The Inequality Story, in Charts

不论我们对比的是不同国家、公司、员工，还是男女之间的差异，都会发现经济不平等是当前重要议题之一。但确切地说，什么是经济不平等？经济学家一致认为，这不是只有一个原因和结果的单一问题。相反，我们应从多个角度分析不平等，而正是这些角度，构建起我们的世界观。

Whether we look between countries, companies, employees, or genders, economic inequality is one of today’s defining issues. But what, exactly, is it? Economists agree that it’s not a monolithic problem, with a single cause and result. Rather, inequality should be seen through multiple lenses that all play a role in shaping our world.

为进一步了解收入不平等问题，《哈佛商业评论》英文版请杰出经济学家，分享了他们认为最能说明不平等问题的数据图表。从全球经济核心转移，到教育和性别，再到公司扮演的角色，以下是这些经济学家认为最能说明当前世界不平等问题的7张图表。

 To better understand income inequality, HBR asked leading economists to share a data visualization emblematic of the issue they find most compelling. From global shifts, to education and gender, to the role of corporations, here are seven charts they said best describe inequality in the world today.

布兰科·米拉诺维奇（Branko Milanovic）是纽约市立大学社会经济不平等斯通中心核心教授，兼前世界银行研究部首席经济学家。

Branko Milanovic, core faculty at the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality at CUNY and former lead economist at the World Bank research group

米拉诺维奇：从20世纪80年代中期到现在这段时间，过去200年中全球不平等程度首次出现降低趋势。这段时间内个人收入的变动也是工业革命以来最大的一次。本图表又称“大象曲线”（elephant chart），表明本次变动的“赢家”是较贫穷亚洲国家的中上层阶级。相对来看，“输家”是富裕国家收入分配体系中处于中低层的人。对走下坡路的人来说，全球化似乎创造了一个更不平等的世界，虽然客观来讲，事实并非如此。因此给全球人口希望的全球化可能导致内乱，特别是在美国和欧洲。

MILANOVIC: The period from the mid-1980s to today is the first time in the past 200 years that global inequality declined. The period also saw the greatest reshuffle of personal incomes since the Industrial Revolution. This graph, sometimes called the elephant chart, shows that the “winners” of this reshuffle are the middle and upper classes of the relatively poor Asian countries and the global top 1%. The (relative) “losers” are the people in the lower and middle parts of rich countries’ income distributions. Among those who have lost ground, globalization may feel as though it has produced a more unequal world—even if objectively it has not. Thus, the very facts that are globally hopeful may cause domestic turmoil, particularly in the U.S. and Europe.

希瑟·鲍诗依（Heather Boushey）是公平成长华盛顿中心执行董事兼首席经济学家。

Heather Boushey, executive director and chief economist, Washington Center for Equitable Growth

鲍诗依：在过去50年中，经济增长带来的巨额利润流入了富人的口袋，而中产和工人阶层的生活水平则基本没有任何提高。托马斯·皮克迪、伊曼纽尔·赛斯（Emmanuel Saez）和加布里埃尔·扎克曼（Gabriel Zucman）提供的图表非常有说服力，因为该图表首次说明了经济增长分配情况，即美国经济产出中，谁们各拿到了多少份额。

BOUSHEY: Over the past 50 years, an astonishing amount of economic growth has been going to the very rich, while the middle and working class has seen practically zero improvement in their standard of living. This graph from Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, and Gabriel Zucman is compelling because it shows, for the first time, an account of the distribution of economic growth— how much of what the U.S. economy produces is going to whom.

托马斯·皮克迪是法国社会科学高等研究院和巴黎经济学院教授，也是《21世纪资本论》一书作者。

Thomas Piketty, professor at EHESS and the Paris School of Economics and author of Capital in the Twenty-First Century

皮克迪：这份对美国不平等的精彩总结说明，自20世纪60年代初以来，收入最高和最低的人群基本调换了位置。收入最低的50%人群收入曾占到总收入的近20%，而到2014年，其收入仅占12.5%。与此同时，最富有的1%人群收入占比从大约11%上涨到20%。

PIKETTY: This spectacular summary of rising inequality in America shows that earners at the top and the bottom have basically switched positions since the early 1960s. The bottom 50% of adult earners used to receive nearly 20% of total income; in 2014 they received just 12.5%. In the meantime, the income share of top 1% earners rose from about 11% to 20%.

大卫·奥托（David Autor）是麻省理工学院经济系副系主任兼Ford教席教授。

David Autor, Ford Professor and Associate Head, MIT Department of Economics

奥托：接受过大学教育的工人赚的钱比只有高中或更低学历的工人多。然而，“工资溢价”（wage premium）的产生不仅源于高学历工人实际收入的增长，还因为未受过大学教育工人实际收入降低了。

AUTOR: College-educated people earn more than those with a high school degree or less. However, that wage premium comes not just from a rise in the real earnings of higher educated people; it’s also due to a decline in the real earnings of non-college-educated workers.

