Monetary policy and wealth inequality in South Africa: Evidence from tax administrative data

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between monetary policy and wealth inequality in South Africa. We employed a unique database of tax administrative data which allowed us to account for individual heterogeneity. These tax data span from 2011 to 2017 and include over 3 million individual taxpayers in South Africa after data cleaning. Results based on fixed- and random-effects panel model estimates show that monetary policy generally increases wealth Gini inequality while it decreases the wealth 90–10 percentile differential. Increasing asset prices and gross domestic product per capita generally increases wealth inequality, while inflation reduces wealth inequality. The effect of age on wealth distribution varies depending on whether a fixed- or random-effects panel model is considered. Based on the estimates and observed data, being male tends to increase wealth inequality.

Top earners and earnings inequality during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from Ecuadorian administrative data

“…In this sense, the COVID-19 outbreak is likely to have reinforced inequalities in already highly unequal regions. 2 Distributional analysis based on administrative data for other developing regions remains scarce, with a few recent exceptions (e.g., Aye et al 2020;Chatterjee et al 2021;Jouste et al 2021). 3 Throughout the paper, we refer to the workforce captured by the data as affiliated or registered employment.…”