Topics on Inequality: The Changing Household Composition and Implications for Policy Coordination

不平等话题：家庭结构的变化及其对政策协调的影响

• 批准号: 0079504
• 负责人: Jose-Victor Rios-Rull
• 金额: $ 23.63万
• 依托单位: University of Pennsylvania
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing grant
• 财政年份: 2000
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2000-08-15 至 2004-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0079504&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Topics; Inequality; Changing; Household; Composition

This project consists of two parts concerned with the determinants as well as the implications of inequality both between people and across countries. The first part studies recent rather dramatic changes in the composition of U.S. households. Between the mid seventies and the beginning of the nineties the share of non-married females grew dramatically in the U.S. (from 17% to 30% in the 30 to 44 age group). At the same time that people are living less as married couples. there has been a steady increase in out of wedlock child-raising that increased the share of single mothers from 12%o to 17% of the total female population, while total fertility remained constant over the same period. There has been another major change in the sane time period: the structure of wages is much different now than twenty five years ago. There has been a modest increase in average wages. together with fairly large increases in the ratio of wages of college to non-college educated and in the ratio of women's to men's wages. This project investigates the contribution of the changes in wages to the aforementioned demographic changes. To this end, a model is constructed where agents differ in age. sex, education. wages, and in the type of family they live. Agents search for a mate, make marital status and fertility decisions and invest in their children's education. The model is calibrated so that it replicates the economic and demographic characteristics of the mid seventies. Next, the model is studied with only changes in wages, absolute and relative (across sexes and education levels) to see how much of the changes in the type of family that people live in can be traced back to changes in wages. The project may have far reaching implications. The findings of a recent body of empirical literature indicate that factors that happen early in life. before age 16, account for most of the differences in lifelong achievements of people. Moreover, it seems that the type of family where children grow up contributes significantly to shape those achievements: the presence of both parents yields more successful children than one parent alone. This implies that a change in household structure of the magnitude observed can shape the characteristics of the next generation of Americans, not only in terms of their average achievements, but probably and in a more dramatic fashion, for the characteristics of inequality. Understanding the mechanisms that generate the changes in family type seems to be a very important task.The second part of the project attempts to understand how differences in the wealth and productivity of nations affect the type of taxing policies that they choose. How do taxes of poorer countries compare to those of richer countries? Why does the U.S. tax capital more intensively than Europe? To answer these questions the investigator develops a model where governments are benevolent towards their own citizens, and choose how to best collect revenue thorough different forms of taxation (corporate taxation, and personal labor income and capital taxation) at different rates. Moreover, these governments cannot commit to future policies, they can always change their mind. In this model government policies of rich and poor countries are interrelated since capital can flow across countries. This part of the project might also shed some new light on the issue of whether it is a good idea that governments can coordinate their policies.

该项目包括与决定因素有关的两个部分以及人与人之间不平等的含义。 第一部分研究了美国家庭组成的最新变化。在七十年代中期到九十年代的开始，非婚生女性的份额在美国占有巨大的增长（在30％到44岁以上）。同时，人们的生活不再是已婚夫妇。在婚礼儿童养育中，单身母亲的份额从12％O增加到女性总人口的17％，而总生育率在同一时期保持恒定。理智时期发生了另一个重大变化：工资结构现在与二十五年前大不相同。平均工资有所增加。随着大学工资与受过教育的非大学工资的比率相当大，女性与男子工资的比率相当大。该项目调查了工资变化对上述人口变化的贡献。为此，在代理年龄不同的地方构建了一个模型。性，教育。工资，以及他们生活的家庭类型。代理商寻找伴侣，做出婚姻状况和生育决策并投资孩子的教育。该模型进行了校准，以便复制七十年代中期的经济和人口特征。接下来，研究该模型只有工资，绝对和相对（跨性别和教育水平）的变化，以查看人们所居住的家庭类型的变化可以追溯到工资的变化。 该项目可能具有很大的影响。最近的经验文献的发现表明，生命早期发生的因素。在16岁之前，占人们终身成就的大多数差异。此外，看来儿童成长的家庭类型为塑造这些成就做出了重大贡献：父母双方的存在比单独的父母产生了更成功的孩子。这意味着，所观察到的大小的家庭结构的变化可以影响下一代美国人的特征，这不仅是在平均成就方面，而且可能以更具戏剧性的方式来影响不平等的特征。 了解产生家庭类型变化的机制似乎是一项非常重要的任务。项目的第二部分试图了解国家财富和生产力的差异如何影响他们选择的税收政策的类型。贫困国家的税款与富裕国家的税收相比如何？ 为什么美国税收资本比欧洲更重要？ 为了回答这些问题，研究人员开发了一个模型，其中政府对自己的公民有仁慈，并选择如何以不同的税率收集收入彻底的不同形式的税收（公司税收，个人劳动收入和资本税）。 此外，这些政府不能致力于未来的政策，他们总是可以改变主意。 在这种模式下，富人和穷国的政府政策是相互关联的，因为资本可以跨国流动。该项目的这一部分也可能对政府可以协调其政策是一个好主意的问题有一些新的启示。