Wage, Income and Consumption Inequality in Japan, 1981-2008: from Boom to Lost Decades

Jeremy Lise, Nao Sudo, Michio Suzuki, Ken Yamada and Tomoaki Yamada

No 2013-011, Working Papers from Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group

Abstract: In this paper we document the main features of the distributions of wages, earnings, consumption and wealth in Japan since the early 1980s using four main data sources: the Basic Survey on Wage Structure (BSWS), the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES), the National Survey of Family Income and Expenditure (NSFIE) and the Japanese Panel Survey of Consumers (JPSC). We present an empirical analysis of inequality that specifically considers the path from individual wages and earnings, to household earnings, after-tax income, and finally consumption. We find that household earnings inequality rose substantially over this period. Inequality in disposable income and in consumption also rose over this period but to a lesser extent, suggesting taxes and transfers as well as insurance channels available to households help to insulate household consumption from shocks to wages. We find the same pattern in inequality trends when we look over the life cycle of households as we do over time in the economy. Additionally we find that there are notable differences in the inequality trends for wages and hours between men and women over this period. Keywords: inequality trends; life-cycle inequality; wage dynamics.

Keywords: inequality trends; life-cycle inequality; wage dynamics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 D91 E23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lma, nep-ltv, nep-pbe and nep-sea
Note: MIP
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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http://humcap.uchicago.edu/RePEc/hka/wpaper/Lise_S ... ncome-cons_japan.pdf First version, January, 2013 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Wage, Income and Consumption Inequality in Japan, 1981-2008: from Boom to Lost Decades (2014)
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