Distributional National Accounts of Taiwan, 1991-2017

Cyrus Chu (1) , Chien-Yu Chen (2) , Ming-Jen Lin (3) , Hsuan-Li Su (3)

1 Academia Sinica
2 University of Houston
3 NTU - National Taiwan University [Taiwan]

We construct the pre-tax Distributional National Accounts (DINA) of Taiwan from 1981 to 2017 using survey data. Our DINA individual income series demonstrates a much larger inequality than previous results using tax tabulations and tax units. This difference is mainly due to a change in the unit of observation and the treatment of corporate retained earnings. We find that income inequality was stable in the 1980s and began to rise after the mid-1990s. After 2000, this trend further accelerated. We then estimate the distribution of economic growth. From 1981 to 2001, Taiwan experienced a period of rapid economic growth, with a growth rate of 7.32 percent annually and a fairly equal distribution of growth. From 2001 to 2017, the aggregate growth rate declined to 2.47 percent with a deteriorating distribution of growth. The increasing inequality in income and growth distribution is due to the combination of a worsening capital income distribution and rising retained earnings.

Mots clés: distributional national accounts; income inequality; pre-tax national income

Domaines: Sciences de l'Homme et Société

Cyrus Chu, Chien-Yu Chen, Ming-Jen Lin, Hsuan-Li Su. Distributional National Accounts of Taiwan, 1991-2017. 2022. ⟨halshs-04104064⟩