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Homeownership rate for young households in the United States has declined significantly since 1976. An examination of the ownership-age profile of college and non-college households suggests that while college graduates are postponing home purchasing, a large fraction of non-college graduates have become permanent renters. This paper shows that the diverging homeownership dynamics between college and non-college graduates can be accounted for by an inelastic supply of houses combined with a change in the income distribution due to a higher population share of college graduates and a widening gap in household income between college and non-college graduates. The change in the income distribution drives up aggregate housing demand and leads to higher house prices. As a result, non-college graduates find owning less affordable while college graduates with steeper earning profile postpone home purchasing. Using data for the 105 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. over 1980 to 2010, I find that cities with more college graduates tend to have higher local house prices, lower young homeownership rate for both college and non-college households, and lower middle-aged homeownership rates especially among the non-college households. Moreover, a rise in the household income of college graduates further increases local housing price and lowers homeownership rates for non-college graduates. The changing income distribution can account for the majority of the observed changes in young and middle-aged homeownership rates for both college and non-college graduates.

Burkina Faso’s economy is based mostly on agriculture. Despite this sector’s substantial contribution to economic development, the majority of the population continues to live below the poverty line, and poverty is even more pronounced in rural areas where subsistence farming is the main source of income. The present research intends to assess the effects of the agriculture sector on the wellbeing of society in Burkina Faso from 1970 to 2017 using a Vector Autoregressive technique. The results reveal that agriculture sector has an adverse influence on well-being in both short- and long-run when household consumption expenditure (HCE) used as a proxy of well-being. While this sector uncovered a productive impact on well-being measured by education (EDU) in both short- and long-run. An increase in the agriculture value-added induces an extend in the short-run and a reduction in the long-run of life expectancy (LEXP) in the Burkina Faso. The variance decomposition results show that the agricultural sector will contribute about 57.33% to explain variation in the household final consumption expenditure while industry and service sectors will only contribute about 2.03% and 4.42% respectively. However, the value-added from the industrial sector affects significantly (47.37%) the variation of life expectancy at birth in Burkina Faso. In addition, Granger’s causality test has demonstrated a unidirectional causal impact from agriculture value-added to household income. The same causal links were also discovered, respectively from the agricultural and service sectors to life expectancy. This study emphasizes the necessity to concentrate stakeholders including farmers, policymakers and experts on agri-business strategies and programs, investment in farm commodity processing in the growing country concerned. The farmers may thus change from subsistence to agri-business, therefore accelerating the industry’s growth and creating more jobs for the working population and diversifying the country's household income sources.

This paper examines the impact of male casualties due to World War II on fertility and female employment in the United States. We rely on the number of casualties at the county-level and use a difference-in-differences strategy. While most counties in the U.S. experienced a Baby Boom following the war, we find that the in- crease in fertility was lower in high-casualty rate counties than in low-casualty rate counties. Analyzing the channels through which male casualties could have decreased fertility, we provide evidence that county male casualties are positively related to 1950s female employment and household income.

We provide new evidence on the level and probability distribution of consumers’ longterm expectations of inflation in the euro area and the Netherlands, using a representative Dutch survey. We find that consumers’ long-term (ten years ahead) euro area inflation expectations are not well anchored at the ECB’s inflation aim. First, median long-term euro area inflation expectations are 4%, 2pp above the ECB’s inflation aim of 2%. Second, individual probability distributions of long-term euro area inflation expectations show that expected probabilities of higher inflation (2pp or more above the ECB’s inflation aim) are much higher, at 28% on average, than those of lower inflation (2pp or more below the ECB’s inflation aim), at 12%. This suggest that the de-anchoring of Dutch consumers’ long-term euro area inflation expectations is mainly due to expected high inflation, rather than to expected low inflation (or deflation). This finding is in contrast to recent concerns by ECB monetary policymakers about a possible de-anchoring of long-term inflation expectations on the downside. Furthermore, we find that consumers’ long-term euro area inflation expectations are significantly higher if respondents have lower incomes. Based on measures of anchoring calculated directly from individual consumers’ probability distributions of expected long-term inflation, namely the probability of inflation being close to target, the probability of inflation being far above target, and the probability of deflation, we also find that long-term euro area inflation expectations are better anchored for consumers with higher net household income.

Common resources may be managed with inefficient policies for the sake of equity. We study how rationing the commons shapes the efficiency and equity of resource use, in the context of agricultural groundwater use in Rajasthan, India. We find that rationing binds on input use, such that farmers, despite trivial prices for water extraction, use roughly the socially optimal amount of water on average. The rationing regime is still grossly inefficient, because it misallocates water across farmers, lowering productivity. Pigouvian reform would increase agricultural surplus by 12% of household income, yet fall well short of a Pareto improvement over rationing. Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.

