Inequality (Economics)

Inequality of Opportunity in Child Heath in the Arab World and Turkey

by Ragui Assaad

Health and nutrition during a child’s first years are crucial to his/her health and wellbeing later in life. Growth... more Health and nutrition during a child’s first years are crucial to his/her health and wellbeing later in life. Growth and development in childhood is determined by both genotype (nature) and phenotype (nurture), with the influence of the latter being particularly crucial during a child’s first few years (Martorell and Habicht 1986). In this paper, we examine the patterns of inequality of opportunity in health and nutrition outcomes, such as height-for-age and weight-for-height, for children under five in selected Arab Countries and Turkey, using Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data. Our objective is to decompose inequality into a portion that is due to inequality of opportunity, and a portion due to other factors, such as random variations in health. Inequality of opportunity is defined as in Romer (1998) as the inequality that is due to differences in circumstances, such as parental characteristics, household wealth, place of birth and gender. We measure inequality using decomposable general entropy measures, such as Theil’s-L and Theil’s-T indices. We use both parametric and non-parametric decomposition methods to determine the share of inequality of opportunity in total inequality. The results show that different levels and trends are evident across countries in both overall inequality and in the share of inequality of opportunity. Inequality of opportunity is shown to contribute substantially to the inequality of child health outcomes, but its share in total inequality varies significantly, both across and within countries over time. To further highlight the relative contribution of circumstances to the inequality of child health outcomes in different countries, we simulate height and weight outcomes for a most and least advantaged child in each context. Since these simulations observed circumstances at their best and worst levels, the larger the difference in predicted outcomes between the most and least advantaged child, the greater the inequality of opportunity facing children in that country.

How inequality affects the development of regions in Romania?

by Gratian Mihailescu

Discourses on Power

by Jeffery Klaehn

‘Discourses on Power’ in Jeffery Klaehn (ed.), The Political Economy of Media and Power (New York: Peter Lang, 2010), pp. 9-48.

This chapter provides a contemporary state of the art discourse on the concept of power and explores how power... more This chapter provides a contemporary state of the art discourse on the concept of power and explores how power connects with media and public education in the contemporary social world. Interdisciplinary and politically nuanced, the chapter spotlights the dialectic between ideology and power. Discussants include scholars from Canada, the US, the UK and Australia.

The equity reasons for fiscal (de)centralization

by Simone Salotti

Co-authored with Agnese Sacchi (Universita' di Roma Tre)

This paper originated from "Income inequality, regional disparities, and fiscal decentralization in industrialized countries"

The effects of fiscal decentralization on household income inequality: Some empirical evidence

by Simone Salotti

Co-authored with Agnese Sacchi (Universita' di Roma Tre)

This paper originated from "Income inequality, regional disparities, and fiscal decentralization in industrialized countries"

Mobility with joint forces - The decreasing of deep poverty with conditional transfers

by TARKI Social Research Institute

This study was prepared by TÁRKI Társadalomkutatási Intézet Zrt. [TÁRKI Institute for Social Re-search Co.Ltd.] and Budapest Szakpolitikai Elemző Intézet Kft. [Budapest Institute for Policy Analy-sis Ltd.] under order from the Patriotism and Progress Public Policy Foundation, on the basis of a contract signed in July 2011.

The study reflects the views of BI and TÁRKI, its contents do not necessarily coincide with the standpoint of the Patriotism and Progress Foundation.

Editors:
- Márton Medgyesi, Lead Researcher (TÁRKI Co. Ltd.)
- Ágota Scharle, Managing Director (Budapest Institute for Policy Analysis Ltd.)

Participating experts of the research:
- Mariann Dósa, Analyst (Budapest Institute and Oxford University)
- Árpád Földessy, Analyst (Budapest Institute)
- Márton Medgyesi, Lead Researcher (TÁRKI Zrt.)
- Ágota Scharle, Managing Director (Budapest Institute)
- Balázs Váradi, Lead Researcher (Budapest Institute and ELTE)
- Márton Varga, Analyst (Budapest Institute and Nova School of Business and Economics - Lisbon)

A workshop discussion was organized in Tárki on 5 January 2012 on the findings of the research project that provided the basis for this report. We express our gratitude for the valuable contribu-tions of the invited speakers, particularly György Csepeli, Károly Czibere and János Köllő.

