臺灣家戶所得不均長期變化趨勢之分解

DECOMPOSITION OF THE CHANGING INCOME INEQUALITY OF TAIWAN’SHOUSEHOLDS

本研究透過所得非條件分配的重建及擬真分配的估計，分解臺灣過往30年期間不均度惡化的成因。結果發現， 家戶「特徵分配」與「特徵係數」的改變， 分別對所得分配在各分量位置的變化造成顯著影響， 且呈明顯異質性。其中，戶長年齡老化改變家戶生命週期的所得輪廓， 是所得不均度持續惡化的主因， 影響程度超越戶長教育程度、戶長性別、家戶規模、夫妻家戶與所得人數等因素。本研究採用近期資料及新方法， 從分配型態探討長期所得不均度趨勢， 提供有別於現有文獻的發現。

This paper analyzes the deteriorating income inequality of Taiwan’s households over the past three decades through estimates of unconditional distribution and counterfactual decomposition. It is found that changes in the distribution of household characteristics and the corresponding coefficients significantly affect income distribution with prevalent heterogeneities across the conditional quantiles. Aging of the household heads is the main reason to explain the worsening inequality, in addition to changes of the head’s schooling and gender, household size, existence of spouse, and earner numbers. Focusing on the changing trends of the distributional pattern of income, this paper sheds new light on the decomposition of Taiwan’s income distribution that are different fromthose presented in the existing studies.