Human and social capital help households cope with disastrous shocks. We analyse panel survey data from before and after the 2015 Nepal earthquakes to disentangle the association between post-earthquake income recovery of households and their social and human capital before the earthquake. Our analysis uses multidimensional measures of human and social capital and a machine-learning algorithm, the Bayesian additive regression tree. This approach helps us address measurement and estimation challenges that commonly affect social science analyses of observational data with many covariates and confounding variables. Our analysis shows the relative association of human capital with income recovery is greater on average than that of social capital, human and social capital serve as partial substitutes for each other when it comes to household income recovery, and the association of different capitals with economic recovery is nonlinear and heterogeneous across household education levels. Our results suggest that disaster-support policies can be structured with respect to human and social capital endowments to support more effective recovery of disaster-affected households. Analysis of data from a two-wave survey of households in Nepal before and after the 2015 earthquakes shows that higher human capital helped them recover faster than did social capital and that the two forms of capital are partially substitutable.

We use the China Household Income Project (CHIP) data to evaluate the impact of the Housing Provident Fund (HPF) on income inequality in urban China. We find that urban residents differ significantly in their accessibility to and intensity of utilization of the HPF. Those who work in the public sector, in monopolistic industries, and possess managerial or professional occupations are more likely to benefit from the HPF, leading to further income inequality. Our research also emphasizes four mechanisms through which the HPF affects income inequality. The foregone interest due to compulsory HPF saving is the only mechanism that decreases the inequality, whereas the employer's match, personal income tax exemption on the HPF, and lower interest expense due to acquiring the HPF loan increase inequality. The evidence highlights the HPF's unintended redistributive impacts and thus the necessity of enhancing equity in the ongoing HPF reform.

Despite the efforts to reduce poverty in rural municipalities income inequality persists in Mexico. This study presents an analysis on rural household income distribution in the country, since it is argued that conditional federal transfers fail on improving income distribution among rural households. The hypothesis stated that, because of local public goods are also part of individual budget constraints, it is rational to think that an expansion in the provision of local public goods will increase total income and, if such public goods are financed with conditional grants that target low-income groups, it is expected that income inequality may decrease. Thus, the objective was to classify rural municipalities in order to observe which among them have benefited from federal grants and those that did not, finding the reasons why assuming grants are accepted as an instrument contributing to reduce poverty and income inequality in recent years. Each group was analysed as a cluster to observe the effect of federal transfers on rural household income distribution. Main results showed that municipalities with rural low income-inequality and better economic development indicators improve income distribution when obtaining unconditional grants. This means that, in such cases, those transfers designed to reduce poverty also reduce rural income inequality. But that was not the case for the high income-inequality groups, where conditional grants did not have any effect on inequality and, in some cases, inequality increased. For the rural high income-inequality group, unconditional grants showed not to have a positive effect on reducing inequality. The clustering and regression analyses revealed large heterogeneity in the rural areas in terms of income and economic development.

The high economic growth and increasing inequality have been the two main features of the Chinese economy since the end of the 1970s. The economic growth contributed to a substantial reduction in poverty, and the worsening income distribution contributed to an increase in poverty. The paper defines and measures patterns of growth through the poverty elasticity of income sources. It makes methodological contributions in the derivations of this elasticity. The paper analyzes the patterns of growth in Rural China in 2007–2013, utilizing the Chinese Household Income Project (CHIP). The paper has developed a dynamic decomposition that identifies which policies are pro-poor and which are not. It has drawn many policy conclusions. The empirical results showed that economic growth has been unfavorable to the poor. It amounted to a loss of almost 25% of the growth rate. If China's objective is to eliminate poverty by 2020, such a degree of anti-poor growth should concern China's policymakers. They should make concerted efforts to have pro-poor policies that benefit the poor proportionally more than the non-poor. The paper has identified the income sources that lead to pro-poor outcomes, which help policymakers formulate pro-poor policies.

