Search results for "Equality."
showing 10 items of 1308 documents
Focus on Women in Microfinance Institutions
2013
Abstract We provide empirical evidence on focusing on women in microfinance and its consequences for microfinance institutions (MFIs). Based on a global dataset, the results indicate that a focus on women is associated with group-lending methods, international orientation, smaller loans, and non-commercial legal status. We find that a focus on women significantly improves repayment but does not enhance overall financial performance because of higher relative costs. Moreover, the higher relative costs do not stem from servicing women per se but from the smaller loans offered to women and the group-lending methodology practised by MFIs focusing on women.
Inequalities in educational opportunities in France: educational expansion, democratization or shifting barriers?
2000
International audience; This paper is concerned with inequalities in educational opportunities in France and presents data collected from cohorts born between 1919 and 1973, a period characterized by educational expansion. Data from large-scale representative French surveys were compiled in such a way as to make accurate historical and international comparisons possible. The paper argues that there has been a shift in social inequalities, from entry into collège (lower secondary school) to entry into lycée (upper secondary school leading to the baccalauréat). Finally, policy implications have been drawn from international comparisons of data on the reduction of social inequality. Cet articl…
Regional Inequalities, Decentralisation and the Performance of Local Governments in Post-Communist Romania
2011
Abstract The economic growth that has occurred in post-communist Romania has polarised society and greatly increased existing inequalities. The aim of this paper is to investigate regional disparities, to underline the role of governmental mechanisms in smoothing out territorial inequalities, and to examine the possible effects of regional economic disparities on the performance of regional administrations in delivering public services, in the light of the new regionalisation debate. The conclusion is that Romanian counties' institutional performance does not completely correlate with regional wealth; but regional disparities and the mechanisms used to smooth out inequalities have to be tak…
Does Tourism Consumption Behaviour Mirror Differences in Living Standards?
2016
Based on the theoretical foundation of well-being measurement, the study explores differences in living standards by analysing the distribution of tourism expenditure. A mixture of regression models is used to explore the heterogeneity in tourism consumption by identifying groups of families with similar tourism consumption behaviour as a function of certain socio-demographic and economic factors. The empirical analysis, performed on Italian expenditure data, suggests that there are three different patterns of consumption behaviour conditional to the socio-demographic and economic covariates in the tourism market and that differences in tourism consumption between groups of households mirro…
Subsidization of higher education versus expansion of primary enrollments : what can a shift of resources achieve in Sub-Saharan Africa ?
1985
International audience; In many LDCs today, the distribution of public resources for education tends to be inefficient and inequitable in that subsidization often increases rather than decreases with the level of education. To improve efficiency and equity, a shift of resources from higher to primary education should therefore be considered. Such a shift would obviously imply an increase in the private cost of higher education, but its effect could be mitigated through a loan scheme. In this paper, our main purpose is to show what a cut in subsidies to higher education can achieve in terms of expanding primary enrollments. The results show that although the outcome differs from country to c…
Socio-economic Disparity problems and Convergence Policy in the EU States
2016
The purpose of this paper is to investigate socio-economic development condition and convergence evaluation in the EU-28 states in the context of the EU policy goals. The arm of this research is to estimate socioeconomic disparities and convergence problems in the European states by applying real valuations of well-being situations and economic development challenges in the EU member states. The research methodology is based on the European Commission legitimate documents application and socio-economic strategies, on the convergence theory and convergence scenario calculations and the socioeconomic forecasts analysis in the EU states. This research presents information about different socio…
How do educational reforms change the share of students in special education? Trends in special education in Finland
2019
Recent European and global trends in education have been to promote inclusive education and expand education, resulting in the increased provision of special education. In promoting inclusive education, recent special education reforms have also aimed to curtail the rise in identification rates for students in special education, for example, by focusing more on early support and discontinuing fiscal incentives to identify students with special educational needs. Using official special education statistics, we studied how Finland’s special education system reforms changed the share of students in special education. In addition, we examined variations in special education provisions among mu…
Discrimination based on place of residence and access to employment
2014
International audience; The purpose of this study is to assess the degree of employment discrimination against young people according to their place of residence. We considered several spatial scales in order to measure the effect of the reputation of the administrative department or county, the town or municipality and of the local neighbourhood. The evaluation is performed using correspondence test data carried out between October 2011 and February 2012. We studied 2988 candidacies that were submitted to 498 job offers (waiters and cooks) within the restaurant industry and located in the Paris area. Statistical and econometric results pointed out that resident effect is significant and im…
New Evidence on Regional Inequality in Iberia (1900–2000)
2014
AbstractThis article presents new evidence on the evolution of regional inequality in Iberia from 1900 to 2000 from a geographical perspective. To do so we introduce a new historical dataset of regional gross domestic products (GDPs) for Spanish NUTS III and Portuguese Historical Districts, synthetic indices of regional inequality, and different measures of spatial correlation across regional per capita GDPs. The results show that the Portuguese and Spanish national economic integration processes initially led to the economic specialization across Iberian regions promoting the divergence in terms of their regional per capita GDPs. Notwithstanding, ulterior advances in the integration of nat…
Skilled and unskilled wage differentials and economic integration, 1870-1930
2004
In this article we analyse the differences between the wages of skilled and unskilled workers in the period 1870–1930 for five countries with different levels of development and economic integration: the USA, France, the UK, Italy and Spain. We have constructed a ratio of skilled to unskilled wages (the skill premium) in the industrial sector for all these countries with the exception of the USA, for which data were already available. We study the impact of globalisation, technological and structural change and labour movements on the skill premium growth rate. The main conclusion we obtain is that the globalisation variables (migration and trade) explain only part of this growth. Technolog…