Changes in Human Capital and Wage Inequality in Mexico

Over the last two decades Mexico has witnessed a significant increase in wage inequality, typically attributed to the increase in relative demand for skilled labor. Over this period the educational achievements and their distribution across the labor force have also changed substantially. In this paper we analyze the impact of changes in human capital on wage inequality in Mexico. We focus our analysis on decomposing (1) the level of inequality in any given year and (2) change in inequality over time, into observable (e.g. age, education, occupation, etc.) and unobservable differences across workers. The main findings of this paper are: unobservable factors (within group inequality) account for most of the inequality in any given year. Among the observable factors human capital emerges as the most important variables in explaining the level of, and changes in, inequality

The impact of immigration on the wage structure : Spain 1995-2002

In this paper we estimate the impact of inward migration flows on the Spanish wage structure over the period 1995-2002 by constructing counterfactual wage distributions that provide the wages that would have been observed had individual and job characteristics remain constant over time. Hence, we compute the impact of immigration on the wage distribution from (i) the estimated wage gaps between similar immigrants and native workers and (ii) the changes in the composition of employment associated to the arrival of new immigrants. Overall, we find that (i) the effects of immigration on wage changes are small and only noticeable when job characteristics are included as determinants of wages, and (ii) the correlation between the incidence of immigration in each decile of the wage distribution and the change in native wages not explained by changes in their individual and job characteristics is positive. These results suggest that other factors, besides immigration, should be identified as the key determinants of the wage moderation observed since the early nineties in Spain

Changes in Human Capital and Wage Inequality in Mexico

Over the last two decades Mexico has witnessed a significant increase in wage inequality, typically attributed to the increase in relative demand for skilled labor. Over this period the educational achievements and their distribution across the labor force have also changed substantially. In this paper we analyze the impact of changes in human capital on wage inequality in Mexico. We focus our analysis on decomposing (1) the level of inequality in any given year and (2) change in inequality over time, into observable (e.g. age, education, occupation, etc.) and unobservable differences across workers. The main findings of this paper are: unobservable factors (within group inequality) account for most of the inequality in any given year. Among the observable factors human capital emerges as the most important variables in explaining the level of, and changes in, inequality

Skinning the Cat: Education Distribution, Changes in the School Premium and Earnings Inequality

This paper applies the procedure in JUHN ET ALL (1993) to decompose changes in income inequality over time in terms of education-related causal factors: school premiums, educational distribution and residual changes. The main conclusion is that reductions in the school premiums have systematically had a negative impact on income inequality during the last twenty years. At the same time, education has become more unequally distributed for individuals below the median labor income level and more equally distributed for those above it. The combination of the two forces has reduced income dispersion for the top half of earners, and slightly increased it among the bottom half. This difference in trends of educational distribution lies behind an apparently stable profile of income inequality (considering the whole earnings distribution).

Inequality and poverty in the United States: the effects of changing family behavior and rising wage dispersion

The trend toward increasing inequality in family income in the United States since the late 1960s is well documented. Among key possible explanations for this increase are rising dispersion in individual earnings, changes in female labor supply decisions, and changes in family composition and living arrangements. We analyze the contribution of these factors to changes in family income inequality and poverty during the years 1969-1998, focusing on labor supply and family structure as behavioral changes but accounting also for changes in the distribution of male earnings. Our analyses rely on conditionally weighted density estimation, a semiparametric decomposition technique recently developed by DiNardo, Fortin, and Lemieux (1996). We also use a relatively novel rank-based distributional exchange to assess the effects of changes in the distribution of male earnings. ; In our empirical work, we first analyze changes between 1969 and 1989, which corresponds roughly to the period of rising inequality that has been the focus of previous work. Our results indicate that rising dispersion of male earnings and the decline of traditional forms of family structure respectively explain up to about three-fourths and about one-half of rising inequality in family income during this period. The impact of changing family structure was most pronounced in the lower half of the distribution. In contrast, the increase in female labor force participation offset rising inequality to some degree, mainly in the upper half of the distribution, although its impact has moved down the distribution over time. In extending the analyses to the 1990s, we find that the rate at which inequality grew slowed after 1989, but the explanatory factors continued to have substantial effects. In each decade, the effects of the explanatory factors on poverty were especially large and followed a pattern similar to that for inequality.Poverty ; Income distribution ; Income