Background We developed an integrated model called Microsimulation for Income and Child Health (MICH) that provides a tool for analysing the prospective effects of fiscal policies on childhood health in European countries. The aim of this first MICH study is to evaluate the impact of alternative fiscal policies on childhood overweight and obesity in Italy. Methods MICH model is composed of three integrated modules. Firstly, module 1 (M1) simulates the effects of fiscal policies on disposable household income using the tax-benefit microsimulation program EUROMOD fed with the Italian EU-SILC 2010 data. Secondly, module 2 (M2) exploits data provided by the Italian birth cohort called Nascita e Infanzia: gli Effetti dell’Ambiente (NINFEA), translated as Birth and Childhood: the Effects of the Environment study, and runs a series of concatenated regressions in order to estimate the prospective effects of income on child body mass index (BMI) at different ages. Finally, module 3 (M3) uses dynamic microsimulation techniques that combine the population structure and incomes obtained by M1, with regression model specifications and estimated effect sizes provided by M2, projecting BMI distributions according to the simulated policy scenarios. Results Both universal benefits, such as universal basic income (BI), and targeted interventions, such as child benefit (CB) for poorer households, have a significant effect on childhood overweight, with a prevalence ratio (PR) in 10-year-old children—in comparison with the baseline fiscal system—of 0.88 (95%CI 0.82–0.93) and 0.89 (95%CI 0.83–0.94), respectively. The impact of the fiscal reforms was even larger for child obesity, reaching a PR of 0.67 (95%CI 0·50–0.83) for the simulated BI and 0.64 (95%CI 0.44–0.84) for CB at the same age. While both types of policies show similar effects, the estimated costs for a 1% prevalence reduction in overweight and obesity with respect to the baseline scenario is much lower with a more focalised benefit policy than with universal ones. Conclusions Our results show that fiscal policies can have a strong impact on childhood health conditions. Focalised interventions that increase family income, especially in the most vulnerable populations, can help to prevent child overweight and obesity. Robust microsimulation models to forecast the effects of fiscal policies on health should be considered as one of the instruments to reach the Health in All Policies (HiAP) goals.

Inequality in the distribution of income of the population has a certain impact on different aspects of the economic and socio-cultural development of countries and regions. This inequality arises due to a number of factors as the current nature of the production specialization, the availability of production and economic infrastructure, the achieved level of development of the social sphere, socio-cultural, demographic, and other factors. The main objective of this study is to assess the nature and extent of the impact of income inequality in the Russian regions for the subsequent justification of the directions of socio-economic development. We conducted an econometric analysis of the impact of intraregional income inequality (the Gini coefficient), fixed capital investment per capita, and average per capita consumer spending on one of the main indicators of regional economic growth (GRP) per capita was carried out. The model is based on panel data for the period 2012-2018 for 85 regions of the Russian Federation. The results of the study confirm two of three hypotheses. As prospects for further research, it is proposed to consider the impact of inequality in the distribution of household income on economic growth for different groups of regions, including resource-type regions and regions with a predominance of manufacturing industries, as well as for leading regions and regions with a relatively low level of socio-economic development.

Inequity in healthcare utilization is typically measured as the unequal distribution of services by observable non-need indicators, such as income, after controlling for observable need indicators. However, important sources of unequal healthcare utilization are often unobserved. The unobserved element may reflect need factors, such as imperfectly measured severity of illness, that would predict greater utilization across different healthcare channels, but also based on choice, such as patient preferences to use a particular healthcare channel over an alternative one, which may differ in its effect between channels. Accounting for unobserved sources of utilization may, therefore, help to understand contradictory inequalities between different healthcare channels, such as pro-poor inequalities for general practitioner use and pro-rich inequalities for specialist visits. This paper uses survey data from the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia and panel data methods to investigate if seemingly contradictory inequalities between different healthcare channels are explained by latent individual-level heterogeneity. Results show that unobserved individual-level heterogeneity affects inequities across different healthcare channels, providing indications that the unobserved element may primarily represent unobserved need.

We provide a critique of the standard methodology for inequality measurement, which makes welfare comparisons between households by deflating household income and consumption with an equivalence scale. We argue that this leads to support for tax/transfer policies that significantly disadvantage low to middle income households and second earners—predominantly women. Its main limitations are that it takes an overly-simplistic approach to household production, bases its welfare measurements on joint household income, and has no theory of the family household. We point the way to an alternative procedure by presenting a theoretical model of the family household that derives duality-based welfare measures. In the light of current data limitations we propose, as a second best, primary earner income as a superior base to joint income for across-household welfare comparisons in policy formulation. We also emphasise the importance of taking the family life cycle into account when making such comparisons. We use the Australian income tax system and Australian income and tax data for a detailed comparison of the standard approach with our proposed alternative.

Deemed as a multifaceted problem, energy poverty results in multiple forms of vulnerabilities. Using data on Ghana, we test the social vulnerability aspect of energy poverty by estimating its effect on subjective social status. Instrumenting energy poverty with energy prices, we observe a quadratic (U-shaped) relationship between multidimensional energy poverty and social status. This relationship is consistent across rural-urban and male-headed subgroups. Thus, further deprivation in modern energy services does not deteriorate one's social image but rather enhances it. Additionally, we find household income and education as essential channels through which energy poverty affects subjective social status. With existing global policies currently running to eradicate energy poverty, other approaches that aim to increase household income and education can reinforce each other to enhance the social image and increase household energy access.

To shed light on the debate over the effect of infrastructure investment on household consumption, this paper uses rural and urban household consumption data from the Chinese Household Income Project (CHIP) to analyse how infrastructure development affects the marginal spending behaviour of households. We find that although infrastructure stock crowds in total consumption, the effects of infrastructure development on sub‐categories of consumption differ considerably between the rural sample and the urban sample. Specifically, infrastructure development promotes urban households' spending on infrastructure‐based goods, and generates more spillover effects on rural households as indicated by the marginal consumption pattern shifting from necessities to more luxurious goods. Heterogeneity analyses show that the effect of infrastructure development is stronger in households with higher income and with a younger head.