 

1980年到2012年间，受过大学教育的美国全职男性员工的实际时薪每年的上涨区间是20%到56%，其中拥有研究生学历的人收入最高。在同一时期，接受教育较少的男性工人工资大幅下降，其中高中辍学者收入降低22%，高中毕业生收入下跌11%。不同教育程度女性之间的差距相对没那么明显，但这段时间内没有大学以上学历的女性实际收入增长依然极低。

Between 1980 and 2012, real hourly earnings of full-time, college-educated U.S. males rose anywhere from 20% to 56% annually, with the greatest gains accruing to those with a post-baccalaureate degree. During the same period, wages of males with less education declined substantially, falling by 22% among high school dropouts and 11% among high school graduates. The education gap was less stark for women, but real earnings growth among women without at least some college education over this period was still extremely modest.

克劳迪娅·戈尔丁（Claudia Goldin）是哈佛大学Henry Lee经济学教席教授，美国国家科学院院士，兼美国国家经济研究局美国经济项目发展总监。

Claudia Goldin, Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard University, member of the National Academy of Sciences, and director of development of the American Economy Program at NBER

戈尔丁：这张有趣的表格显示，不同职业的女性和男性年收入的对数比。商务类职业的比值最低，而技术和科学类职业最高。我的研究表明，企业和金融领域的职业与其他领域相比，对员工处罚更严格——员工必须在特定时间出现，而且即使请假休息一小段时间也要受处罚。实际上，男女之间的收入差异并非因工作总时长减少而引起，而是因为对时间灵活性的要求提高了。

GOLDIN: This fascinating chart shows the (log) ratio of female to male annual earnings by occupation. Business occupations have the lowest ratios, whereas tech and science have the highest. My research shows that occupations in the corporate and finance sectors penalize employees more heavily than other fields for not being available during particular hours and for taking off even small amounts of time. In fact, the earnings differences by sex generally are not caused by a lower total number of hours worked but to an increased need for time flexibility.

尼古拉斯·布鲁姆是哈斯坦福大学William Eberle经济学教席教授，斯坦福大学经济政策研究所高级研究员，也是美国国家经济研究局生产率、创新和创业项目总监之一。

Nicholas Bloom, the William Eberle Professor of Economics at Stanford, senior fellow at SIEPR, and co-director of the Productivity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship program at the National Bureau of Economic Research

布鲁姆：针对收入不平等的公共讨论，主要围绕最高收入者和其他人之间的差距展开，但研究显示，真正加剧不平等的因素是公司之间的工资差距。雇用收入分配体系中最高层员工的公司平均工资迅速增长，而雇用较低层员工的公司增长幅度小得多。这说明，旨在缩小个人之间差距的政策措施也许起不到任何作用。

BLOOM: Much of the public debate about income inequality focuses on the rising gap between top earners and everyone else, but research suggests that the real driver of inequality is wage gaps between companies. The average wages at the firms employing individuals at the top of the income distribution have increased rapidly, while those at the firms employing people in the lower income percentiles have increased far less. This means that policy measures aimed at closing the gap only between individuals may be ineffective.

梅丽莎·科尔尼（Melissa Kearney）是马里兰大学经济学教授，美国国家经济研究局助理研究员，兼布鲁金斯学会（Brookings）非常驻高级研究员。

Melissa Kearney, professor of economics at the University of Maryland, research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and nonresident senior fellow at Brookings

科尔尼：本表格显示，在收入不平等问题严重的美国，“社会经济弱势男孩”（母亲没有高中学历的男孩）高中辍学的可能性比不平等问题不太严重的国家高。这一发现令人震惊，而且意义重大，原因有3个。首先，该发现表明，在极其不平等的国家生活对社会经济弱势家庭的孩子极为不利。其次，总体来看，如果不平等程度较高，社会经济弱势男孩不会有动力争取更多成绩并留在学校，反而会表现出逆反的心态。第三，该图表说明，收入不平等加速恶化可能会影响到阶层向上流动性。

KEARNEY: This chart shows that among low-socioeconomic boys (defined as boys with a mother who does not have a high school degree), those in U.S. states where there is high income inequality are more likely to drop out of high school than those in states with low inequality. This finding is striking and extremely important for three reasons. First, it suggests that there is a damaging relationship between growing up in a low-socioeconomic home and living in a high-inequality state. Second, it implies that on average, a higher level of inequality doesn’t inspire boys at a socioeconomic disadvantage to achieve more and stay in school; rather, it seems to have the opposite effect. Third, it suggests that higher rates of income inequality may impede upward mobility.

刘筱薇 | 译   刘铮筝 | 校   钮键军 | 编辑

本文有删节，原文参见《哈佛商业评论》2017年6月《从图表中了解不平等现象》