COVID-19 may trigger an ideological shift over decades

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Global South ◽  
Borrowing Constraints ◽  
Democratic Institutions ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Key Driver ◽  
Thomas Piketty

Significance Research by Thomas Piketty shows that a form of free-market ideology has been a key driver of rising income inequality since the 1980s. The airing of alternative ideas, the challenge of decarbonising economies and the potential for the COVID-19 crisis to reset politics raise the prospect of a paradigm shift. Impacts In much of the global South, borrowing constraints and obstacles to taxing the wealthy will make redistribution harder. Strengthening democratic institutions may be as important as strengthening pro-equity political parties to advance redistributive agendas. Political parties in OECD nations have focused on ‘identity’ issues since the 1980s; COVID-19 is bringing redistribution back to the fore.

Structural barriers will hold back Tunisian economy

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Poor Performance ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
Tourist Industry ◽  
Structural Barriers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Proactive Approach ◽  
Rate Adjustment ◽  
Policy Objectives ◽  
Key Driver

Significance He also said that he would not resign despite pressure from political parties for him to do so. The poor performance of the economy has been a key driver of the political crisis, which last week saw political parties agree to create a new unity government. Security concerns have exacerbated the economic fallout from the 2011 uprising, weakening the tourist industry and investment more broadly. Impacts Central bank willingness to allow more rapid dinar depreciation suggests a more proactive approach to maintaining competitiveness. The exchange rate adjustment may ease some of the high external imbalances, even as it has created cost concerns for importers. However, this is likely to have a notable inflationary impact in coming months. Popular discontent will continue to constrain many policy objectives.

scholarly journals When Does Income Inequality Cause Polarization?

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Jacob R. Gunderson
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Positive Relationship ◽  
Conventional Wisdom ◽  
National Elections ◽  
Economic Issues ◽  
Party Positions ◽  
Economic Elites ◽  
The Right ◽  
Issue Content

Scholars have long been concerned with the implications of income inequality for democracy. Conventional wisdom suggests that high income inequality is associated with political parties taking polarized positions as the left advocates for increased redistribution while the right aims to entrench the position of economic elites. This article argues that the connection between party positions and income inequality depends on how party bases are sorted by income and the issue content of national elections. It uses data from European national elections from 1996 to 2016 to show that income inequality has a positive relationship with party polarization on economic issues when partisans are sorted with respect to income and when economic issues are relatively salient in elections. When these factors are weak, however, the author finds no relationship between income inequality and polarization.

User experience sharing

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (5/6) ◽  
pp. 1154-1184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Chen ◽  
Judy Drennan ◽  
Lynda Andrews ◽  
Linda D. Hollebeek
Keyword(s):  
User Experience ◽  
Online Communities ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Mobile App ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Key Driver ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Level Of Effort

PurposeThis paper aims to propose user experience sharing (UES) as a customer-based initiation of value co-creation pertaining to service provision, which represents customers’ level of effort made for the direct benefit of others in their service network. The authors propose and empirically examine a user experience sharing model (UESM) that explicates customer-to-customer (C2C) UES and its impacts on firm-desired customer-based outcomes in online communities.Design/methodology/ApproachBased on an extensive review, the authors conceptualize UES and UESM. By using online survey data collected from mobile app users in organic online communities, the authors performed structural equation modeling analyses by using AMOS 24.FindingsThe results support the proposed UESM, showing that C2C UES acts as a key driver of both firm-desired customer efforts and customer insights. The results also confirmed that service-dominant (S-D) logic-informed motivational drivers exert a significant impact on C2C UES. Importantly, C2C UES mediates the relationship between S-D logic-informed motivational drivers and firm-desired customer-based outcomes.Originality/valueThis study offers a pioneering attempt to develop an overarching concept, UES, which reflects customers’ initiation of value co-creation, and to empirically examine C2C UES. The empirical evidence supports the key contention that firms should proactively facilitate C2C UES.

Rethinking bibliographic utilities for library consortia

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (8) ◽  
pp. 7-9
Author(s):  
Israel Odede
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Distributed Network ◽  
Network Resources ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Library Consortia ◽  
Individual Ownership ◽  
Insight Into

Purpose The paper aims to critically examine the bibliographic utility as a roadmap to increase library consortia and provide an insight into a new library consortia strategy that integrates librarians into a system of sharing both resources and knowledge. Design/methodology/approach This study adopted a literature review approach with a focus on bibliographic utility as a necessary prerequisite for effective library consortia, which is a paradigm shift from the concept of individual ownership to a collective access of distributed network resources and knowledge. Findings The reviewed literature indicated that significant bibliographic utilities and integrated library systems are factors that shaped and developed consortia activities in libraries. Originality/value The bibliographic utility has limited literature, and a few published scholarly studies have combined bibliographic utility and library consortia as strategies to share resources and knowledge

scholarly journals User engagement with political “facts” in the context of the fake news phenomenon