This paper examines recent trends in Australian poverty, both measured using disposable income (before housing costs, BHC) and income after subtracting housing costs (AHC). Household-level data from Australian Bureau of Statistics household income surveys are used to estimate relative poverty rates since 1999–00. Changes in the Australian housing market, especially the large increase in house prices and falling home ownership, mean that trends and relative levels of poverty are quite different when using these two alternative measures of resources. While BHC poverty has decreased, AHC poverty has not—because of rising housing costs. These shifts have changed the profile of AHC poverty and raise important questions about the adequacy and sustainability of existing housing and income support policies.

This research was conducted to: 1) analyze the contribution of female worker income to household income, and 2) analyze the factors that influence the female worker income of plantation female workers at P.T. Agro Muko (Mukomuko Estate). The number of female workers at P.T. Agro Muko (Mukomuko Estate) was 297. Therefore, by using the Slovin formula, the counted number respondents was 75. The contribution of female worker’s income to household income was counted with the percentage of female worker’s income contribution to the total of household income. Meanwhile, the factors that influenced to the income of female worker was analyzed using multiple linear regression model. The results indicate that the average income of female worker is Rp 1,481,680/month with an average contribution of 55.17% to household income. Female worker ages and husband’s income had negative effect on the female worker income, while formal education, number of family dependents, and working experience had positive effect. Other family member’s income had no effect.

Most of Africa struggles to improve daily life, and reduce or eliminate deep poverty. Household income and wealth are stuck at low levels. Public policies are unable to accelerate investment and gr...

A choice experiment (CE) with approximately 1000 respondents was designed and conducted to estimate economic benefits associated with air quality improvements in Hanoi City, the capital of Vietnam. In this CE application, different scenarios of air quality improvements were described based on reduction in morbidity and mortality risk, and increase in urban tree cover to elicit respondents’ willingness-to-pay (WTP). To gain better understanding of the WTP estimates, the econometric analysis applied several models, including conditional logit models, a mixed logit model, a generalized multinomial logit model and a latent class model. The WTP for maximal improvements is about 0.16–1.88% of household income. Results of marginal WTP for reduction in morbidity and mortality risk suggest that the values of statistical illness relating to air pollution range from USD1,120 to USD8,280, and the values of statistical life fall between USD7,100 and 64,700. Based on marginal WTP for boosting urban tree cover, aggregate WTP estimated for Hanoi population is about USD18.6–124 million per year to achieve the tree cover level of 18m2 per capita. Given the budget limitation, the information on residents’ WTP for improving air quality would be useful for policy makers to invest efficiently in controlling air pollution.

The dynamics and regional distribution of the poverty headcount ratio are analyzed. The specifics of determining the poverty line based on the methodology applied before 2021, as well as the issues of transition to assessing the minimum subsistence level based on the median income, are considered. The features of poverty associated with the age structure of the population, employment in the economy, and place of residence are determined in the context of decile groups of regions formed depending on the per capita household income. The household income elasticity to the government antipoverty measures is estimated.

This paper studies the impact of household income redistribution on income inequality among the elderly from 2002 to 2018. It defines shared income and measures how each family member's contributions affect income inequality among the elderly. The study has three major findings. First, from 2013 to 2018, the role of household shared income in reducing income inequality among the elderly increased. Second, the proportion of shared income contributed by children was the highest overall, reaching 11.0 percent nationwide and even 17.9 percent in rural areas in 2018. The contribution of shared income to inequality was also higher among the rural elderly. Grandchildren under 16 largely received shared income from the elderly, and the income transferred by the male elderly to their wives was obvious. Third, changes in family structure narrowed the inequality gap among the elderly in the periods 2002–2013 and 2013–2018.

This paper examines the effects of a mortgage interest rate subsidy on booms and busts in the housing market by analyzing the Housing Mortgage program in Mongolia. We find that the most recent housing boom in Mongolia occurred from the second quarter (Q2) of 2012 to first quarter (Q1) of 2014, and that the subsequent housing bust lasted 4 years. Both house-specific factors and macroeconomic variables had a significant influence on housing price dynamics. Mortgage interest rate semielasticity and real household income elasticity were estimated as −3 and 1.4, respectively. Dynamic analysis of the estimated vector error correction models suggests that the country’s policy intervention in the mortgage market—introducing an interest rate subsidy on mortgage loans for residential properties of up to 80 square meters—drove the recent housing boom in Mongolia.

