SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE
Aging and inequality: The link and transmission mechanisms
Zhi Luo,
Guanghua Wan,
Chen Wang,
Xun Zhang,
Zhi Luo
Economic Development Research Center, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei, P. R. China
Search for more papers by this authorGuanghua Wan
Institute of World Economy, Fudan University, Shanghai, P. R. China
Search for more papers by this authorChen Wang
Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai, P. R. China
Leiden University, The Netherlands
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Xun Zhang
Beijing Normal University, Beijing, P. R. China
Shanghai Finance Institute, Shanghai, P. R. China
Correspondence
Xun Zhang, Department of Financial Statistics, School of Statistics, Beijing Normal University, No. 19, XinJieKouWai St., HaiDian District, Beijing 100875, P. R. China.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorZhi Luo,
Guanghua Wan,
Chen Wang,
Xun Zhang,
Zhi Luo
Economic Development Research Center, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei, P. R. China
Search for more papers by this authorGuanghua Wan
Institute of World Economy, Fudan University, Shanghai, P. R. China
Search for more papers by this authorChen Wang
Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai, P. R. China
Leiden University, The Netherlands
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Xun Zhang
Beijing Normal University, Beijing, P. R. China
Shanghai Finance Institute, Shanghai, P. R. China
Correspondence
Xun Zhang, Department of Financial Statistics, School of Statistics, Beijing Normal University, No. 19, XinJieKouWai St., HaiDian District, Beijing 100875, P. R. China.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorFunding Information
This paper is funded by the Bairen Program of Yunnan Province and the NSF Projects 7113304, 71373186, 71603026, 71703088, and 71773084 of the National Natural Science Foundation of China. It is also funded by Projects 15ZDA027 and 16ZDA006 of the National Social Science Foundation of China, Shanghai Pujiang Program (Project 17PJC045), Projects 2015M580055, and 2016T90048 of the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, and Youth Scholars Program of Beijing Normal University.
Also affiliated to Leiden University, The Netherlands.
Also affiliated to Shanghai Finance Institute, Shanghai, P. R. China.
Abstract
There exists a shortage of rigorous empirical analyses that focus on the aging-to-inequality transmission mechanisms although both developed and some developing countries have been confronted with the challenge of population aging. Using cross-country panel data covering the period of 1975 to 2015, this paper contributes to the literature by directly modeling the relationship between aging and inequality and exploring the transmission mechanisms. Our estimation results show that (1) Aging worsens income distribution; (2) This adverse impact is attributable to its negative correlation with the share of labor income that in general is more equally distributed than capital income; (3) The labor share-reducing effect of aging can be further attributed to the significant and negative impact of aging on both labor input or supply and wage or labor productivity; and (4) Our findings are robust to changes in model specifications, use of different indicators of aging, different inequality and labor share data sources.
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