• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.77-102
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• 2007

This paper compares income and consumption for their relative effectiveness in measuring inequality. Although income inequality has received more attention in the literature, the permanent income hypothesis links consumption to welfare more directly than income. To the extent economic agents smooth their consumptions, consumption inequality is a better indicator for an economy's welfare inequality, and it is especially so when income volatility is high. The empirical analysis in this paper indicates that the income and consumption patterns among the Korean wage/salary worker households are quite consistent with the permanent income hypothesis. Further, it is found that consumption inequality tends to be lower than income inequality, and more importantly, that the two inequalities do not always vary in the same direction. These results call for stronger emphasis on consumption inequality in inequality literature.

• 한국노년학
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.1225-1237
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• 2010

This study aims to analyze the factors affecting consumption inequality in the 10 years following the financial crisis, applying the cohort method on the data for the first to the eleventh wave of the Korean Labor and Income Study produced by the Korean Labor Institute. The study found that consumption inequality increased rapidly immediately following the financial crisis, and then decreased gradually until increasing again from 2005 onward. Analyzed in terms of age-time-cohort effects, there was a significant change in consumption inequality around the age of mid-forties, and the decrease in consumption inequality was smaller in the younger generations than in the older ones. This suggests that as the current younger generations age over time, consumption inequality may become greater. Also, when the factors in population-cohort-age effects from 1998 onward are analyzed, the age effect in consumption inequality becomes smaller, whereas the role of the rising average age due to demographic shifts seems to be increasing. This means that consumption inequality may become a serious problem in the rapidly aging society. Therefore, there is a need to consider ways to bolster social security and to provide further public assistance in the low-income retiree.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.25-58
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• 2015

This paper compares income and consumption inequalities in Korea and applies the permanent income hypothesis to interpret the linkage between the two inequalities. Income inequality has been increasing since 1990 while consumption inequality had been decreasing until the early 2000s when the two inequalities started to co-move. Permanent income hypothesis explains reasonably well the consumption pattern in the recent period, which reflects the increased access to asset markets by the Korean households. Consequently, the co-movement of income and consumption inequalities in the recent period implies that inequality in permanent income components are fluctuating.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.235-260
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• 2009

This study aims to analyze consumption inequality of Korean elderly households. The justification for analyzing consumption inequality during old age could be summarized as follows. First, due to the rapid growth of elderly population, the intra generational inequality of older people will bring greater consequences to the society in the coming years. Second, inequality is more actualized during old age when income stops playing a major role and the everyday lives are based mostly on consumption activities. For analysis, this study used the 2nd, 5th, 7th and 9th wave of 『Korea Labor and Income Panel Study』. The findings are as follows. First, total consumption inequality of elderly households is gradually decreasing after the economic crisis. Also, the gini coefficient of consumption items representing modern consumption culture, such as expenditures on eating out and car maintenance is decreasing. However, the inequality contribution rate of such items is continually rising, indicating that whereas the elderly households in general are being assimilated to the mainstream consumption culture, the disparity between classes is continually expanding. Second, gini coefficient and inequality contribution rate of the essentials such as food and housing has decreased indicating that basic livelihoods in general has risen. Third, the inequality of education expenditure is increasing after the year 2000 which implies that the problem of education inequality in general might have an effect on elderly households.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.229-241
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• 2023

This study aims to examine the farm household income and consumption structure change as well as farm income inequality. Data from the Agricultural Household Survey for the years 2016, 2021, and 2022 were hired to analyze farm income inequality by the Gini coefficient decomposition method. Results show that from 2016 to 2021, all income quintiles exhibited an increasing trend, but in 2022, income decreased across all quintiles. As a result of analyzing farm household consumption expenditure, consumption expenditure increased in all income quintiles in 2021 and 2022 compared to 2016, but consumption of optional goods decreased in the fifth quintile. In addition, it was found that farmers in the first quartile had higher consumption expenditures and expenditures on options than those in the second quartile. The analysis of farm income by region show that public subsidies increased significantly for general rural farmers than for farmers in special and metropolitan areas in all income quintiles during the period. In the case of the first quintile, farm household income in rural areas in special and metropolitan cities increased compared to general rural areas. In the fifth quartile, agricultural income and sideline income in general rural areas increased compared to rural areas in special and metropolitan cities, while rural areas in special and metropolitan cities increased non-business income compared to rural areas. Results of farming income inequality by income type show a steady decline in inequality from 2016 to 2022, indicating that the decreasing gini coefficinet of public subsidies is contributing to the decline in farm income inequality. Private subsidies and side income are shown to increase inequality.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.613-624
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• 2021