Purpose of the study. On the basis of the construction of a multifactorial econometric model, it is necessary to identify the factors of income differentiation of the population. In accordance with the goal, the following tasks are set: 1) to propose a typology of factors of household income differentiation; 2) on the basis of correlation analysis, to assess the closeness of the relationship between the average income of the population and those statistical indicators that maximally reflect the level of formation, the content and nature of the factors’ influence of household income differentiation; 3) using a step-by-step regression analysis algorithm to construct an econometric model to quantify the relationship between the factors of income differentiation and the income of the population.Materials and methods. In the process of preparing the article, the authors used information from the website of the Federal State Statistics Service, analytical statistical materials, scientific works of Russian and foreign scientists. The following methods were used in the paper: system analysis method (to develop a typology of factors for differentiating household income); the method of economic and mathematical modeling (when building an econometric model to quantify the relationship between the factors of income differentiation and the income of the population).Results. The classification of the factors of differentiation of household incomes was carried out according to three criteria: the level of formation, the content and nature of the influence of the factors. Four groups of statistical indicators have been formed, which, to the maximum extent, are the essence of the factors of income differentiation. An analysis of the correlation coefficients indicates a close relationship between the average income of the population of the Russian Federation regions and the overwhelming majority of statistical indicators. Assessment of the statistical significance of the regression coefficients made it possible to identify those indicators with which the indicator of the average income of the population has a significant quantitative dependence, namely: retail trade turnover per capita; the volume of personal services per capita; average monthly nominal accrued wages; the value of the subsistence minimum. This made it possible to build a four-factor econometric model.Conclusion. A typology of factors of household incomes’ differentiation is proposed, which combines such classification features as: the level of formation, the content and nature of the influence of factors. Those statistical indicators that reflect to the maximum extent the level of formation, content and nature of the influence of the previously considered factors of income differentiation on the level of income of the population are selected and grouped according to the corresponding criterion. Based on the correlation analysis, an assessment of the closeness of the relationship between the average income of the population and statistical indicators reflecting the factors of income differentiation was carried out. Using the algorithm of stepby-step regression analysis, a multivariate econometric model was built, which made it possible to identify a quantitative relationship between the factors of income differentiation and the average income of the population.

Energy poverty (EP) is the product of three main factors – the cost of energy, household income and the energy e!ciency of the dwelling. Climate change and rising energy costs are likely to accentuate EP. This study extends our knowledge about EP in Australia and examines its relationship to housing and health. Drawing on 23 semi-structured interviews, we map the impacts of EP on older low-income people residing in Sydney and Melbourne. These impacts include food insecurity, an incapacity to purchase essential consumer items, an inability to a"ord required medical procedures, thermal discomfort and social exclusion. We found that many interviewees do not recognize their own EP situation or are too ashamed to ask for help. Thus, the overall cost of EP to individuals and the broader society can be far higher than what statistics indicate. The article proposes a conceptualization of the relationship between housing, health and EP drawing on a #gure we have created. The severe impacts of EP suggest that measures to lessen it among older vulnerable households are urgently required.

This article empirically examines the impacts of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on household income and how they adjust their consumption expenditure and savings using a newly developed provinci...

The COVID pandemic has led to worldwide short-term lockdowns that mostly affected services with personal contact. In economic terms, the lockdown represents a supply shock that simultaneously leads to a demand restriction. The direct effect of the supply constraint is a change in both the structure and the level of consumption. The critical issue for the level effect is the rebound of total consumption, when the lockdown is over. In a model with heterogenous agents that exhibit different consumption structures and different behavior at the aggregate level (‘permanent income hypothesis’ consumers vs. liquidity constrained consumers), the rebound is not complete within the same period, but only over t and t + 1. In the first year, negative aggregate consumption effects are observed. The supply constraints act at the level of single goods and induce large changes in the level of consumption in both directions. This aspect of structural adjustment that occurs without aggregate changes, is an underrepresented issue in the current policy debate. This paper presents a method of consistent implementation of supply constraints via exogenous variables in a nested demand system and of calculating the direct consumption impact across household income groups.

