Contenu du sommaire : Economie des inégalités

Économie des inégalités

• Présentation générale - Alain Trannoy, Yves Guillotin p. 1-8
• Les minima sociaux en France : entre compensation et responsabilité - Alain Trannoy, Michel Martinez, Cyrille Hagneré, Marc Fleurbaey p. 1-23
  Income Support in France: Between Compensation and Responsibility by Marc Fleurbaey, Cyrille Hagneré, Michel Martinez and Alain Trannoy This paper suggests a reading grid for a system of transfers based on the notion of individual responsibility: if the sum of a given benefit is independent of the individual characteristics of the recipients, these recipients are implicitly taken to be responsible for these characteristics. We first present the theoretical framework and then review all the benefits for underprivileged individuals, studying how socio-demographic and earned-income characteristics are taken into account. This approach is useful, in particular, to bring to light slightly unusual implicit assumptions as regards inter-individual assistance behavioural norms. A favourable, albeit poorly suited, treatment of lone-parent families also emerges. Moreover, consideration of the dynamic structure of benefit payments shows that the Aubry reform of income support (i.e.Specific Solidarity Allowance[ASS],Integration Allowance [AI],Minimum Integration Income [RMI], Single Parent Allowance [API] and Widow's Benefit) has had a not-inconsiderable effect on the decrease in unemployment traps.
• Les hauts revenus face aux modifications des taux marginaux supérieurs de l'impôt sur le revenu en France, 1970-1996 - Thomas Piketty p. 25-60
  High-Income Taxpayers' Reactions to Marginal Income Tax Rates Changes in France, 1970-1996 by Thomas Piketty This paper uses the main income tax law changes that occured in France over the 1 970- 1 996 period as " natural experiments " in order to estimate the elasticity of high-income taxpayers' taxable income with respect to marginal tax rates. Given the large pro-cyclicity of the very-high-income taxpayers' income share over the entire period, we use annual tax returns data about the level and composition of income within the top decile and the top centile of the taxpayers distribution of taxable income. The general conclusion is that the relatively large changes in top marginal income tax rates (both in 1981-1982 and 1 986- 1 987) - did not induce any important structural change in the distribution. The distribution of taxable income among high-income taxpayers is extremly stable in France over the entire 1970-1996 period, and short-term fluctuations are better explained by the business cycle than by tax-induced behavioral changes.
• Redistribution, inégalité et chômage - Vincent Touzé p. 61-75
  Redistribution, Inequality and Unemployment by Vincent Touzé This paper proposes a theoretical foundation for the empirically observed inequahty-unemployment relation. This is achieved with an overlapping generations economy in which the government applies linear taxation to redistribute wealth amongst individuals. The individuals' characteristics are not observable and the parameters of the redistribution system are chosen using the Mirrlees optimal taxation model. This kind of redistribution system creates a relation between inequaUty and unemployment. The optimal redistribution system is seen as a specific choice between inequality and unemployment. Static purchasing power can also be affected in the long run. These findings are illustrated by a numerical example.
• Changements de composition de la force de travail. Implications pour les salaires et le chômage - Etienne Wasmer p. 77-87
  Changes in the Structure of the Labour Force: Wage and Unemployment Implications by Etienne Wasmer Some important stylised facts on the leading OECD countries' labour markets and the rise in wage inequalities and unemployment are described and associated with changes in the structure of the labour force. The literature sometimes overlooks the fact that these changes can destabilise the labour markets, by considering the labour supply to be a homogeneous factor. We endeavour to show here that the supply should be represented as heterogeneous in that this rise has been accompanied by a marked change in structure. The labour force has become younger and more female. This paper describes the mechanisms that can create unemployment and inequalities. These supply changes could be viewed as an increase in the number of low- wage-earners. Also worth mentioning is the drop in the actual amount of employment experience among the labour force.
• Inégalités, biais de progrès technique et imperfections de marché en France de 1974 à 1993 - Anne Saint-Martin, Jean-Pierre Laffargue p. 89-109
  Biases, Market Imperfections and Inequalities France by Jean-Pierre Laffargue and Anne Saint Martin Over the last twenty years, the main French production factor trends (labour and capital) have been hard to reconcile with their respective cost trends. This paper uses a medium-run dynamic structural equilibrium model to try to explain some of these contradictions in terms of changes that have occurred in the different economic players' macroeconomic and institutional environments. We come up with a number of findings. Unskilled labour is highly substitutable for skilled labour and capital. Skilled labour is not very substitutable for capital. The efficiency of skilled labour increases faster than the productivity trend, but the productivity of unskilled labour stagnates. The mark-up rate of firms falls sharply after 1982. Trade union bargaining power grows from 1974 to 1983, and recedes thereafter. We also compute the dynamic multipliers of the main economic policy decisions, and the effects on employment of changes to these policies since 1974. These changes seem to have played a limited role in the growth in unemployment, which appears to be due essentially to structural shocks on labour supply and demand.
