A Comparative Study of Inequality and Corruption

2005 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 136-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
You Jong-sung ◽  
Sanjeev Khagram
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Instrumental Variables ◽  
Significant Interaction ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Significant Interaction Effect ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The World ◽  
Corruption Index ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Control Of Corruption

This article argues that income inequality increases the level of corruption through material and normative mechanisms. The wealthy have both greater motivation and more opportunity to engage in corruption, whereas the poor are more vulnerable to extortion and less able to monitor and hold the rich and powerful accountable as inequality increases. Inequality also adversely affects social norms about corruption and people's beliefs about the legitimacy of rules and institutions, thereby making it easier for them to tolerate corruption as acceptable behavior. This comparative analysis of 129 countries using two-stage least squares methods with a variety of instrumental variables supports the authors' hypotheses using different measures of corruption (the World Bank's Control of Corruption Index and the Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index). The explanatory power of inequality is at least as important as conventionally accepted causes of corruption such as economic development. The authors also found a significant interaction effect between inequality and democracy, as well as evidence that inequality affects norms and perceptions about corruption using the World Values Surveys data. Because corruption also contributes to income inequality, societies often fall into vicious circles of inequality and corruption.

scholarly journals Burden Sharing: Income, Inequality and Willingness to Fight

2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 363-379
Author(s):  
Christopher J. Anderson ◽  
Anna Getmansky ◽  
Sivan Hirsch-Hoefler
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Military Service ◽  
Burden Sharing ◽  
World Values Survey ◽  
Country Level ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The World ◽  
The Rich

What explains citizens’ willingness to fight for their country in times of war? Using six waves of the World Values Survey, this study finds that individual willingness to fight is negatively related with country-level income inequality. When income inequality is high, the rich are less willing to fight than the poor. When inequality is low, the poor and rich differ little in their willingness to fight. This change in the willingness to fight between low and high inequality countries is greater among the rich than among the poor. This article explores several explanations for these findings. The data are consistent with the argument that high inequality makes it more attractive for the rich to buy themselves out of military service.

The effects of debt restructurings on income inequality in the developing world

2021 ◽  
pp. 135406612110014
Author(s):  
Glen Biglaiser ◽  
Ronald J. McGauvran
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Panel Data ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Income Distribution ◽  
Government Spending ◽  
Tax Reform ◽  
Social Spending ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Impact

Developing countries, saddled with debts, often prefer investors absorb losses through debt restructurings. By not making full repayments, debtor governments could increase social spending, serving poorer constituents, and, in turn, lowering income inequality. Alternatively, debtor governments could reduce taxes and cut government spending, bolstering the assets of the rich at the expense of the poor. Using panel data for 71 developing countries from 1986 to 2016, we assess the effects of debt restructurings on societal income distribution. Specifically, we study the impact of debt restructurings on social spending, tax reform, and income inequality. We find that countries receiving debt restructurings tend to use their newly acquired economic flexibility to reduce taxes and lower social spending, worsening income inequality. The results are also robust to different model specifications. Our study contributes to the globalization and the poor debate, suggesting the economic harm caused to the less well-off following debt restructurings.

By Popular Demand: The Effect of Public Opinion on Income Inequality

2005 ◽  
Vol 4 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 261-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Andersen ◽  
Anthony Heath ◽  
David Weakliem
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Instrumental Variables ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Reciprocal Causation ◽  
Low Incomes ◽  
The World ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Distribution Of Income

AbstractThis paper examines the relationship between public support for wage differentials and actual income inequality using data from the World Values Surveys. The distribution of income is more equal in nations where public opinion is more egalitarian. There is some evidence that the opinions of people with higher incomes are more influential than those of people with low incomes. Although the estimated relationship is stronger in democracies, it is present even under non-democratic governments, and the hypothesis that effects are equal cannot be rejected. We consider the possibility of reciprocal causation by means of an instrumental variables analysis, which yields no evidence that income distribution affects opinion.

When Do the Rich Vote Less Than the Poor and Why? Explaining Turnout Inequality across the World

2014 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 613-627 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimuli Kasara ◽  
Pavithra Suryanarayan
Keyword(s):  
The Poor ◽  
The World ◽  
The Rich

scholarly journals Globalisation and older people: effects of markets and migration

2002 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 647-663 ◽  
Author(s):  
GAIL WILSON
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Older People ◽  
Economic Restructuring ◽  
Older Men ◽  
World Trade Organisation ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The World ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Older Men And Women