Purpose Homeownership provides shelter and is a vital component of wealth, and house purchase signifies a lifetime achievement for many households. For South Africa confronted with social and structural challenges, homeownership by the low and lower middle-income household is pivotal for its structural transformation process. In spite of these potential benefits, research on the affordable housing market in the context of South Africa is limited. This study aims to contribute to this knowledge gap by answering the question “do changes in household income per capita have a symmetric or asymmetric effect on affordable house prices?” Design/methodology/approach A survey of the international literature on house prices and income revealed that linear modelling that assumes symmetric reaction of macroeconomic variables dominates the empirical strategy. This linearity assumption is restrictive and fails to capture possible asymmetric dynamics inherent in the housing market. The authors address this empirical limitation by using asymmetric non-linear autoregressive distributed lag models that can test and detect the existence of asymmetry in both the long and short run using data from 1985Q1 to 2016Q3. Findings The results revealed the presence of an asymmetric long-run relationship between affordable house prices and household income per capita. The estimated asymmetric long-run coefficients of logIncome[+] and logIncome[−] are 1.080 and −4.354, respectively, implying that a 1% increase/decrease in household income per capita induces a 1.08% rise/4.35% decline in affordable house prices everything being equal. The positive increase in affordable house prices creates wealth, helps low and middle-income household climb the property ladder and can reduce inequality, which provides support for the country’s structural transformation process. Conversely, a decline in affordable house prices tends to reduce wealth and widen inequality. Practical implications This paper recommends both supply- and demand-side policies to support affordable housing development. Supply-side stimulants should include incentives to attract developers to affordable markets such as municipal serviced land and tax credit. Demand-side policy should focus on asset-based welfare policy; for example, the current Finance Linked Income Subsidy Programme (FLISP). Efficient management and coordination of the FLISP are essential to enhance the affordability of first-time buyers. Given the enormous size of the affordable property market, the practice of mortgage securitization by financial institutions should be monitored, as a persistent decline in income can trigger a systemic risk to the economy. Social implications The study results illustrate the importance of homeownership by low- and middle-income households and that the development of the affordable market segment can boost wealth creation and reduce residential segregation. This, in turn, provides support to the country’s structural transformation process. Originality/value The affordable housing market in South Africa is of strategic importance to the economy, accounting for 71.4% of all residential properties. Homeownership by low and lower middle-income households creates wealth, reduces wealth inequality and improves revenue collection for local governments. This paper contributes to the empirical literature by modelling the asymmetric behaviour of affordable house prices to changes in household income per capita and other macroeconomic fundamentals. Based on available evidence, this is the first attempt to examine the dynamic asymmetry between affordable house prices and household income per capita in South Africa.

Background Out-of-pocket (OOP) health expenditure is a pressing issue in Egypt and far exceeds half of Egypt’s total health spending, threatening the economic viability, and long-term sustainability of Egyptian households. Targeting households at risk of catastrophic health payments based on their characteristics is an obvious pathway to mitigate the impoverishing impacts of OOP health payments on livelihoods. This study was conducted to identify the risk factors of incurring catastrophic health payments hoping to formulate appropriate policies to protect households against financial catastrophes. Methods Using data derived from the Egyptian Household Income, Expenditure, and Consumption Survey (HIECS), a multiplicative heteroskedastic probit model is applied to account for heteroskedasticity and avoid biased and inconsistent estimates. Results Accounting for heteroskedasticity induces notable differences in marginal effects and demonstrates that the impact of some core variables is underestimated and insignificant and in the opposite direction in the homoscedastic probit model. Moreover, our results demonstrate the principal factors besides health status and socioeconomic characteristics responsible for incurring catastrophic health expenditure, such as the use of health services provided by the private sector, which has a dramatic effect on encountering catastrophic health payments. Conclusions The marked differences between estimates of probit and heteroskedastic probit models emphasize the importance of investigating homoscedasticity assumption to avoid policies based on incorrect evidence. Many policies can be built upon our findings, such as enhancing the role of social health insurances in rural areas, expanding health coverage for poor households and chronically ill household heads, and providing adequate financial coverage for households with a high proportion of elderly, sick members, and females. Also, there is an urgent need to limit OOP health payments absorbed by private sector to achieve an acceptable level of fair financing.

The shock on human capital caused by COVID-19 is likely to have long lasting consequences, especially for children of low-educated families. Applying a counterfactual exercise we project the effects of school closures and other lockdown policies on the intergenerational persistence of education in 17 Latin American countries. First, we retrieve detailed information on school lockdowns and on the policies enacted to support education from home in each country. Then, we use these information to estimate the potential impact of the pandemic on schooling, high school completion, and intergenerational associations. In addition, we account for educational disruptions related to household income shocks. Our findings show that, despite that mitigation policies were able to partly reduce instructional losses in some countries, the educational attainment of the most vulnerable could be seriously affected. In particular, the likelihood of children from low educated families to attain a secondary schooling degree could fall substantially. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10888-021-09501-x.

The importance of maintaining Financial System Stability is the basis for economic sustainability. One of the pillars of national economic resilience is the role of the household sector as a fundamental object so that supply and demand reach an equilibrium point. Household financial behavior is closely related to income levels and household credit behavior towards Financial System Stability. Therefore, the aim of this study is to determine whether there is an effect of financial behavior in the household sector on financial system stability. Data collection using purposive sampling method was carried out using a questionnaire through the help of Google Forms application to 400 households in the Tangerang area. The analytical tool used is Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with SmartPLS 3. 0 to explain the correlation between endogenous and exogenous variables. The loading factor results indicate that the value of financial behavior is 0.285, household income is 0.232 and household credit behavior is 0.229 has a significant effect on the financial stability system. Meanwhile, the value of financial behavior is 0.599 on household income and the value of financial behavior is 0.588 on household credit behavior which has a direct effect.