2019 ◽  
Vol 75 (5) ◽  
pp. 1082-1099 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rita Marcella ◽  
Graeme Baxter ◽  
Agnieszka Walicka
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Information Quality ◽  
User Engagement ◽  
Government Information ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Subject Knowledge ◽  
Perceived Credibility ◽  
North East ◽  
Run Up ◽  
Quality Awareness

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a study that explored human behaviour in response to political “facts” presented online by political parties in Scotland. Design/methodology/approach The study consisted of interactive online interviews with 23 citizens in North-East Scotland, in the run-up to the 2017 UK General Election. Findings Participants demonstrated cognitive and critical responses to facts but little affective reaction. They judged facts swiftly and largely intuitively, providing evidence that facts are frequently consumed, accepted or rejected without further verification processes. Users demonstrated varying levels of engagement with the information they consume, and subject knowledge may influence the extent to which respondents trust facts, in previously unanticipated ways. Users tended to notice facts with which they disagreed and, in terms of prominence, particularly noted and responded to facts which painted extremely negative or positive pictures. Most acknowledged limitations in capacity to interrogate facts, but some were delusionally confident. Originality/value Relatively little empirical research has been conducted exploring the perceived credibility of political or government information online. It is believed that this and a companion study are the first to have specifically investigated the Scottish political arena. This paper presents a new, exploratory fact interrogation model, alongside an expanded information quality awareness model.

Political radicalization and fragmentation of the democratic blocs and the legislative council elections in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 372-384
Author(s):  
Chung Fun Steven Hung
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Special Administrative Region ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Legislative Council ◽  
Administrative Region ◽  
Two Systems ◽  
History Of ◽  
One Country Two Systems ◽  
Historical Comparative

Purpose After direct elections were instituted in Hong Kong and the sovereignty was transferred from Britain to China, politicization inevitably followed democratization. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the pro-democratic political parties’ politics in Hong Kong in recent history. Design/methodology/approach The research was conducted through a historical comparative analysis, within the context of Hong Kong after the sovereignty handover and the interim period of crucial democratization. Findings With the implementation of “One country, Two systems,” political democratization was hindered in Hong Kong’s transformation. The democratic forces have no alternative but to seek more radicalized politics, which has caused a decisive and ineluctable fragmentation of the local political parties. Originality/value This paper explores and evaluates the political history of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region under “One country, Two systems” and the ways in which the limited democratization hinders the progress of Hong Kong’s transformation.

Political Finance and Participation in Congressional Elections

1976 ◽  
Vol 425 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul A. Dawson ◽  
James E. Zinser
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Capita Income ◽  
Congressional Elections ◽  
Campaign Contributions ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Political Finance ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Registered Voters ◽  
Campaign Expenditures

Citizens participate in the electoral process both to enjoy intrinsic benefits and in the hope of future bene fits. Factors affecting the strength of these consumption and investment motives therefore will affect registration and turnout rates, levels of campaign contributions, and electoral margins. To some extent, the strength of these motives is fixed by relatively static factors: levels of district per capita income, the degree of income inequality, the partisan division of registered voters. However, both motives also are affected by factors more apt to vary: for example, statutory arrangements, the activities of political parties, levels and types of campaign expenditures. In particular, statutory arrangements and the activities of parties which reduce costs can increase participation. Moreover, substan tial efforts to alter the partisan division of registered voters can increase campaign contributions. Also, campaign expenditures channel motivations in partisan directions, stim ulate partisan turnout, and affect electoral margins. Results reported here suggest the likelihood of bipartisan support for policies facilitating registration and voting, challenge assumptions about the effects of incumbency on campaign contributions, raise doubts about legislated ceilings on cam paign expenditures, and weaken the case for public financing of congressional elections.

The transition to a multi-pillar pension system: the inherent socio-economic anomaly

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ishay Wolf ◽  
Jose Maria Caridad y Ocerin
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Pension System ◽  
Economic Loss ◽  
Pension Scheme ◽  
Total Contribution ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Pension Systems ◽  
High Earning ◽  
Minimum Pension

