Where Inequality Is Declining
貧富差距正在縮小的地方
By Eduardo Porter

SANTIAGO – Chile is a stellar performer by almost any standard. Income per person has grown fourfold over the last quarter-century and many Chileans see their nation as within shouting range of the advanced industrial world.
幾乎用任何標準評斷，智利的表現都很耀眼。人均所得在過去25年增加4倍，許多智利民眾認為智利躋身先進工業國家之林的目標已近在咫尺。

Yet the shanties outside this Andean capital are a reminder that Chile has still not shaken the curse that has plagued Latin America for centuries: an immense gap between rich and poor.
但是，這個位於安地斯山脈的首都（聖地牙哥市）外圍的簡陋棚屋卻提醒智利民眾，這個國家仍未擺脫數百年來折磨拉丁美洲的詛咒：貧富之間的浩瀚差距。

According to the World Bank, the richest 10 percent of Chileans capture $42 out of every $100 worth of disposable income. In Spain, where the median income is roughly 30 percent higher than in Chile, the comparable figure is $25.
根據世界銀行的資料，智利每100美元可支配收入中的42元歸最有錢的10%人民所有。西班牙的中位數所得比智利高30%，每100元可支配收入中只有25元歸最有錢的10%人所有。

“We have not managed to break the growth model that produces dynamics of exclusion,” said Juan Carlos Feres, president of the Overcoming Poverty Foundation here.
智利「克服貧窮基金會」會長璜．卡洛斯．費雷斯說：「我們仍然無法打破導致社會排除現象的成長模式。」

Even so, Chile, like much of Latin America, is one of few place where the income gap is shrinking rather than widening.
即使如此，如同大多數拉丁美洲國家，智利是少數收入差距正在縮小，而非擴大的地方之一。

Using the “Gini index,” research from Tulane University in New Orleans, the World Bank and the United Nations Development Program found that income inequality was lower in 2012 than it had been in 2000 in 16 of the 18 Latin American countries for which there was data to track. The index ranges from 0 in an egalitarian utopia where everybody earned exactly the same, to 100 where one person held every penny.
紐奧良市杜蘭大學、世界銀行和聯合國開發計畫署的研究人員運用吉尼指數做研究，發現在18個有資料可追蹤的拉美國家中，有16國2012年的收入差距小於2006年。吉尼指數從0到100，在齊頭式的烏托邦世界，所有人的所得一樣多，指數為零；指數到100表示全部的錢全歸某一個人所有。

While scholars can point to programs contributing to the narrowing gap in some countries – the increase in Brazil’s minimum wage or the expansion of pensions in Argentina – nobody quite understands what is driving the regionwide dynamic.
學者能指出某些國家施行的計畫有助於縮小所得差距，像是巴西提高最低工資或阿根廷提高退休金，但沒有人真的理解整個區域是怎麼一回事。

Latin American leaders have started to congratulate themselves for the accomplishment. But the improvement might be a symptom not of success in fighting poverty but of economic vulnerability.
拉美國家領袖對此成就開始居功。但此一改善代表的可能不是抗貧的勝利，而是經濟的脆弱。

Government redistribution appears to have played some role in reducing the income gap. But Nora Lustig at Tulane and her fellow researchers concluded that new government transfers and changes in pensions accounted for only 30 percent of inequality’s decline. Most of the action appears to have happened in the job market.
政府的重分配措施似乎在降低收入差距方面占有一席之地。但杜蘭大學的諾拉．陸士提和研究同儕的結論是，所得不均的減少有30%可歸功於政府的財富移轉措施和退休金的的變革。大多數的變化似乎發生在就業市場。

It could be a result of Latin America’s “massive” increase in the supply of university-educated workers, lowering graduate’s wage premium, said Jaime Ruiz-Tagle of the University of Chile. He also said he fears that the decline has to do with a drop in the demand for skill.
智利大學的海梅．路易斯-達格里認為，這可能是拉美國家受過大學教育的人力供應「大量」增加、工資溢酬（津貼）降低的結果。他擔憂所得差距縮小與對技術人力的需求減少有關。

China’s need for raw materials pushed up the value of currencies in the region even as its cheap manufactured exports undercut Latin American countries’ weak industrial base, reducing their demand for skilled workers.
中國大陸對原物料的需求推高了拉美貨幣的幣值，而中國大陸輸出的廉價製造品卻斲傷了此區域原已薄弱的工業基礎。

“In this case, the fall of inequality would be bad news over the long term,” said Augusto de la Torre of the World Bank. “We would be specializing in sectors that require less knowledge.”
「如此看來，所得差距減少就長期而言可能是個壞消息，」世界銀行的奧古斯托．迪拉．托瑞說：「我們會變成專搞那些不需要太多知識的產業。」

The World Bank argues the only viable long-term path is to invest in more skill-intensive industries.
世界銀行堅決認為，投資於技術更密集的產業，是唯一可長可久的方向。

That makes sense. But in doing so, Latin America may have to join the rest of the developed world in confronting the challenge of achieving growth without widening the income gap further.
此言不虛。但是這麼做，拉丁美洲可能會和其他已開發國家面臨同樣的挑戰：促進經濟成長，卻沒有使所得差距擴大。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/03/business/economy/income-gap-shrinks-in-chile-for-better-or-worse.html

2015-02-03聯合報/G5版/UNITED DAILY NEWS 張佑生譯 原文參見紐時週報八版左