This study empirically examines how social capital affects household income in rural Vietnam using the VARHS 2012-2014 surveys. We operationalized four forms of social capital, which are formal social networks, informal social networks, government connection, and general trust. We illustrate that social capital is abundant and has positive impacts on household income in rural Vietnam. Among many dimensions of social capital, political and governmental connectivity is fundamentally essential for improving household income. Approaching governmental organizations through the friend network is much more effective than the relative network or family member network. This study provides evidence that informal network is also important. Connecting to the community through the participation of wedding ceremonies increases spiritual well-being and works as a type of social capital to increase household income. Surprisingly, we find no positive impact of general trust and other massive organizations, which are often claimed to be necessary, such as the Farmer Association or the Women Association.

This paper studies consumption and income poverty in rural China during the period from 1995 to 2018 using Chinese Household Income Project (CHIP) data. It finds that the wellbeing of Chinese rural residents has improved significantly during this period as part of China's rapid industrialization and economic growth. The incidence of poverty has fallen substantially, either measured in terms of income or consumption. However, consumption poverty is not consistent with income poverty. It was the substantial growth of consumption or income that brought about the sharp fall in poverty, whereas the redistribution of consumption or income in particular during the period from 2002 to 2018 was unfavorable for poverty reduction. A large number of rural household workers moved away from household farming to participate in local or urban non‐farming activities, resulting in a fall in poverty in the households that engaged purely in farming, and economic growth led to a sharp fall in poverty within different rural household groups.

The shadowing of the economy is a significant obstacle on the way to stable economic development and the reason for deteriorating investment climate and imbalance of economic incentives in the national economy of Ukraine. The aim of the article is to determine the factors of shadowing and de-shadowing of Ukraine’s economy in the areas of household income and business and investment activity of the population, as well as justification of measures to de-shadow economic processes in Ukraine. On the basis the calculation of the Fechner correlation coefficient, the relationship between the level of the shadow economy of Ukraine and indicators of household income and indicators of small and medium-sized business development was revealed. Іn the sphere of household income factors determining level of the black economy are as follows: increacing in disposable income per capita (the correlation coefficient -0,75), the change in the wage share in househol incomes (the correlation coefficient -0,75), the level of social payments (the correlation coefficient +0,5) and employment (the correlation coefficient +0,75). In the field of entrepreneurship the most sagnificant factors determining level of the underground economy are change in the volume of sales of small and medium-sized businesses (the correlation coefficient -0,75) as well as change of financial result of small enterprises (functional inverse relationship). It is necessary to increase the incomes of the population, stimulate their investment and entrepreneurial activity, in particular, liberalize tax policy for small and medium-sized businesses in order to reduce the level of the underground economy of Ukraine. Special attention should be paid to the development of small businesses, in particular, to changing approaches to regulatory policy in the field of small businesses, to simplify organizational procedures related to doing business as much as possible and ensure the availability of credit. Keywords: underground economy, tax policy, small businesses, medium-sized businesses, entrepreneurial activity. JEL Classification O17, H25, D31 Formulas: 1; fig.: 9; tabl.: 8; bibl.: 21.