The impact of immigration on the wage structure : Spain 1995-2002

In this paper we estimate the impact of inward migration flows on the Spanish wage structure over the period 1995-2002 by constructing counterfactual wage distributions that provide the wages that would have been observed had individual and job characteristics remain constant over time. Hence, we compute the impact of immigration on the wage distribution from (i) the estimated wage gaps between similar immigrants and native workers and (ii) the changes in the composition of employment associated to the arrival of new immigrants. Overall, we find that (i) the effects of immigration on wage changes are small and only noticeable when job characteristics are included as determinants of wages, and (ii) the correlation between the incidence of immigration in each decile of the wage distribution and the change in native wages not explained by changes in their individual and job characteristics is positive. These results suggest that other factors, besides immigration, should be identified as the key determinants of the wage moderation observed since the early nineties in Spain.Immigration, Wage structure, Quantile regressions

Analysing The Effects Of Tax Benefit Reforms On Income Distribution: A Decomposition Approach

To assess the impact of tax-benefit policy changes on income distribution over time, we suggest a methodology based on counterfactual simulations. We start by decomposing changes in inequality/poverty indices into three contributions: reforms of the tax-benefit structure (eligibility rules, tax rate structure, etc.); changes in nominal levels of both market incomes and tax-benefit parameters (e.g. benefit amounts, tax bands); and all other changes in the underlying population (including market income inequality and demographic composition). Then, the decomposition helps to extract an absolute measure of the impact of tax-benefit changes on inequality when evaluated against a distributionally-neutral benchmark, i.e. a situation where tax-benefit parameters are adjusted in line with income growth. We apply this measure to assess recent policy changes in twelve European countries. Finally, the full decomposition allows quantifying the relative role of policy changes compared to all other factors. We provide an illustration on France and Ireland and check the sensitivity of the results to the decomposition order.inequality, poverty, Tax-benefit policy, decomposition, microsimulation.

Trends in the distribution of income in Australia

The paper examines the recent trends in Australia\u27s individual and household income distributions. It examines the proximate factors that help explain aggregate trends to provide a more detailed understanding of the composition of the income distribution (in terms of both the groups represented within it and the different kinds of income they receive). It also examines whether the Australian experience mirrors general trends across OECD countries. Key findings: Between 1988-89 and 2009-10, the incomes of individuals and households in Australia have risen substantially in real terms and in comparison to trends in other OECD countries, with particularly strong growth between 2003-04 and 2009-10. – The increase has mainly been driven by growth in labour force earnings, arising from employment growth, more hours worked (by part-time workers) and increased hourly wages. While real individual and household incomes have both risen across their distributions, increases have been uneven. – The rate of growth has been higher at the ‘top end’ of the distributions than the ‘bottom end’. – Incomes for those in the middle of the distribution have spread out (that is, they have become less concentrated around the average). These changes underlie the recently observed increases in summary measures of inequality (such as the Gini Coefficient) in Australia for individual and household incomes. – At the individual level, the key drivers are the widening dispersion of hourly wages of full-time employees and (to a lesser extent) the relatively stronger growth in part-time employment. – At the household level, the key driver has been capital income growth amongst higher income households. The impact of growing dispersion of hourly wages on the distribution of labour income has been offset by increased employment of household members including a decline in the share of jobless households. Final income is also influenced by government taxes and transfers. These have a substantial redistributive impact on the distribution of household income, substantially reducing measured inequality. Although the progressive impact of the tax and transfer system declined slightly from the early 2000s (with the introduction of the GST and a fall in the number of recipients of government benefit payments associated with higher employment), real growth in the value of direct and indirect transfers contributed to growth in incomes for low income households. The analysis highlights the need to examine the changes in various income components and population subgroups in order to understand the changes in the distribution of income and inequality measures such as the Gini coefficient. – Differences in individual income, and therefore household income levels, occur for a variety of reasons including personal choices and innate characteristics as well as opportunities and inheritances. These differences combine with broader economic forces and policy settings to influence the distribution of income over time