This paper analyzes the relationship between income distribution and energy consumption from a Pareto optimal approach. For this purpose, the causality relationship between electricity consumption per capita (kWh) with respect to country groups and energy consumption per capita (kg of oil equivalent) along with gross domestic product per capita was analyzed. In addition to this purpose, a Pareto analysis was conducted to determine the countries with the highest per capita national income, how much of the world total energy they consume, and whether the law of power in the energy and electricity markets exists. Finally, the impact of official development assistance provided to low-income countries by high-income countries on the low-income countries' electricity and energy consumption was analyzed. In other words, it was questioned whether pareto redistribution policies serve the purpose or not. The Engle-Granger causality approach was used in the analysis of the causality relationship between variables. Our analysis indicated that, first, the energy data of the country groups may be inadequate in revealing income inequalities. Second, the existence of Pareto law of power and global income inequality can be explained based on energy data. Finally, Pareto optimal redistribution policies to eliminate income inequality remain inadequate in practice.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.392-405
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• 2020

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of income inequality on consumption expenditure in other to understand income-led growth policy. This is basically resulted in the income inequality had gotten worse since global financial crisis in many economies. Malthusian hypothesis which signifies the relationship between the income inequality and the consumption expenditure revisited for this purpose. The paper utilizes multiple break points regression and TGARCH model, and these methodologies are tentatively applied to the case of U.S and U.K. This is because that long-run time series data enables to formulate a stylized fact in general. Empirical evidence suggests that there does not exist a solid relationship among APC, income inequality by Gini coefficient, and consumption expenditure before the year of 2000, but Malthusian hypothesis is supported by weak basis in U.S while strong basis in U.K after since then. It implies that the income inequality has to be alleviated to maximize its effectiveness of the income-led growth policy.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.361-374
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• 2008

Recently, satellite formation flying has been a topic of significant research interest in aerospace society because it provides potential benefits compared to a large spacecraft. Some techniques have been proposed to design optimal formation trajectories minimizing fuel consumption in the process of formation configuration or reconfiguration. In this study, a method is introduced to build fuel-optimal trajectories minimizing a cost function that combines the total fuel consumption of all satellites and assignment of fuel consumption rate for each satellite. This approach is based on collocation and nonlinear programming to solve constraints for collision avoidance and the final configuration. New constraints of nonlinear equality or inequality are derived for final configuration, and nonlinear inequality constraints are established for collision avoidance. The final configuration constraints are that three or more satellites should form a projected circular orbit and make an equilateral polygon in the horizontal plane. Example scenarios, including these constraints and the cost function, are simulated by the method to generate optimal trajectories for the formation configuration and reconfiguration of multiple satellites.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.1-22
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• 2021

The effects of social distancing measures on income distributions and aggregate variables are examined with an off-the-shelf heterogeneous-agent incomplete-market model. The model shows that social distancing measures, which limit households' labor supply, can decrease the labor supply of low-income households who hold insufficient assets and need income the most given their borrowing constraints. Social distancing measures can therefore exacerbate income inequality by lowering the incomes of the poor. An equilibrium interest rate can fall when the social distancing shock is expected to be persistent because households save more to prepare for rising consumption volatility given the possibility of binding to the labor supply constraint over time. When the shock is expected to be transitory, in contrast, the interest rate can rise upon the arrival of the shock because constrained households choose to borrow more to smooth consumption given the expectation that the shock will fade away. The model also shows that social distancing shocks, which diminish households' consumption demand, can decrease households' incomes evenly for every income quantile, having a limited impact on income inequality.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.23-51
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• 2015

This paper estimates the effect of household size and its changes on income inequality. Household formation is an important inequality-reducing mechanism through income pooling and collective consumption. The increase in small households, reflecting lower fertility rate and the increase in both nuclear and old families, has weakened the inequality-reducing effect of household formation. In contrast, additional workers in households and their income have strengthened the inequality-reducing effect of household formation. Given the increasing trend of old families, these results suggest for a balanced policy package that promotes employment and does not discourage co-habitation in order to maintain the inequality-reducing effect of household formation.