Income, wealth and inequality
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課程筆記
Income and wealth
- Income is a flow received in a period, including earnings, pensions, investment income and relevant transfers. Net wealth is the value of assets minus liabilities at a point in time; gross asset value does not deduct debt. Borrowing is not income simply because it brings cash.
- Fictional assets £250,000 minus liabilities £180,000 = £70,000 net wealth. The figure does not measure annual income or liquid funds. Asset prices, savings, debts and inheritances can compound wealth gaps, but comparisons with income need a specified population, definition and date.
Income differs from net wealth
Causes of inequality
- Income differences can reflect skills, hours, occupation, job demand, bargaining power, discrimination, employment and household composition. Wealth also reflects asset prices, returns, accumulated savings, debt and transfers between generations. Avoid assuming all gaps reflect individual effort or all recipients have the same opportunities.
- Regional averages can hide large differences within each place and living costs can differ. Social mobility concerns changes in social or economic position within a lifetime or across generations; a pay rise alone does not establish greater relative mobility.
Explain possible sources of a gap
Measuring inequality
- For the conventional Lorenz diagram, rank units from lowest to highest income and plot cumulative population share horizontally against cumulative income share vertically. State whether income is market or disposable, whether units are households or people, and whether household composition is adjusted.
- The usual nonnegative-income Gini scale is 0 for equality and 1 for the ideal inequality endpoint; some reports use 0–100. Fictional equally sized groups receive 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 50%, giving cumulative shares 5%, 15%, 30%, 50% and 100% and a grouped Gini of 0.40 under equal-within-group assumptions.
- A curve below another throughout shows greater comparable inequality; crossing curves require further analysis. Gini is a summary, can hide different patterns, and is not a poverty or mobility measure. Distributions containing negative values, such as some net-wealth data, need additional care rather than blindly applying the simple illustration.
A fictional Lorenz distribution
Effects
- Poverty concerns insufficient resources or living conditions against a stated standard; inequality concerns distribution. A society can be equally poor, and inequality can change without every person’s resources moving in the same direction. Social and health effects require evidence rather than a fixed causal stereotype.
- Relative low income often uses a share of current median equivalised household income; a fixed real threshold is adjusted for inflation from a reference period. UK published measures also distinguish housing costs. Fictional median £500 per week gives a 60% threshold £300; comparable £280 is below it, without measuring every form of deprivation.
A fictional relative-income threshold
Redistribution policies
- Progressive taxation takes an increasing average share as the taxable base rises. Cash benefits and public services can redistribute or improve access, while wage floors, education, training and barrier reduction can affect market incomes and opportunities. A benefit is not necessarily means tested; eligibility differs by scheme.
- Universal Credit can support eligible people on low income, out of work or unable to work. UK Inheritance Tax concerns estates and relevant transfers under current reliefs and rules, not a charge on every inheritance. No current tax thresholds, benefit entitlements or wage rates are asserted in this lesson.
- Fictional bands: first £10,000 at 0%, next £10,000 at 10%, then 20% above £20,000. Tax on £20,000 is £1,000 (5% average); on £30,000 it is £3,000 (10% average). The higher rate applies only to the relevant slice, not the whole income.
Policies work through different channels
Evaluation
- Judge the relevant objective: disposable-income equality, wealth distribution, poverty and opportunity differ. Spending design, coverage, take-up, administration, compliance and effects on work or investment shape the result. Behaviour does not inevitably change in one direction for everyone.
- Transfers redistribute purchasing power rather than destroying the sum as a social resource cost, but delivery uses resources and public funds have opportunity costs. Tax-funded education or other services may support participation and productivity. Weigh evidence and alternatives rather than declaring either inequality or redistribution always beneficial or harmful.
Evaluate the actual distributional objective
投影片
練習題
免費預覽——35 題中的 8 題。註冊即可查看全部。
1.What is income?
Easy- Aa flow received over a period, including earnings and transfers
- Baccumulated assets
- Cproperty
- Dsavings
2.What is net wealth?
Easy- Awages
- Bincome
- Cprofit
- Dthe value of assets minus liabilities at a point in time
3.On the usual 0–1 Gini scale for a nonnegative distribution, what is the ideal endpoint 1?
Easy- Aaverage inequality
- Bno data
- Cperfect inequality
- Dperfect equality
4.What does Gini 0 mean for the distribution being measured?
Easy- Ano data
- Bperfect equality
- Cperfect inequality
- Daverage inequality
5.What is a Lorenz curve?
Easy- Acumulative income share against cumulative population share, ordered poorest first
- Ba demand curve
- Ca supply curve
- Da PPF
6.For comparable income definitions, a Lorenz curve below another at every interior population share shows:
Easy- Asmaller the inequality
- Bsame inequality
- Cno inequality
- Dgreater the inequality
7.Which is a cause of income inequality?
Easy- Ano work
- Bsame jobs
- Cdifferences in skills and qualifications
- Dequal pay
8.Which is a cause of wealth inequality?
Easy- Asame houses
- Binheritance
- Cequal wages
- Dno assets
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