The goal of article is to identify the characteristics of economic behavior of households based on the study of inequality and statistical analysis of their income and expenditure for the period of 2014–2019. The population differentiation according to the level of per capita equivalent income for 2019 was analyzed and Gini coefficient was calculated based on the methods of economic and mathematical statistics. The Lorentz concentration curve was constructed using the graphical-variational method. Based on the method of analysis and synthesis, the resources and expenditures of households in 2014–2019 were studied and conclusions were made about their economic behavior. The calculated Gini coefficient for Ukraine's economy in 2019 is 23.50% which means that there is a moderate level of inequality in the country. The analysis of household income and expenditure statis-tics provides information on low standards of living, as the main sources of household income are wages, pensions, scholarships, and social benefits; the most important item of expenditure is food expenditures. Economic behavior of households, resulting from the current standard of living, the structure of its resources and expenditures, is defined as passive and is characterized by adaptation, conformism and patience of the population to their living conditions, which hinders the active development of so-cio-economic system and the change of economic thinking. The Lorentz curve proves the low level of population differentiation in Ukraine, however, given the high proportion of the poor in the country, there is a need to improve the methodology for collecting and compiling statistical information. The scientific novelty is in the practical application of the method of calculating the Gini coef-ficient and construction of the Lorentz concentration curve on the basis of data from the State Statistics Service was developed. Based on the analysis of household income and expenditure, the type of their economic behavior was defined as passive. The practical significance is in the basis for the study of different types of economic human behavior in the system of social relations based on the analysis of socio-economic inequality was developed. Keywords: income inequality, economic behavior, welfare level, Gini coefficient, Lorentz curve. У статті виявлено особливості економічної поведінки домогосподарств на основі дослідження нерівності та статистич-ного аналізування їх доходів і витрат за період 2014–2019 років. На основі методів економіко-математичної статистики проаналізовано диференціацію населення за рівнем середньодушових еквівалентних доходів за 2019 рік, розраховано коефіцієнт Джині. За допомогою графічно-варіаційного методу побудована крива концентрації Лоренца. Розрахований коефіцієнт Джині для економіки України у 2019 році складає 23,50% та означає, що наявний помірний рівень нерівності в країні. Аналізування статистики доходів та витрат домогосподарств надає інформацію про низький рівень життя насе-лення, оскільки основними джерелами формування грошових доходів домогосподарств є оплата праці, пенсії, стипендії, соціальні допомоги, а найбільш вагомою статтею витрат залишаються витрати на продукти харчування. Економічна по-ведінка домогосподарств, що випливає з поточного рівня життя населення, структури його ресурсів і витрат, визначається як пасивна та характеризується пристосуванством, конформізмом та терплячістю населення до умов їх існування, що заважає активному розвитку соціально-економічної системи та зміни економічного мислення населення. Крива Лоренца підтверджує низький рівень диференціації населення в Україні, але зважаючи на високу долю бідного населення в країні є потреба удосконалення методики збору та формування статистичної інформації. Ключові слова: нерівність доходів, економічна поведінка, рівень добробуту, коефіцієнт Джині, крива Лоренца.

Since entering the new era, China's socialist contradiction has been transformed into the contradiction between the people's growing need for a better life and the unbalanced and inadequate development. How to improve the quality of people's life through the improvement of air quality has become an important content restricting social development and a key problem to be solved. Based on the life satisfaction (LS) method, this study takes air quality into the individual utility function, and through matching China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), two phases of microindividual tracking data with 122 urban environmental quality data innovatively investigate the impact of air quality on residents' LS and its income substitution effect. The results show that air quality significantly reduces residents' LS, among which, different air pollutants and comprehensive air quality AQI have significant negative effects. And PM10 has the highest marginal effect on different LS evaluation, SO2 has the smallest marginal effect, and AQI marginal effect is close to PM10. In terms of group heterogeneity, NO2 and SO2 have group influence differences in age group, regional economic group, gender group, and family per capita income group. But PM10 and AQI do not show group influence heterogeneity, and air quality has significant negative effect on LS of different groups. In addition, the interaction between air quality and income level shows that air quality strengthens the difference of residents' LS caused by income level difference. According to the equilibrium condition of residents' individual utility function, the improvement of air quality by 1% is equivalent to the improvement of residents' LS by 23.4402% of income. Firstly, air quality has an important impact on residents' LS, and different air pollutants have different effects. Secondly, the impact of air quality on LS of different groups is heterogeneous and mainly diversified in age group, regional economic group, gender group, and family per capital income group. Finally, there is substitution effect between air quality and regional GDP growth and household income, which affects residents' LS. Thirdly, the conclusion shows that the improvement of air quality is difficult to be replaced by other ways. Good air quality can not only directly improve residents' LS, but also has economic effect.

A number of recent studies have investigated the relationship between bride prices and social development. However, there has been little empirical evidence that bride prices affect household incom...

From 1992 to 2014, Brazil experienced a decline in income inequality along with a significant increase in schooling level, though the latter was more pronounced among women. Brazil also experienced a decline in returns to education, whereas an opposite trend was observed in several developed countries and China. In this paper, we evaluate the effects of educational, marital, and labor market factors on the income inequality of married couples. We also analyze how changes in educational assortative mating affect their income. Our findings suggest that changes in educational marital sorting parameters had a small but statistically significant effect on household income inequality. We show that growth in female labor force participation and a decrease in the gender wage gap explain part of the decline of the Gini coefficient. Educational factors also explain a part of that decline. Nevertheless, the main driver of the reduction in income inequality among couples appears to be the overall decrease in the educational wage gap.

We estimate the effect of unemployment on cultural expenditure and income, and the income elasticity of cultural demand. When a household member enters an unemployment spell, households reduce cultural expenditure and their income falls. Unemployment does not affect participation in cultural markets, and participating households exhibit larger income elasticity. The reduction in cultural expenditure and income is larger for men, and individuals who hold a tertiary education degree tend to experience a larger income fall and a smaller cultural expenditure reduction. We find that the reduction in cultural expenditure is larger during a recession, while the effect of unemployment on household income does not fluctuate much over the business cycle.

Using data from the 1991–2009 China Health and Nutrition Survey, this study investigates China’s income-health gradient by analysing the effect of both current and long-term household income on 22 ...