This dissertation discusses several topics related to economic growth, income inequality, and technological innovation with various econometrical methods related to panel data analysis.
The first part of the dissertation analyzes the three-way relatio...
This dissertation discusses several topics related to economic growth, income inequality, and technological innovation with various econometrical methods related to panel data analysis.
The first part of the dissertation analyzes the three-way relationship between economic growth and the two aspects of income distribution; functional income distribution measured by labor income share and household income distribution measured by Gini coefficient. Despite the correlation between higher labor income share and lower household income inequality, the recent declining trends of labor income share which has been considered to be stable, the impact of working rich on income inequality, the discussions related to skill-biased technological change (SBTC) indicate the necessity of simultaneous consideration of both functional and household income distribution. Thus, this study utilizes simultaneous equations model with cross-sectional panel approach to analyze the three-way growth-equity nexus.
One primary contribution of this study is to find the ‘decoupling’ pattern of functional and household income distribution in the growth-equity nexus. To be specific, this study finds that both higher labor income share and higher Gini coefficient accelerates economic growth, and higher per capita GDP growth rate also increases labor income share as well as Gini coefficient. Moreover, the empirical findings are consistent in both developing and developed (high-income) countries, which is indicative of the common growth mechanism led by technology-intensive changes in favor of skilled-labor such as SBTC. Regarding the role of SBTC in growth-equity nexus, this study also finds that SBTC increases both labor income share and household income inequality, and higher growth rate accelerates SBTC, which supports the interpretation of this study.
In addition, this study also contributes to income distribution studies by finding the different sources of recently declining labor income share in developed and developing countries. To be specific, the trend of labor income share seems to be caused by decreasing growth rate and increasing years of schooling in developed countries, whereas by sharp decreases in fertility rates and government expenditure in developing countries.
The following part of the dissertation analyzes the role of innovation in economic growth and income inequality. Instead of cross-sectional panel linear regression analysis, this study utilizes large heterogenous panel (panel time-series) perspectives and impulse response analysis with local projection method, which have several advantages such as allowing feedback effects. Also, regarding the measures of innovation, this study introduces not only quantitative measures such as the number of patents and trademarks but also a measure for national innovation system (NIS) reflecting qualitative aspects of innovation.
In analyzing the impact of innovation on economic growth, this study proposes a neoclassical growth model accompanied with heterogenous panel CS-DL (cross-sectionally augmented distributed lag) estimator which can analyze long-run effects and allow feedback effects between all variables. Based on the contribution to empirical growth models, this study finds that the improvement of NIS accelerates economic growth, while the measures based on the number patents or trademarks have no significant effect. The findings indicate that qualitative aspect of innovation environment is more important than quantitative size of innovation activity.
Regarding the income inequality effect of technological innovation, based on impulse response analysis with local projection method, this study finds that innovation has no evidence of aggravating income inequality, which is contrary to the findings of other literatures arguing that innovation increases income inequality. One plausible explanation for the difference is that this study utilizes the model allowing feedback effects between variables, and the empirical result reflects the indirect effect of innovation on equity through promoting investment which is found to mitigate income inequality.
While innovation reveals no statistically significant effect on income inequality, this study finds different equity effects of financial development depending on its various aspects. To be specific, this study finds that stock market development increases income inequality, whereas the development of credit market has decreasing effects. Such results are indicative of the development of credit market providing more financial opportunities to the people with less wealth or lower current income and that of financial market increasing capital income of the rich. In overall, the empirical findings of this study imply that, rather than technological innovation, financial development is a key determinant of income inequality.