Zipf's Law, Pareto's Law, and the Evolution of Top Incomes in the United States
Zipf's Law, Pareto's Law, and the Evolution of Top Incomes in the United States
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DOI：
10.1257/mac.20150051
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发表时间：
2017-07-01
影响因子：
6
通讯作者：
Nirei, Makoto
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Aoki, Shuhei;Nirei, Makoto
我们构建了一个易于处理的新古典增长模型，该模型从特殊的、企业层面的生产率冲击中产生了关于收入分配的帕累托定律和关于企业规模分配的齐夫定律。高管和企业家投资于无风险资产，以及他们自己公司的风险股票，通过这些股票，他们的财富和收入取决于公司层面的冲击。通过使用该模型，我们评估了税率的变化如何解释美国最高收入的演变。该模型与近几十年来收入分配的帕累托指数的下降和收入最高的1%的收入份额的趋势相匹配。
We construct a tractable neoclassical growth model that generates Pareto's law of income distribution and Zipf's law of the firm size distribution from idiosyncratic, firm-level productivity shocks. Executives and entrepreneurs invest in risk-free assets, as well as their own firms' risky stocks, through which their wealth and income depend on firm-level shocks. By using the model, we evaluate how changes in tax rates can account for the evolution of top incomes in the United States. The model matches the decline in the Pareto exponent of the income distribution and the trend of the top 1 percent income share in recent decades.