This paper discusses the material aspects of globalisation and the effects of the movements of trade, capital and people around the world on older men and women. While some older people have benefited, most notably where pensions and health care are well developed, the majority of older men and women are among the poor who have not. Free trade, economic restructuring, the globalisation of finance, and the surge in migration, have in most parts of the world tended to produce harmful consequences for older people. These developments have been overseen, and sometimes dictated, by inter-governmental organisations (IGOs) such as the International Monetary Foundation (IMF), the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation (WTO), while other IGOs with less power have been limited to anti-ageist exhortation. Globalisation transfers resources from the poor to the rich within and between countries. It therefore increases social problems while simultaneously diminishing the freedom and capacity of countries to make social policy. Nonetheless, the effects of globalisation, and particularly its financial dimensions, on a nation's capacity for making social policy can be exaggerated. Political will can combat international economic orthodoxy, but the evident cases are the exception rather than the rule.

scholarly journals KONSEP HAK MILIK DALAM EKONOMI ISLAM

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-207
Author(s):  
AN Ras Try Astuti ◽  
Andi Faisal
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Economic System ◽  
The Other ◽  
Private Ownership ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The World ◽  
Joint Ownership ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Individual

Capitalism as an economic system that is implemented by most countries in the world today, in fact it gave birth to injustice and social inequalityare increasingly out of control. Social and economic inequalities are felt both between countries (developed and developing countries) as well as insociety itself (the rich minority and the poor majority). The condition is born from the practice of departing from faulty assumptions about the man. In capitalism the individual to own property released uncontrollably, causing a social imbalance. On the other hand, Islam never given a state model that guarantees fair distribution of ownership for all members of society, ie at the time of the Prophet Muhammad established the Islamic government in Medina. In Islam, the private ownership of property was also recognized but not absolute like capitalism. Islam also recognizes the forms of joint ownership for the benefit of society and acknowledges the ownership of the state that aims to create a balance and social justice.

Deconstructing the ‘Digital Divide’ In Africa

2012 ◽  
pp. 222-236
Author(s):  
Stephen Mutula
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Digital Divide ◽  
Information Society ◽  
Wealth Creation ◽  
World Summit ◽  
Cable Tv ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The World ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Developed World

The debate about whether the digital divide between Africa and the developed world is narrowing or widening has intensified over the last five years. Some believe that access to technology is positively correlated to economic development and wealth creation, however, since the dawn of the last century, the gap between the rich and the poor within and between developed and developing countries has continued to grow. The protagonists in this debate do not seem to appreciate the notion that the digital divide is not about a single technology, and is driven by a complex set of factors that exist beyond wires. This paper attempts to deconstruct the concept of the digital divide beyond access to PCs, telephones, Internet, cable TV, etc… The authors argue that the phenomenon as currently conceived is misleading and flawed, and so are the indices for its measurement. Suggestions that a new model for mapping the phenomenon is made in order to bridge the divide between developed and developing countries. In deconstructing the digital divide, the authors use the Declaration of Principles of the World Summit on Information Society and the indices used to measure e-readiness, information society, digital opportunity, and e-government.

Thomas Piketty’s Historical-Institutional Study of Wealth and Income Inequality

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 1311-1325
Author(s):  
John Eustice O’Brien
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Environmental Responsibility ◽  
Market Regulation ◽  
Minor Variation ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
Neoliberal Capitalism ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The World ◽  
The Right ◽  
Thomas Piketty

In his Capital and Ideology, Thomas Piketty (2019) deepens and broadens his historical and material analysis of the institutional sources of wealth and income inequality. Fueled by an expanded data base, he extends his position to cover the globe. In his earlier work, he disavowed Kuznets, demonstrating that under néoliberal capitalism, concentration of wealth continues at the top of the economic ladder, while indifferent to the suffering among those at the bottom. With his data he demonstrates that the problem of inequality is due only partly to capitalism as technical machine, and moreso to the way governments facilitate it in favor of their elites. This occurs thanks to an informal and unchallenged ideological consensus, that the wealthy have earned the right to their advantage, as have also–in negative terms, the poor. Without major restructuring, this is the inevitable yield under the ‘regimes of inequality’, which with minor variation today characterize all major nations around the world. As alternative, he proposes a participative-socialism, with modification concerning the nature of property, its distribution and ownership, supported by alterations in market regulation, economic rights, worker participation in enterprises, education, citizen engagement and environmental responsibility.

The U.N. and the (Economic) Education of Henry Kissinger

Worldview ◽  
1976 ◽  
Vol 19 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 7-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena Stalson
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
International System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Education ◽  
Henry Kissinger ◽  
Poor Countries ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The World ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Rich Countries

Something remarkable and of historic importance took place in New York during the first two weeks of September, 1975. At a Special Session of the United Nations the poor countries of the world, who have 70 per cent of its people and 30 per cent of its income, demanded that the rich, countries make some major changes in the international system. And the rich countries, including the United States, responded in new ways. Most reporters failed to notice how remarkable the events were, but the evidence is there.

scholarly journals China's Post-Socialist Inequality

2012 ◽  
Vol 111 (746) ◽  
pp. 229-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin King Whyte
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Sharp Increase ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Rich

The country's sharp increase in income inequality is not the result of the rich getting richer while the poor become poorer.

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