Investigation into the declining trend in Chokka squid Loligo vulgaris reynaudii catches made by South African trawlers

The trawl fishery, which targets Cape hake Merluccius spp. and Agulhas sole Austroglossus pectoralis, takes chokka squid Loligo vulgaris reynaudii as by-catch. Catch and effort data from the trawl fishery for the period1978–1996 are used to obtain annual estimates of catch rate (catch per unit effort cpue) for that period. Examination of the cpue trend shows a sharp decline in the early 1980s and, in order to identify factors thatcould have influenced that decline, the distribution of fishing effort is investigated both temporally and spatially. There is a possible change in the incidence of squid-directed catches over time, but their overall scarcity could have had only a small impact on the annual cpue trend. Further, using distribution of fishing effort to evaluate the effects of possible changes in fishing patterns, rather than changes in resource abundance, on the trend in trawl cpue, it became clear that there had been a contraction of the trawling grounds and changes in fishing patternsin relation to depth over time. Finally, a general linear model (GLM) is developed to quantify the effect on cpue of factors such as vessel characteristic, depth and position of the drag, season and target species, so obtaining a standardized trawl cpue index of chokka abundance. Analysis of that trend reveals a mean 7.7% annual decline for the period investigated, which should be interpreted as a strong sign of resource decline

Surface Conditions Drive Changes In Groundfish Species\u27 Populations Along California Coast

Oceans display physical variability over a range of temporal and spatial scales, influencing factors such as larval dispersal, nutrient availability, species migration, and biodiversity. Such variability is vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Larvae and juveniles are particularly susceptible to changes in ocean variability, and changes in the early life stages of species populations ultimately impacts the adult stages. Physical consequences stemming from climate driven variability, including a loss of key prey species and changes in depth distributions of vulnerable fish species, could ultimately impact ecosystem services and threaten human food security and fisheries. The deep sea benthopelagic groundfish play significant roles in biogeochemical and ecological processes on a global scale. Macrourids, the most common benthopelagic fish in the deep sea, are important benthic and midwater predators; making it critical to understand changes in their population structures over time. Macrourid larvae reside in surface waters, where they are more vulnerable to climate driven variability. Merluccius productus (M. productus) is a commercially important benthopelagic groundfish species with a life history similar to Macrourids. The combination of surface waters exhibiting more changes in physical variability compared to the deep sea and the vulnerability of larvae to oceanographic variability makes observing these benthopelagic species particularly important for understanding the full-depth interactions and climate-related changes. This project focuses on studying correlations between changes in the life stages of Macrourid species\u27 and M. productus\u27 populations over time in relation to changes in climate and surface ocean conditions. Four research questions are addressed; Q1 & Q2) Has groundfish (specifically Macrourid spp. (Q1) and M. productus (Q2)) population structure changed over time in relation to changing climate and surface-ocean conditions?; and Q3 & Q4) Has the depth range of groundfish species (specifically Macrourid spp. (Q3) and M. productus (Q4)) changed over time with changing climate and surface-ocean conditions? With increasing changes in climate and surface-ocean conditions over time, there is a significant change in both Macrourid species\u27 population structure and M. productus population structure over time (Q1 and Q2). With increasing changes in climate and surface-ocean conditions over time, there is no significant change in M. productus\u27 depth distribution over time (Q4). Regarding potential changes in Macrourid species\u27 depth distributions, Q3 couldn\u27t be answered due to insufficient data. This study increases our understanding of how potential impacts of changing climate and surface-ocean conditions on M. productus\u27 population structure and depth distribution could affect Macrourid populations. Findings also provide valuable insight for: 1) predicting and managing consequences of climate change and 2) management of coastal and marine resources and fisheries in the future