scholarly journals The Median Versus Inequality-Adjusted GNI as Core Indicator of ‘Ordinary’ Household Living Standards in Rich Countries

2020 ◽  
Vol 150 (2) ◽  
pp. 569-585
Author(s):  
Brian Nolan
Keyword(s):  
Living Standards ◽  
Rich Countries ◽  
Core Indicator

Generating Prosperity for Working Families in Affluent Countries

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Real Income ◽  
Living Standards ◽  
Financial Strain ◽  
Inclusive Growth ◽  
Working Families ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Rich Countries ◽  
Analysis Of Performance

This book addresses the central challenge facing rich countries: how to ensure that ordinary working families see their living standards and the prospects for their children improve rather than stagnate over time. It presents the findings from a comprehensive analysis of performance over recent decades across the rich countries of the OECD, in terms of real income growth around and below the middle. It relates this performance to overall economic growth, exploring why these often diverge substantially, and to the different models of capitalism or economic growth embedded in different countries. In-depth comparative and UK-focused analyses also focus on wages and the labour market and on the role of redistribution. Going beyond income, other indicators and aspects of living standards are also incorporated including non-monetary indicators of deprivation and financial strain, wealth and its distribution, and intergenerational mobility. By looking across this broad canvas, the book teases out how ordinary households have fared in recent decades in these critically important respects, and how that should inform the quest for inclusive growth and prosperity.

Sources of Increasing Inequality

2021 ◽  
pp. 172-190
Author(s):  
Francis Teal
Keyword(s):  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Labour Markets ◽  
Living Standards ◽  
The Political ◽  
Poor Countries ◽  
Unskilled Labour ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Rich Countries ◽  
The Impact

While all the evidence we have points to the rising living standards for most of the very poorest, the wages of unskilled labour in poor countries remain a fraction of those in rich countries. Those potential workers are seen as a threat to the living standards of the unskilled in rich countries and the political impetus to limit their access to those labour markets has been, and remains, one of the most potent issue in the politics of rich countries. This aversion to immigration as a threat to the wages of the unskilled often transmutes into a hostility to trade, as goods, which use a lot of unskilled labour, can be imported more cheaply. Both immigration and trade are seen as a threat to the unskilled. Two dimensions of this threat are examined in this chapter—the impact of Chinese exports on wages in the US and the impact of immigration on the UK economy.

The Evolution of Living Standards for Middle and Lower Income Households in OECD Countries

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Nolan ◽  
Stefan Thewissen
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Income Distribution ◽  
Real Income ◽  
Living Standards ◽  
Entire Population ◽  
Income Growth ◽  
Lower Income ◽  
Working Age ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Rich Countries

This chapter carries out and presents the findings from an in-depth comparative analysis of real income growth around and below the middle of the income distribution across the rich countries of the OECD over recent decades. It examines trends in real incomes for the entire population and for working age households only, and sets the evolution of incomes around the middle in each country against what has been happening lower down and higher up the distribution. This allows the range of experiences across countries in these terms to be captured, providing the base which subsequent chapters seek to probe and get behind.

Inequality and Ordinary Living Standards in OECD Countries

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Nolan ◽  
Stefan Thewissen
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Relationship ◽  
Real Income ◽  
Living Standards ◽  
Income Growth ◽  
Lower Income ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Recent Commentary ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Rich Countries ◽  
Distribution Of Income

This chapter focuses on how the patterns of real income growth or stagnation seen in Chapter 2 are related to changes to inequality in the distribution of income, which has played such a prominent role in recent commentary and debate. It examines how income inequality has evolved over recent decades across the rich countries, both overall and in terms of the share going to the very top of the distribution, and highlights key factors in driving inequality upwards—albeit differentially across countries and time-periods. The ways in which rising inequality may undermine real income growth for middle and lower income households are discussed, and the empirical relationship between inequality and such real income growth over recent decades across the rich countries is analysed. Alongside real income growth or its absence, some other ways of looking at whether ‘the middle’ has been ‘squeezed’ in income terms are also explored.

