Accounting for Mexican Income Inequality during the 1990s

De Hoyos, Rafael E.

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ADVERSE EFFECT;    AGRICULTURAL INCOMES;    AVERAGE ANNUAL;    AVERAGE INCOME;    COUNTERFACTUAL;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-4224
RP-ID  :  WPS4224

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The author implements several inequalitydecomposition methods to measure the extent to which totalhousehold income disparities can be attributable to sectoralasymmetries and differences in skill endowments. The resultsshow that at least half of total household inequality inMexico is attributable to incomes derived fromentrepreneurial activities, an income source rarelyscrutinized in the inequality literature. He shows thateducation (skills) endowments are unevenly distributed amongthe Mexican population, with positive shifts in the marketreturns to schooling associated with increases ininequality. Asymmetries in the allocation of educationexplain around 20 percent of overall household incomedisparities in Mexico during the 1990s. Moreover, theproportion of inequality attributable to educationendowments increases during stable periods and reducesduring the crisis. This pattern is explained by shifts inreturns to schooling rather than changes in the distributionof skills. Applying the same techniques to decomposewithin-sector income differences, the author finds thatskill endowments can account for as much as 25 percent ofearnings disparities but as little as 5 percent ofdispersion in other income sources.