This study examines whether determinants of crime, hypothesized in the eco- nomic theory of crime and tested in other global regions, also explain crime rates in Eastern Europe, which is often excluded in existing research. Using fixed effects estimation and controlling for social cohesion and law enforcement, the results suggest that increases in income per capita have a negative effect on homicide and violent crime, but the effect on sexual and property crimes is mixed. Furthermore, the significance and sign of the impact of income in- equality and unemployment differ across individual crimes. This study also investigates crime determinants specifically in Czechia and Slovakia. Contrary to the cross-country analysis, there appears to be little connection between aggregate income and the regional distribution of crime, indicating the impor- tance of social rather than economic factors. JEL Classification K42, O15, O52, P20, C23 Keywords Crime, Income distribution, Eastern Europe, Panel Data, Czechia, Slovakia Title Determinants of Crime in Eastern Europe with a Focus on Czechia and Slovakia

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Distribution tables have become ubiquitous to the tax policy debates surrounding major legislative initiatives to change tax law at the federal level. The fairness of any proposed change to federal tax policy has become one of the most highlighted components of tax policy discussions. The presentation of tax data within distribution tables can hide or omit important information that is required in order to effectively evaluate the merits of any tax legislation. Many producers of distribution tables show only the information necessary to present their policy preferences in the best possible light. The different economic assumptions and presentations of data used by the various groups that release distribution tables have the inherent consequence of providing the public with numerous tables that are often used as political ammunition to influence and shape debate. The purpose of this research is to contribute to the tax policy research literature by exploring the limitations and biases inherent in specific designs of tax distribution tables and in specific methodological approaches to tax distribution analysis. This is done by means of a systematic examination of how different designs and methodologies provide an incomplete picture of a proposed change to federal tax policy. By comparing distribution tables as used by different groups to provide alternative perspectives of various tax proposals, the research shows how the use of tax distribution tables often provides misleading results about the impact of proposed tax legislation in order to influence and shape the issues surrounding a proposed change to federal tax policy. A method for evaluating tax distribution tables is proposed which highlights the deficiencies of design and methodology which characterize the present use of tax distribution tables. An index of questions is provided as part of this research project to serve as a new tool of policy analysis, an index termed the "Tax Distribution Table Scoring Index" (TDTSI). The TDTSI will assist in balancing the different perspectives presented via tax distribution tables by identifying the biases and limitations associated with different methodologies and presentations of data. / Ph. D.

本研究欲觀察人口老化與所得分配之關係，檢視人口老化對於所得分配之影響，而文中主要分別從「內政部統計年報」、「家庭收支調查表」、「人力統計資源年報」以及各縣市統計要覽獲得各種解釋變數，建立出台灣1998年至2005年總計8年台灣各縣市之資料，並且以各縣市之吉尼係數為被解釋變數，採用最小平方法之方式藉此觀察台灣各縣市所得分配與人口老化之關係。 根據實證結果發現，人口老化與所得分配為顯著並且呈現正相關，亦即當人口老化更加嚴重時，將會導致較大的吉尼係數，造成所得不均之惡化。 其他解釋變數為顯著者分別有：平均每人可支配所得、平均每人可支配所得平方項、婦女勞動參與率以及各區域變數，且除了平均每人可支配所得平方項為負相關外，其餘皆與吉尼係數為正相關，其中所得方面之變數顯示出台灣中存在著Kuznets曲線；婦女勞動參與率的擴張則會導致所得分配更加惡化；中部、南部以及東部地區相對於北部區域來說其所得分配之狀況皆較不平均。而其他解釋變數如社會福利變數、教育變數以及工業變數所得之結果皆不顯著，顯示上述三個變數對台灣各縣市所得分配之影響在本研究中無法確定。 / This research discusses the relationship between aging population and income distribution, and examines how the aging population affects income distribution. The independent variables were acquired from the Statistical Yearbook of the Interior, The Survey of Family Income and Expenditure, the Statistical Yearbook of Labor Force and the Statistical Yearbook from each twenty-three counties and cities in Taiwan to construct a data set from 1998 to 2005. Using the ordinary least squares method and choosing the gini coefficient as a dependent variable to observe the relationship between income distribution and aging population. According to the result of the empirical study, we discover that the effect of aging population is significant and has a positive relationship with income distribution. Income inequality is worse when the aging population increases. Other significant independent variables are disposable income per person, the square of disposable income per person, female labor participation rate and the regional dummy variables. Besides the square of disposable income per person, all variables have a positive relationship with the gini coefficient. In addition, the variable of income shows that Kuznets curve appears in Taiwan. The expansion of the female labor participation will cause the income distribution to change into inequality. Also the north region has the worst income distribution in Taiwan. The results of the social welfare variable, the education variable and the industry variable are insignificant so that in this article we can not observe how the three variables effect the income distribution in Taiwan.

