abstract The recent surge in populist movements sweeping many countries has brought into focus the issue of regional inequality. In this article, we develop a panel data set for Canada that includes information on 284 regions observed at 5-year intervals (from 1981 to 2011) and estimate a series of spatial econometric models to study the causes and consequences of regional inequality. Our results draw attention to the fact that the rise in inequality at the national level has been accompanied by greater cross-regional inequality. Differences in the level of economic development, precariousness of labor market conditions, and socioeconomic factors are among the key drivers of these regional patterns of inequality. We also find that the industrial mix of a region plays an important role in shaping its distribution of income: regions with high concentrations of manufacturing activities typically have lower levels of inequality, whereas regions with high concentrations of tertiary services, arts, and entertainment, as well as knowledge-intensive business services tend to have higher levels of inequality. In terms of the consequences of inequality, the growth/equity trade-off across Canadian regions varies significantly over the short- vs. medium-term horizons. In the short run, our results suggest that inequality is positively related to regional economic growth. This response changes as we move to a medium-term horizon, which suggests that as inequality persists over longer periods of time, it has a negative and significant impact on regional growth trajectories. Panel vector autoregressive models are also used to further explore the direction of causality of the growth-inequality relationship.

中文翻译：

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探索加拿大地区收入不平等的原因和后果

摘要 最近席卷许多国家的民粹主义运动激增，使区域不平等问题成为焦点。在本文中，我们为加拿大开发了一个面板数据集，其中包括每 5 年（从 1981 年到 2011 年）观察到的 284 个地区的信息，并估计了一系列空间计量模型来研究地区不平等的原因和后果。我们的结果提请注意这样一个事实，即国家层面不平等的加剧伴随着更大的跨区域不平等。经济发展水平的差异、劳动力市场状况的不稳定以及社会经济因素是这些区域不平等模式的主要驱动因素。我们还发现，一个地区的产业组合在塑造其收入分配方面发挥着重要作用：制造业活动高度集中的地区通常不平等程度较低，而第三服务、艺术和娱乐以及知识密集型商业服务高度集中的地区往往不平等程度较高。就不平等的后果而言，加拿大各地区的增长/股权权衡在短期和中期之间存在显着差异。从短期来看，我们的结果表明不平等与区域经济增长呈正相关。随着我们进入中期视野，这种反应会发生变化，这表明随着不平等持续较长时间，它对区域增长轨迹产生了负面和重大的影响。