The half life of economic injustice

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-37
Author(s):  
David Miles

Abstract This paper addresses a question which is fundamental to the perceived legitimacy of the distribution of resources today: to what extent does unfairness in how assets came to be acquired in the past affect incomes and wealth now? To answer that question requires two things: first, a principle to determine what is, and what is not, a just acquisition of wealth or a just source of income; second, a means of using that principle to estimate what fraction of wealth and income is now unjust. I use a principle put forward by Robert Nozick to provide the first of these things and then use a model of wealth accumulation and economic growth to illustrate its implications for the scale of unfairness today. The greater is depreciation of assets, the higher are saving rates out of labour income and the less important is human capital the more transient are the effects of past economic injustices. I use data on the perceived unfairness of economic outcomes to see if there is any evidence that those features which the model implies should influence the durability of injustice help explain cross-country differences in attitudes towards unfairness.

Author(s):  
Banani Nandi ◽  
Chandana Chakraborty

In the light of the emerging consensus on the potential impact of broadband technology on economic growth and development, this chapter analyzes the cross-country differences in growth of broadband technology by examining the key demand and supply factors driving diffusion in the observed countries. In addition, utilizing empirical evidence and country case analyses, the chapter offers tentative policy suggestions for accelerating broadband diffusion under alternative circumstances.


Societies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zsófia S. Ignácz

Despite convergence processes between Western and post-socialist societies in the past three decades, there are still considerable cross-country differences in individuals’ attitudes toward income inequality. To explain these differences, studies have primarily focused on the role of macro level differences and have only theoretically acknowledged how the role of diverging socialization experiences could also be responsible. To date, little is known about the importance of socialization for attitudes toward income inequality. This article assesses whether the differences between Western and post-socialist countries are influenced by socialization effects. Applying an adapted age-period-cohort analysis on the dataset of the International Social Survey Program’s (ISSP) “Social Inequality” module in survey years 1992, 1999, and 2009, the paper shows that socialization has a substantial effect on attitudes and a socialist socialization clearly differentiates individuals from post-socialist countries from Westerners. Results underline that experiences gained in formative years are crucial for attitudes. A further finding is that both perception and preferences toward income inequality are influenced by socialization.


2021 ◽  
Vol 255 ◽  
pp. 69-78
Author(s):  
David Miles

This article assesses whether economic injustices that took place in the past still have significant implications for the material welfare of people many years later. That issue is central to the question of how fair is the distribution of wealth and income today. It is also relevant to issues of reparations for past wrongs. I find that in standard neoclassical models of economic growth the lingering effects of injustice from more than 70 years ago are generally small. But effects can last much longer once we allow for impacts of past injustices to be transmitted through human capital accumulation as well as physical capital.


2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 106-121
Author(s):  
Kato Gogo Kingston

Financial crime in Nigeria – including money laundering – is ravaging Nigeria's economic growth. In the past few years, the Nigerian government has made efforts to tackle money laundering by enacting laws and setting up several agencies to enforce the laws. However, there are substantial loopholes in the regulatory and enforcement regimes. This article seeks to unravel the involvement of the churches as key drivers in money laundering crimes in Nigeria. It concludes that the permissive secrecy which enables churches to conceal the names of their financiers and donors breeds criminality on an unimaginable scale.


1997 ◽  
Vol 36 (4II) ◽  
pp. 855-862
Author(s):  
Tayyeb Shabir

Well-functioning financial markets can have a positive effect on economic growth by facilitating savings and more efficient allocation of capital. This paper characterises some of the recent theoretical developments that analyse the relationship between financial intermediation and economic growth and presents empirical estimates based on a model of the linkage between financially intermediated investment and growth for two separate groups of countries, developing and advanced. Empirical estimates for both groups suggest that financial intermediation through the efficiency of investment leads to a higher rate of growth per capita. The relevant coefficient estimates show a higher level of significance for the developing countries. This financial liberalisation in the form of deregulation and establishment and development of stock markets can be expected to lead to enhanced economic growth.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fariborz Moshirian ◽  
Nguyen Thi Thuy ◽  
Jin Yu ◽  
Bohui Zhang

Author(s):  
Telesca Giuseppe

The ambition of this book is to combine different bodies of scholarship that in the past have been interested in (1) providing social/structural analysis of financial elites, (2) measuring their influence, or (3) exploring their degree of persistence/circulation. The final goal of the volume is to investigate the adjustment of financial elites to institutional change, and to assess financial elites’ contribution to institutional change. To reach this goal, the nine chapters of the book introduced here look at financial elites’ role in different European societies and markets over time, and provide historical comparisons and country and cross-country analysis of their adaptation and contribution to the transformation of the national and international regulatory/cultural context in the wake of a crisis or in a longer term perspective.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-81
Author(s):  
Sacchidananda Mukherjee ◽  
Shivani Badola

Role of public financing of human development (HD) is inevitable, especially for developing countries like India where access to resources and economic opportunities are not equitably distributed among people. Governments aim to achieve equity in distribution of resources through allocative and redistributive policies whereas macroeconomic stabilisation policies aim to achieve higher economic growth and stability in the price level. Expenditure policies of the governments envisage in delivering larger public goods and services to enable people to take part in economic activities by investing in human capital and infrastructure developments. Progressivity of the tax system helps in achieving equity by redistribution of resources among people. Being merit goods, expenditures on education, health, and poverty eradication make it a case for public investment which empowers people to improve human capital. The benefit of universal economic participation is expected to contribute in larger mobilisation of public resources over time. Lack of economic opportunities and earning a respectable income may increase dependence on public transfers which may reduce fiscal space of the governments to finance programmes to promote overall economic growth. The objective of this article is to review existing studies on public financing of HD in India and highlight emerging challenges.


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