This thesis consists of four separate chapters which address different aspects of inequality and income determination. The first three chapters are country-level studies which examine (1) how incomes are shaped by spatial price differences, (2) the factor income composition, and (3) enterprise size. The final chapter analyses how income inequality changed at the global level. The first chapter investigates the implications of regional price differences for earnings differentials and inequality in Germany. I combine a district-level price index with administrative earnings data from social security records. Prices have a strong equalising effect on district average wages in West Germany, but a weaker effect in East Germany and at the national level. The change in overall inequality as a result of regional price differences is small (although significant in many cases), because inequality is mostly explained by differences within rather than between districts. The second chapter is motivated by the rapid increase in top income shares in the United States since the 1980s. Using data derived from tax filings, I show that this pattern is very similar after controlling for changes in tax unit size. Over the same period as top income shares increased, the composition of these incomes changed dramatically, with the labour share rising. Using a non-parametric copula framework, I show that incomes from labour and capital have become more closely associated at the top. This association is asymmetric such that top wage earners are more likely to also receive high capital incomes, compared with top capital income recipients receiving high wages. In the third chapter, I investigate the positive cross-sectional relationship between enterprise size and earnings using panel data from Ghana. I find evidence for a significant firm size effect in matched firm-worker data and a labour force panel, even after controlling for individual fixed effects. The size effect in self-employment is stronger in the cross-section, but it is driven by individual time-invariant characteristics. The final chapter studies the global interpersonal income distribution using a newly constructed and improved database of national household surveys between 1988 and 2008. The chapter finds that the global Gini remains high and approximately unchanged at around 0.7. However, this hides a substantial change in the global distribution from a twin-peaked distribution in 1988 into a single-peaked one now. Furthermore, the regional composition of the global distribution changed, as China graduated from the bottom ranks. As a result of the growth in Asia, the poorest quantiles of the global distribution are now largely from Sub-Saharan Africa. By exploiting the panel dimension of the dataset, the analysis shows which decile-groups within countries have benefitted most over this 20-year period. In addition, the chapter presents a preliminary assessment of how estimates of global inequality are affected by the likely underreporting of top incomes in surveys.

This paper holds a study of Swedish inequality from 1900-1985 with specific focus on the half-decades of 1900-1905 and 1980-1985. Subsequently constructed data and contemporary news outlets are presented to develop further understanding upon how inequality was depicted in comparison to data. Through a comparison of the time-periods, the developed understanding and changed stance of the public on the issue of inequality is examined. This method of examination gives new insight upon how the widening knowledge of inequality during the 1900s, through the development of micro-economic measurements, as well as more complete tax returns, has affected the depiction of the issue. The results of the study suggest that news articles of the latter period (1980-1985), tend to be more data-based than during the former time-period, where general assumptions were more frequent. It additionally suggests that the decreased inequality over the 20th century did not lessen the discussion of inequality, but rather the opposite. The news articles furthermore do not discuss inequality in relation to the presented data - the long-term changes are not clearly stated in the news outlets - but are in conclusion unconsciously considered, through the general knowledge of current inequality, through tax levels etc.

No Brasil, entre 1955 e 1990, a modernização industrial induzida pelo estado, através de variadas estratégias de planejamento, atingiu seu apogeu e decadência. Um dos principais legados desta trajetória de crescimento foi a reiteração de uma estrutura econômica de nítido perfil concentrador da riqueza e da renda. Este exame tem como objetivo analisar a dinâmica das greves urbanas e as suas relações, primeiro, com conjunturas dos ciclos econômicos observados entre 1955 e 1990 e, segundo, com alguns indicadores econômicos relevantes como preços, salários, distribuição da renda e desigualdade. A análise procura verificar se a ação organizada dos trabalhadores urbanos através das greves foi capaz de oferecer resistência efetiva às conjunturas que tendiam à penalizar os salários e incrementar a desigualdade, atenuando, por esta via, os efeitos sociais adversos do modelo concentrador. / In Brazil, between 1955 and 1990, the industrial modernization promoted by the state through various planning strategies achieved its peak and decay. One of the major legacies of this growth path was enforcement of an economic structure with a profile of wealth and income concentration. The objective of this examination is to analyze the dynamics of urban strikes and their relations, first, within the economic cycles observed between 1955 and 1990, and second, with some economic relevant indicators like prices, wages, income distribution and inequality. The analysis seeks to determine whether the organized action of urban workers through strikes was able to pose effective resistance to situations that tended to lower the wages and increase inequality, thus, reducing the adverse social effects of the hub model.

