Macroeconomic Conditions and the Distribution of Income in Spain

Lidia Farre and Francis Vella

No 2512, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper analyzes the impact of changes in macroeconomic conditions on the income distribution in Spain. Using household data from the Encuesta Continuada de Presupuestos Familiares (ECPF) from 1985 to 1996, we disentangle the effect of aggregate variables on the income distribution by estimating counterfactual densities conditional on different macroeconomic scenarios. Our empirical approach allows for a flexible relationship between the income level and two constructed indices. The first index captures the influence of individual characteristics while the second captures the role of macroeconomic variables. The contribution of each of these variables to their respective indices is estimated by a semiparametric least squares procedure. We find that although inequality displays a decreasing trend over the earlier part of the period examined, the poor performance of the Spanish economy during the early 1990's appears to have reversed this trend. We also conclude that while inflation appears to have no impact on the distribution of income for the period examined, there were important redistributive roles for unemployment, government expenditure and the level of GDP.

Keywords: aggregate fluctuations; semiparametric estimation; income distribution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C14 D31 E32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2006-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mac
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published - published in: Labour, 2008, 22 (3), 383-410

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp2512.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Macroeconomic Conditions and the Distribution of Income in Spain (2008)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2512

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().