ABSTRACT

In this article, we study the relationship between income distribution and financialization in the United States between 1947 and 2013. Financialization is introduced as a two-fold process. On the one hand, it implies an increase in the contribution of the financial sector in the composition of production. On the other hand, it is related to an increase in the importance of financial assets in terms of the composition of wealth. We take the share of financial employment as a proxy of the first dimension while, as to wealth composition, we make use of the share of financial assets on corporations’ total assets. Applying cointegration techniques, we identify a positive long-run relationship between financialization and income inequality. Causality goes from employment to income inequality and from the latter to wealth. Nonlinear estimators suggest the existence of certain asymmetric effects such that changes in income distribution cannot be reverted by simply reverting financialization.

摘要

在本文中，我们研究了 1947 年至 2013 年美国收入分配与金融化之间的关系。金融化被介绍为两个过程。一方面，它意味着金融部门在生产构成中的贡献增加。另一方面，它与金融资产在财富构成方面的重要性增加有关。我们以金融就业的份额作为代理第一维度的财富构成，我们利用金融资产占企业总资产的比重。应用协整技术，我们确定了金融化与收入不平等之间的长期正相关关系。因果关系从就业到收入不平等，从收入不平等到财富。非线性估计表明存在某些不对称效应，因此收入分配的变化不能通过简单地恢复金融化来恢复。