A forma como os frutos do desenvolvimento econômico são distribuídos entre as pessoas está fortemente relacionado ao bem estar. Conforme visto na seção 2, o Brasil apresenta uma das piores distribuições de renda do planeta, sendo essa uma fonte constante de problemas sociais. A bibliografia levantada no trabalho mostra que a combinação entre mão-de-obra pouco qualificada com um sistema produtivo moderno tem sido o principal fator gerador dessas desigualdades. Através da utilização do sitema de matrizes de insumo-produto para o Brasil estimadas para 2002, combinadas com dados das pesquisas de orçamentos familiares - POF e da pesquisa nacional por amostra de domicílios - PNAD, o trabalho estimou os impactos que alterações na demanda dos setores de atividade econômica provocam sobre a distribuição de renda brasileira; o instrumental utilizado foi o modelo Leontief-Miyazawa. Os resultados encontrados mostram que alguns setores econômicos como, por exemplo, construção civil e vestuário, são redutores de desigualdades de renda. Por outro lado, setores como prestação de serviço a empresas e instituições financeiras agravam o quadro distributivo. Quando se avaliou o resultado nas cinco macro-regiões brasileiras, viu-se também que algumas dessas regiões, caso sejam estimuladas, podem desempenhar importante papel na redução das desigualdades brasileiras, destacando-se a Região Nordeste, onde esses efeitos possuem maior magnitude. Os setores que possuem maior potencial redutor de desigualdades são, respectivamente, serviços privados não mercantis e agricultura, ambos na região Nordeste. Por outro lado, as regiões Centro- Oeste e Sudeste, quando estimuladas, agravam o problema distributivo brasileiro na maioria de seus setores de atividade econômica. Dentro dessas regiões, os setores mais concentradores são as instituições financeiras, os serviços prestados às empresas (Região Sudeste) e Administração Pública da região Centro-Oeste. A adoção de investimentos em educação, conforme visto no trabalho, leva a uma melhora significativa na redução das desigualdades, no entanto, esse tipo de política tem um longo período de maturação. Dada a urgência do problema da distribuição de renda brasileira, a combinação de políticas compensatórias do tipo "Bolsa-Família", que possuem efeito de curto prazo, associadas a políticas que incentivem setores chaves da economia em determinadas regiões, podem ter um efeito redutor de desigualdade, enquanto a política educacional ainda não conseguir atingir seus objetivos. / The way that the results of the development are distributed among the people is strongly related to their welfare. As seen in section 2, Brazil shows one of the worst income distribution in the world, which generates a constant source of social problems. The references used in this work show that the combination of a low qualified labor force with a modern productive sector has been one of the main sources of these inequalities. Using an input-output system for the Brazilian economy, estimated for 2002, combined with data from the surveys on household budgets - POF and household - PNAD, this work estimated the impacts that changes in the final demand of the sectors will have in the Brazilian income distribution, the methodology used is based on the Leonfief- Miyazawa model. The results show that some of the economic sectors contribute to the reduction in the income inequalities, like civil construction and apparel. On the other end, sectors like services rendered to the enterprises and financial institutions contribute to the worsening of the income distribution. The results for the five Brazilian macro regions show that if some of the regions are stimulated, this could have a important role in the reduction of the Brazilian inequalities, the Northeast region stands out in this case. The sectors that have the great potential in reducing inequalities are private services and agriculture, both in the Northeast region. On the other hand, the Central West and Southeast regions, on the majority of their sectors, when stimulated, increase the distributive problem. Inside these regions, the sectors that concentrate the most are financial institutions and services rendered to the firms (Southeast), and public administration (Central West). The adoption of investment in education, as saw in the work, leads to a significant reduction in the inequalities; however, this kind of policy has a long time of maturation. Given the urgency of the income distribution in the Brazilian economy, the combination of compensatory policies of the type "Household Subsidies", that have a short time effect, associated with policies of incentive to key sectors in the economy, in selected regions, could have a effect to reduce inequality, while the educational policy has not yet reached its goals.

[pt] Este trabalho constrói um modelo que gera uma dinâmica onde interagem (i) decisões educacionais, tanto individuais, quanto no nível público, (ii) decisões da fecundidade, e (iii) a economia política de uma sociedade. Esta interação, em conseqüência, determina: (i) a qualidade relativa do ensino público e privado e sua distribuição, (ii) o diferencial de fecundidade entre grupos sociais e (iii) a distribuição do poder político que, conjuntamente, determinam a evolução da distribuição de renda na sociedade. Apesar de ser um modelo geral, busca-se a adequação a alguns fatos estilizados e a evidências empíricas encontradas no Brasil, um país muito desigual, com um sistema democrático relativamente novo e com sérios problemas educacionais Resolvo então o equilíbrio estático e calibro os parâmetros, resolvendo a dinâmica numericamente. Mostro que, se a democracia funcionar bem, teremos um equilíbrio sem desigualdade no longo prazo, e explico então as forças que nos mantêm em uma armadilha de desigualdade elevada. / [en] This paper builds a model whose main idea is to generate a dynamics in which (i) educational decisions, at the individual as well at the public level, (ii) fertility decisions, and (iii) the political economy of a society interact and determine the (i) relative quality of public and private education and its distribution, (ii)the fertility differential between the groups and (iii) the distribution of political power, which jointly shape the evolution of income distribution in society. In spite of being a general model, it fits some stylized facts and empirical evidence found in Brazil, a very unequal country with a quite young democracy and very serious educational problems. We solve for the static equilibrium and then calibrate the parameters and solve it numerically. We find that if democracy works well, then we will have no inequality in the long run, and explain which are the forces that maintain us in a high inequality trap.