Technische Universität München, Center of Life and Food Sciences Weihenstephan, Alte Akademie 8, 85354 Freising, Germany.
Econ Hum Biol. 2013 Dec;11(4):436-52. doi: 10.1016/j.ehb.2012.12.002. Epub 2012 Dec 22.
We provide empirical evidence on the existence of the Pigou-Dalton principle. The latter indicates that aggregate welfare is - ceteris paribus - maximized when incomes of all individuals are equalized (and therefore marginal utility from income is as well). Using anthropometric panel data on 101 countries during the 19th and 20th centuries, we determine that there is a systematic negative and concave relationship between height inequality and average height. The robustness of this relationship is tested by means of several robustness checks, including two instrument variable regressions. These findings help to elucidate the impact of economic inequality on welfare.
我们提供了皮古-多尔顿原则存在的经验证据。后者表明，在其他条件相同的情况下，当所有个人的收入均等化时（因此收入的边际效用也是均等化的），总福利最大化。利用 19 世纪和 20 世纪 101 个国家的人体测量面板数据，我们确定身高不平等与平均身高之间存在系统的负向和凹性关系。通过几种稳健性检验，包括两个工具变量回归，来检验这种关系的稳健性。这些发现有助于阐明经济不平等对福利的影响。