Living Standards and Prosperity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Nolan
Keyword(s):  
Technological Change ◽  
Living Standards ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
The Core ◽  
Working Families ◽  
Current Concerns ◽  
Rich Countries ◽  
The Impact

This introductory chapter develops and motivates the overarching topic of the book, which is how rich countries have fared in recent decades in terms of the generation of prosperity for ordinary working families and the lessons to be learned from analysing their performance. It sets out how this is at the core of current concerns and debates, not least about the impact of globalization and technological change and the growth in inequality, and the economic, social, and political consequences. It then provides an outline and roadmap of the structure of the book, in terms of the range of topics to be addressed. In doing so it sets out how the various elements fit together and contribute to the overall aim of the book.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Nolan
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Living Standards ◽  
Inclusive Growth ◽  
Central Concern ◽  
Working Families ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Rich Countries

This chapter sets out the central challenge facing rich countries, on which this volume is focused: how to restore inclusive economic growth and prosperity. It describes how rising inequality in the rich countries over recent decades is now widely seen as undermining growth and even more so the living standards and prospects of ordinary working families. It reviews key themes in the debate about why inequality has been rising, and why this should be such a central concern. The chapter then outlines the approach taken in this book, which is to examine in depth the experiences of ten rich countries, posing the same set of questions about what has happened to inequality and ordinary living standards over recent decades, and why. The aim is to learn from these varying experiences, analysed through a common lens, about how inclusive growth can best be supported.

Poverty in rich countries

2020 ◽  
pp. 137-146
Author(s):  
Paul Spicker
Keyword(s):  
Developed Countries ◽  
Living Standards ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Money Markets ◽  
Public Discussion ◽  
Democratic Government ◽  
Relational Perspective ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Rich Countries

The persistence of poverty in rich countries is something of a puzzle for those who see poverty in terms of resources; from a relational perspective, it is unsurprising. Although public discussion is sometimes dominated by moral judgments about the poor, governments in developed countries have come to see responses to poverty and the protection of people's circumstances as basic elements in the role of a democratic government, and if governments do not ensure that basic living standards are protected, they have failed. Debates tend to centre in practice on money, markets and commodification.

scholarly journals Material Deprivation and Consumption

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Basak Kus ◽  
Brian Nolan ◽  
Christopher T. Whelan
Keyword(s):  
Developing Country ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Household Income ◽  
Basic Needs ◽  
Material Deprivation ◽  
Living Standards ◽  
Measurement Issues ◽  
The World ◽  
Rich Countries ◽  
Direct Measures

This article examines material deprivation and consumption in relation to poverty. In a developing country context, manifest material deprivation and inadequate levels of consumption have always been central to the conceptualization of poverty and living standards. Direct measures of failure to meet “basic needs” are widely used alongside income-based measures such as the World Bank’s “dollar a day” standard. In contrast, both research and official poverty monitoring in rich countries tend to rely on household income. This article begins with a review of recent research on material deprivation, seen primarily as a means to go “beyond income” in capturing poverty and exclusion. It then considers the mismatch between low income and measured deprivation, along with the notion of multidimensionality and the measurement issues raised in the implementation of multidimensional approaches. Finally, it analyzes conceptual and empirical issues relating to the contrast between income and consumption.

scholarly journals Whose “No Borders”? Achieving Border Liberalization for the Right Reasons

Refuge ◽  
1969 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Gill
Keyword(s):  
Free Market ◽  
Living Standards ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Poor Countries ◽  
Welfare Systems ◽  
Discursive Strategy ◽  
The Right ◽  
Rich Countries ◽  
Migratory Movements

Free population movement promises greater human liberties and improved economic performance. Inevitably, however, there are critics. Most vocally, the conservative Right points towards the erosion of Western welfare systems, the large migratory movements that a No Borders policy may precipitate, and the lowering of living standards in rich countries to approximate those in poor countries. This paper argues that, although the claims of the Right are often exaggerated, these objections have served to paste over important differences between advocates of No Borders, producing some unlikely bedfellows in opposition to conservative arguments. In particular, an uncomfortable conflation between liberal and Left-wing ideology has emerged as a result of the specific discursive strategy of Right-wing commentators to obfuscate distinctions between these ideological stances. After outlining the arguments of the Right for context, this paper responds to this conflation by distancing a Left-wing No Borders position from a free-market liberal No Borders position. It does this by using Left-wing arguments to criticize liberal No Borders ideology, and concludes by suggesting some key features of a Left-wing No Borders position.

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