Why has Income Inequality in Germany Increased From 2002 to 2011? A Behavioral Microsimulation Decomposition
提出一种分解收入不平等变化的方法，考虑劳动供给反应，并应用于德国2002-2011年数据，发现税收和转移改革降低了不平等，但人口变化是加剧的主因。
Abstract This paper proposes a method to decompose changes in income inequality into the contributions of policy changes, wage rate changes, and population changes while considering labor supply reactions. Using data from the Socio‐Economic Panel (SOEP), this method is applied to decompose the increase in income inequality in Germany from 2002 to 2011, a period that saw tax reductions and a controversial overhaul of the transfer system. The simulations show that tax and transfer reforms have had an inequality‐reducing effect as measured by the mean log deviation and the Gini coefficient. For the Gini, these effects are offset by labor supply reactions. In contrast, policy changes explain part of the increase in the ratio between the 90th and the 50th income percentiles. Changes in wage rates have led to a decrease in income inequality. Thus, the increase in inequality was due to changes in the population.