Search results for "equality"

Inequality and education in pre-industrial economies: Evidence from Spain

2018

Abstract This article contributes to the debate on institutions and economic development by examining the historical link between land access inequality and education. Using information from the 464 districts existent in mid-19th century Spain, this paper confirms that there is a negative relationship between the fraction of farm labourers and male literacy rates. This result does not disappear when a large set of potential confounding factors are included in the analysis. The use of the Reconquest as a quasi-natural experiment allows us to rule out further concerns about potential endogeneity. In addition, controlling for different sources of spatial dependence does not explain away this r…

On factor decomposition of cross-country income inequality: some extensions and qualifications

2001

Abstract In a recent paper in this journal Duro and Esteban [Econom. Lett. 60 (1998) 269] have proposed a factor decomposition of the Theil [Economics and Information Theory, Amsterdam, North-Holland, 1967] index of inequality over per capita incomes into the (unweighted) sum of the inequality indexes of the factors in order to measure the contribution of each individual factor to the overall inequality. The purpose of this little note is to extend and qualify the meaning of such a decomposition, to show that the decomposition also holds for another Theil [Economics and Information Theory, Amsterdam, North-Holland, 1967], index of inequality and that both decompositions offer qualitatively …

How do Banking Crises Impact on Income Inequality?

2012

We show that banking crises have an important effect on income distribution: inequality increases before banking crisis episodes and sharply declines afterwards. We also find that, while a large government size does not per se seem to reduce inequality, a rise in financial depth (i.e. better access to credit provided by the banking sector) contributes to a more equal distribution of income.

La relación causa-efecto entre exclusión/inclusión social y financiera. Una aproximación teórica

2021

La realidad social y económica actual representada en situaciones de vulnerabilidad y desigualdad ha dejado al descubierto tipos de exclusión que no estaban abordados en los diferentes estudios, como son los casos de la exclusión financiera y social, dado que tales conceptos eran comúnmente identificados en términos de pobreza, miseria o marginalidad, entre otros. Estas nuevas categorías de estudio dan lugar a la búsqueda de estrategias que permitan disminuir esa brecha de desigualdad, mediante el estudio de la relación entre la inclusión financiera y la inclusión social. En esta línea, el presente trabajo tiene como propósito desarrollar una aproximación teórica que visibilice la relación …

Cultural Distance and International Trade in Services: A Disaggregate View

2020

Abstract In this paper, we estimate the effect of “cultural distance” on bilateral trade in services. The measure of cultural distance we use is based on scores that reflect country averages of individuals’ attitudes towards inequality, self-orientation, competition, uncertainty, traditions, and indulgence. Controlling for standard ingredients of gravity equations, we show that an aggregate measure of cultural distance has a significantly negative effect on total bilateral services trade. Once we take a more disaggregate view, we find that the strength of this effect differs across various types of services and various aspects of cultural distance.

Industrial productivity and convergence in Chinese regions: The effects of entering the world trade organisation

2011

Abstract Chinese economic growth is tremendously important, both due to how fast it is occurring and also its effect on the world economy as a whole. The size of the economy and the rate at which it is growing has opened up significant internal regional differences that are visible in the trends displayed by industry as the main exponent of this growth. This article analyses regional differences in industrial productivity using a dynamic approach (Malmquist index), that is, by determining regional productivity growth as well as the change in value added inequality from one region to another (sigma and beta convergence). Both approaches distinguish between the periods dating from 1995 to 200…

An Empirical Analysis of the Determinants of Perceived Inequality

2017

Perception of inequality is important for the analysis of individuals' motivations and decisions and for policy assessment. Despite the broad range of analytic gains that it grants, our knowledge about measurement and determinants of perception of inequality is still limited, since it is intrinsically unobservable, multidimensional, and essentially contested. Using a novel econometric approach, we study how observable individual characteristics affect the joint distribution of a set of indicators of perceived inequality in specific domains. Using data from the International Social Survey Programme, we shed light on the associations among these indicators and how they are affected by covaria…

The measurement of inequalities: Variables, indicators, and results

1998

World Interest Rates and Inequality: Insight from the Galor - Zeira Model

2018

In this paper, we study the relationship between changes in the world interest rate and within-country inequality during the 1985–2005 period in which the world interest rate sharply declined. In line with the predictions of the seminal model of Galor and Zeira [Income distribution and macroeconomics. Review of Economic Studies 60, 35–52], the analysis suggests that the decrease in the world interest rate is associated with a decrease in inequality in poor countries and an increase in inequality in rich ones.

Measuring Social Mobility

1993

Abstract The paper considers the ranking of mobility matrices in a simple Markov model of social mobility. The approach is the dynamic counterpart ot the "static" inequality ranking of income distributions by the Lorenz curve. The derived partial ordering is motivated by welfare considerations, is shown to be equivalent to same intuitive mobility concepts, and is used to screen some immobility indices. The equivalence of the ranking with the "permanent income" Lorenz ordering gives support to the claim that this approach is the natural extension of Kolm′s [The optimal production of social justice, in "Public Economics (J. Margolis and H. Guitton, Eds.), MacMillan, London, 1969], Atkinson′s …