• Le quotient familial : une structure fiscale cohérente avec le critère de Lorenz relatif - Alain Trannoy, Patrick Moyes p. 111-124
  The family Quotient: a Tax Structure Consistent with the Relative Lorenz Criterion by Patrick Moyes and Alain Trannoy When households are identical in all characteristics other than income, an average rate of taxation increasing with primary income guarantees that disposable income is more evenly distributed than pre-tax income. This paper studies whether it is possible to obtain a similar finding with heterogeneous populations, where households can be differentiated by both income and family size. An equivalent transformation renders the income of different-sized households comparable and the tax system's redistributive capacity is evaluated by comparing Lorenz equivalent-income curves before and after taxation. We find that, when the single person is taken as the reference, most of the income tax systems in use are consistent with the goal of reducing inequalities. However, the family quotient procedure used in France is the only mechanism that makes the reduction in inequalities independent of the type of reference used.
• Comparaisons de distributions hétérogènes et critères de dominance - Patrick Moyes p. 125-146
  Comparisons of Heterogeneous Distributions and dominance Criteria by Patrick Moyes This paper looks at standard-of-living comparisons when observations of both income and household structure are available. We generalise the Atkinson and Bourguignon approach (1987) in the case where marginal distributions of needs can vary across the household populations studied. We assume that considerate planners use a utilitarian social welfare function to rank heterogeneous income distributions. Insofar as any individual can play the role of planner, we take the unanimist point of view that the planner's judgements have to comply with a certain number of basic normative principles. We impose increasingly restrictive conditions on the household's utility function and study their effects on the resulting ranking of distributions. This leads us to propose four dominance criteria to be used for an unambiguous ranking of income distributions for heterogeneous populations.
• Critères de dominance temporelle. Le manuel de l'utilisateur - Alain Trannoy, Thierry Karcher p. 147-162
  Temporal Dominance Criteria by Thierry Karcher and Alain Trannoy A discounting operation is required to treat the inequaUty of wage and income careers over the life cycle. A single discount rate is often chosen more out of doctrine than a reaUstic view of the markets. In many cases, it would seem more reasonable to adhere to more approximate assumptions such as a range of discount rates. The purpose of temporal dominance is precisely to fist the cases in which such inexactitude does not prevent intertemporal income flows from being ranked. The comparison criteria obtained are based on different definitions of the concept of impatience, which is discussed in depth. A comparison of wage careers in the national education system illustrates the criteria found.
• Les choix de l'âge de la retraite. Aspects incitatifs des règles du régime général et effets de la réforme de 1993 - Pierre Ralle, Louis-Paul Pelé p. 163-177
  Retirement Age Choices. Incentives under the General Social Security Scheme Rules and Effects of the 1993 reform by Louis-Paul Pelé and Pierre Ralle This paper studies private-sector employees' retirement age choices in the absence of constraints. We start with a brief description of the general social security scheme and the supplementary schemes. We then propose a theoretical modeUng, which shows that it is in employees' best interests not to collect their pensions until it has reached the "full rate". Given this assumption, we study how the generation of individuals bom in 1960 would be affected by the 1993 reform. Relatively few employees would put back their retirement age. The drop in pension, affecting all employees, would depend to a great extent on the length of working Ufe.
• Un essai de mesure de la contribution des budgets des pays membres à la cohésion européenne - Laurent Davezies p. 179-196
  A Trial Measurement of the Contribution of Member Countries' Budgets to European Cohesion by Laurent Davezies This paper presents a preUminary trial measurement, based on a common methodology, of the interregional income transfers resulting from seven European countries' budgets in 1993. A new methodology is proposed, presented and appUed. We find that the national budgets are the main instrument for European interregional cohesion, weU ahead of the Union budget. We also find uneven redistributive effects across the countries studied, which means that European regions with comparable development levels are treated unequally by the pubUc redistributive mechanisms. We conclude with the economic and poUtical implications of this national fragmentation of cohesion mechanisms in Europe.
• Distribution et redistribution : une mise en perspective - François Bourguignon p. 197-202