ÁRKI Social Research Institute and Budapest Institute prepared a report on poverty in Hungary commissioned by... more ÁRKI Social Research Institute and Budapest Institute prepared a report on poverty in Hungary commissioned by Patriotism and Progress Public Policy Foundation, which was presented on the policy conference of the foundation on 29th of March in Budapest.

The Patriotism and Progress Public Policy Foundation launched its research programme in the spring of 2011. The objective of the programme is to study the poverty situation in Hungary and to develop new policy instruments to reduce extreme poverty. The research project aimes to find more efficient, effective and sustainable policy initiatives to deal with poverty. The programme includes the monitoring and evaluation of conditional social and cash transfers, which are not discriminating but stimulating and more acceptable for the majority of people who are living in better circumstances.

Felemelkedes kozos erovel - A tartos melyszegenyseg csokkentese celhoz kotott tamogatasok reven

by TARKI Social Research Institute

A tanulmányt a TÁRKI Társadalomkutatási Intézet Zrt. és a Budapest Szakpolitikai Elemző Intézet Kft. készítette a Haza és Haladás Közpolitikai Közhasznú Alapítvány megrendelésére a 2011. júliusában kötött megbízási szerződés alapján.
A tanulmány a BI és a TÁRKI véleményét tükrözi, a benne foglaltak nem feltétlenül esnek egybe az Alapítvány álláspontjával.

A tanulmány szerkesztői:
- Medgyesi Márton vezető kutató (TÁRKI Zrt.)
- Scharle Ágota ügyvezető (Budapest Szakpolitikai Elemző Intézet Kft.)

A kutatásban résztvevő szakértők:
- Dósa Mariann elemző (Budapest Intézet és Oxford University)
- Földessy Árpád elemző (Budapest Intézet)
- Medgyesi Márton vezető kutató (TÁRKI Zrt.)
- Scharle Ágota ügyvezető (Budapest Intézet)
- Váradi Balázs vezető kutató (Budapest Intézet és ELTE)
- Varga Márton elemző (Budapest Intézet és Nova School of Business and Economics - Lisszabon)

A Haza és Haladás Közpolitikai Alapítvány 2011 tavaszán kutatási programba kezdett, amelynek célja a magyarországi... more A Haza és Haladás Közpolitikai Alapítvány 2011 tavaszán kutatási programba kezdett, amelynek célja a magyarországi szegénység vizsgálata és új szakpolitikai eszközök kidolgozása a mélyszegénység csökkentésének céljából. E kutatási program kiterjedt a nem szegény többség számára elfogadhatóbb, de nem megbélyegző, hanem megfelelően ösztönző, feltételekhez kötött szociális támogatások és szolgáltatások hazai bevezethetőségének vizsgálatára is. A kutatást az Alapítvány a Budapest Intézet és a TÁRKI bevonásával készítette el, továbbá a munka véleménykutatási részében a Medián és a Conness működött közre

Financialization and its Consequences: the OECD Experience

by Jacob Assa

Published in the journal Finance Research, Vol. 1, No. 1, January 2012

This paper examines the incidence and consequences
of financialization in the industrialized countries of the... more This paper examines the incidence and consequences
of financialization in the industrialized countries of the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD). Using the latest panel data from the OECD and the
ILO, the paper first documents the extent of financialization in
OECD countries and then analyzes the relationships between
financialization and three other variables: inequality, growth and
unemployment. There is strong empirical evidence for
considerable financialization across the OECD, with significant
and negative impacts on all three variables.

TI - Inequality and Growth Re-examined

by Jacob Assa

Published in Technology and Investment, Vol.3 No.1, February 2012

This paper examines the relationship between income inequality and subsequent economic growth. It builds on the model... more This paper examines the relationship between income inequality and subsequent economic growth. It builds on the model suggested by Alesina and Rodrik (1994) in which inequality works through greater demands for redistribution to slow down growth, and the idea by Ray (1998) that inequality negatively affects savings, work capacity, economic incentives, and access to and efficiency of credit and financial markets. Using an updated dataset and seven model variants, both OLS and 2SLS regressions find a strong negative effect of income inequality on future growth. The effect is considerably stronger for developing countries, but the existence or absence of democracy has no effect on either the relationship between inequality and growth or on the rate of growth itself. There is also no support for Barro’s (2008) claim that inequality impacts growth positively in developed countries.

