2018); and World Bank. 1988–2014. World Development Indicators. https://databank.worldbank.org/source/
world-development-indicators (accessed December 3, 2018).
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