Purpose This paper aims to analytically show that in an over-lapping-generation (OLG) model, low earning cohorts bear unwanted risk and absorb higher economic cost than high earning cohorts do. Design/methodology/approach This paper aims to consider the individual's risk appetite, using a simple utility function, based on consumptions and discount rates in each period. This paper calibrates the model according to teh Israeli pension system as a representative of a small open developed organization for economic cooperation and development country. Israel is considered as unique case study in the pension landscape, as it implements almost pure defined contribution pension scheme with continuous trend of pension market capitalization (Giorno and Jacques, 2016). Hence, this study finds Israel suitable for examining the theoretical mix of pension scheme. That model enables exploring combined solutions for adequate old age benefits, involving the first and the second pension pillars, under fiscal constraints. Findings It comes out that for risk-averse individuals, the optimal degree of funding is negatively correlated to asset returns' volatility and positively correlated to earning decile level. The neglect of risk and individual's current earning level will thus overstate the contribution level and funded percentage from total contributions. Moreover, even in an economy with minimum government intervention, and highly developed private pension fund with high average of rate of return, the authors find it is optimal that the pension system contains a sizeable unfunded pillar. This paper innovates by revealing a socio-economic anomaly in design of mix pension systems in favor of high earning cohorts on the expense of economic loss of low earning cohorts. Practical implications The model presented in this paper could be implemented in countries with mix pension systems, as an alternative to public social transfers or means tested, alleviating poverty and inequality in old age. Additionally, this model could raise the public awareness of the financial sustainability of the unfunded pay-as-you-go pillar to diversify financial risk in pension systems, especially for low earning cohort in society. Social implications One area of research that is particularly relevant in this context concerns the issue of alleviating poverty and income inequality. It is often stressed that the prevention of old age poverty is among the central targets of well-designed pension system (Holzmann and Hinz, 2005). The conceptualization of minimum pension guarantee used in this composition allows to clearly capturing the notion of such a poverty and social targets as an integral part of the pension system rolls. Originality/value This paper innovates by revealing a socio-economic anomaly in design of mix pension systems in favor of high earning cohorts on the expense of economic loss of low earning cohorts. That comes to realize through the level of total contribution rates and funded share that are generally optimal for high earning cohorts but not for low earning cohorts. This paper identifies that the effect of anomaly is most significant in a market characterized with high income-inequality level. This paper finds that imposing intra-generational risk sharing instrument in the form of minimum pension guarantee can re-balance pension design among different earning cohorts. This solution demonstrates balancing effect on the entire economy.

Traditional water knowledge: challenges and opportunities to build resilience to urban floods

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rumana Asad ◽  
Iftekhar Ahmed ◽  
Josephine Vaughan ◽  
Jason von Meding
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Urban Design ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Global South ◽  
Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Specific Knowledge ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Water Values

Purpose Urban flooding in developing countries of the Global South is growing due to extreme rainfall and sea-level rise induced by climate change, as well as the proliferation of impervious, built-up areas resulting from unplanned urbanisation and development. Continuous loss of traditional knowledge related to local water management practices, and the de-valuing of such knowledge that goes hand-in-hand with globalised aspirations, is inhibiting flood resilience efforts. This paper aims to address the need to include traditional water knowledge (TWK) in urban living and development processes in the Global South. Design/methodology/approach This paper commences with a review of existing frameworks that focus on natural resource management, critically assessing two existing frameworks of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK). The assessment of the existing approaches contributes to this paper’s development of a novel framework to promote TWK with regard to resilience and risk reduction, specifically for developing flood adaptive strategies, which is the second stage of this paper. Finally, the paper explains how the framework can contribute to the field of urban design and planning using examples from the literature to demonstrate challenges and opportunities related to the adaptation of such a framework. Findings The framework developed in this paper reveals three proposed vertices of TWK, named as place-based landscape knowledge, water use and management and water values. This framework has the potential to produce context-specific knowledge that can contribute to flood-resilient built-environment through urban design and practices. Research limitations/implications The framework developed in this paper reveals three proposed vertices of TWK, named place-based landscape knowledge, water use and management and water values. This framework has the potential to produce context-specific knowledge that can contribute to flood-resilient built-environment through urban design and practices. Originality/value Within the field of TEK research, very few researchers have explored the field of developing flood resilience in an urban context. The proposed TWK framework presented in this paper will help to fill that gap.

Economic growth and income inequality: a non-linear econometrics analysis of the SADC region, 1990–2015

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindokuhle Talent Zungu ◽  
Lorraine Greyling ◽  
Nkanyiso Mbatha
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Threshold Level ◽  
Transition Function ◽  
Smooth Transition ◽  
Lower Growth ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Job Opportunities ◽  
Lm Test ◽  
Smooth Transition Regression

PurposeThe authors investigate the growth–inequality relationship, using panel data from 13 Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries over the period 1990–2015, to test the validity of the Kuznets and Tribble theories. Furthermore, the authors seek to determine the threshold level at which excessive growth hampers inequality.Design/methodology/approachThe panel smooth transition regression (PSTR) model has several stages. The authors applied the Lagrange multiplier (LM) test to find the appropriate transition variable amongst all candidate variables, to assess the linearity between economic growth and income inequality and to find the sequence for selecting the order m of the transition function. The authors then estimated the PSTR model, but before facilitating the results, the authors first used the wild cluster bootstrap (WCB)–LM-type test to assess the appropriateness of the selected transition.FindingsThe authors found that at lower growth, income inequality tends to be lower, while if growth increases above US$8,969, inequality tends to increase in the SADC region. The findings combine into a U-shaped relationship, contradicting the Kuznets and Tribble theories.Originality/valueThe contribution of this paper is that it becomes the first to provide the threshold level at which excessive growth increases inequality in the selected countries. This study proposes that policymakers should focus on activities aimed at stimulating growth, in other words, activities such as spending more on infrastructure, drawing up a suitable investment portfolio and spending on technological investment for countries that are below US$8,969. An improvement in these activities will create job opportunities, which in turn will add to economic growth and thus lead to lower income inequality and better social cohesion.

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