Religion, Socioeconomic Status, and Inequality in the United States: An Overview

by Joseph Langston

Class Paper. An overview of the scholarship examining the relationship between religion, socioeconomic structure/status, and inequality in the United States, beginning in the 1940s and moving into contemporary times.

Inequality Watch Newsletter

by TARKI Social Research Institute

Inequality Watch is supported by the Foundation Charles-Léopold Mayer pour le Progrès de l’Homme, in partnership with Veblen Institute, Afev and Alternatives Internationales

Inequality Watch, the European observatory of inequality, is a network resulting from the desire of associations and... more Inequality Watch, the European observatory of inequality, is a network resulting from the desire of associations and research centres to observe the state and evolution of inequality in Europe. It is the first independent information network for inequality in Europe. A better observation of inequality is necessary to be able to fight against it. To know and understand the evolution of inequality, the mechanisms that explain its increase or decrease and its consequences, is the key to develop more efficient policies to eliminate it.

Occupations and British Wage Inequality, 1970s-2000s

by Mark Williams

(forthcoming) European Sociological Review

Occupations provide a central unit of analysis for economic inequality in stratification research for two main... more Occupations provide a central unit of analysis for economic inequality in stratification research for two main reasons. First, occupations are supposed to structure inequality. Second, occupations are supposed to proxy as a source of inequality. Although there was a ‘massive rise’ in British wage inequality, relatively little is known about the relationship between the occupations and growing British wage inequality, and the sparse empirical research is inconclusive. Since sociologists traditionally have tended to place a great deal of emphasis on occupations, we might expect the changing structure of occupations and changing occupational wages to play a key role in accounting for trends in overall British wage inequality. More recent strands of stratification theory, however, have challenged the idea that occupations structure economic inequalities, and argue that the link between occupations and wages might have been weakening over time, instead predicting that growing wage inequality mostly occurs within occupations. We decompose trends in British wage inequality into between-occupation and within-occupation components and show that, although most wage inequality is within occupations, it is inequality between occupations that accounts for the lion’s share of changes in wage inequality trends. Furthermore, trends in between-occupation inequality cannot be ‘explained away’ by fundamental labour market changes such as rising educational attainment and the decline in collective bargaining. We also demonstrate what the rise in between-occupation inequality implies for the British ‘big class’ structure using the NS-SEC social class schema. We show that growing between-occupation inequality can be more or less described as growing between-class inequality.

Desigualdad económica y bienestar: tres modelos de justicia social

by Borja Barragué

Blommaert (2006)- Ethnopoetics as functional reconstruction

by Jan Blommaert

Bernstein and poetics:Voice, globalization and education

by Jan Blommaert

Dániel Horn - Income inequality and voter turnout

by TARKI Social Research Institute

October 2011
© Daniel Horn, Amsterdam
General contact: gini@uva.nl
Bibliographic Information
Horn, D. (2011). Income inequality and voter turnout - evidence from European national elections.
Amsterdam, AIAS, GINI Discussion Paper 16.

The paper looks at the link between inequality and voter turnout, and derives three hypothesis from previous... more The paper looks at the link between inequality and voter turnout, and derives three hypothesis from previous literature. It is shown that inequality associates negatively with turnout at the national elections (hypothesis 1). Although this is not a very strong effect, but it is net of several factors affecting voter turnout that are empirically well proven – such as individual characteristics or different features of the political system. The literature suggests
that this negative association is either due to the lower turnout of the poor relative to the rich in high inequality countries (hypothesis 2) or due to the effects of the universal welfare state, which increases turnout through altered social norms as well as decreases inequality through government intervention (hypothesis 3). Although none of the hypotheses were refuted, neither was really supported by the data. I also tested whether inequalities at the top or at the bottom have a different affect on turnout. Although the results, again, are not very robust, it seems that larger differences in income between the very rich and the middle decreases overall turnout, while higher difference
between the middle and the very poor increases turnout. This is just the opposite of what is expected from the Downsian rational voter model.

Spotlight on The Spirit Level

by Lyndsay Grant

With Glen O'Hara

Crédito y desigualdad: efecto del acceso a crédito en la brecha de ingreso de los hogares ecuatorianos

by Andres Mideros Mora

Average income inequality between countries (1700-2030)

by Morrisson Christian

co-authored with Fabrice Murtin

__Cuadernos de Geografia 2008

by Salomon Gonzalez