Financialization and income inequality: bringing class struggle back in

2021 ◽  
pp. 089692052110293
Author(s):  
Yair Kaldor
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Historical Development ◽  
Class Struggle ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Problems ◽  
United States Economy ◽  
Economic Developments ◽  
Unexpected Outcome ◽  
The Impact

Financialization and rising income inequality are two of the most pronounced economic developments of recent decades, and there is increasing evidence that these trends are somehow related. However, explanations of this link are still limited, and pay little attention to workers themselves. As a result, the impact of financialization on income inequality appears at most as an unfortunate side-effect. This article takes a different approach by investigating both financialization and income inequality from within the historical development of the class struggle in the United States economy. It shows that the economic problems of the 1970s that provided the impetus for financialization were closely related to the escalating conflicts between labor and capital, in which the state served as an increasingly important terrain of struggle. Viewed from this perspective, rising income inequality appears less as an unexpected outcome of financialization and more as its very raison d’etre.

The relationship between income inequality and inequality in schooling

2010 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan E. Mayer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Economic Theory ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
The United States ◽  
Education Policies ◽  
Empirical Estimates ◽  
Government Education ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Children of affluent parents get more schooling than children of poor parents, which seems to imply that reducing income inequality would reduce inequality in schooling. Similarly, one of the best predictors of an individual’s income is his educational attainment, which seems to imply that reducing inequality in schooling will reduce income inequality. Economic theory predicts that all else being equal an increase in income inequality will lead to an increase in inequality of educational attainment. Empirical estimates suggest that when income inequality increased in the United States so did inequality in educational attainment. But changes in government education policies reduced the impact of the increase in income inequality on inequality in schooling. Economic theory also predicts that all else being equal an increase in inequality of educational attainment will result in greater inequality of earnings. But unequal schooling does not account for much of the variance in income, so equalizing schooling will do little to reduce the overall variation in economic success among adults.

Law and Development in the United States

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong-Shik Lee
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
Law And Development ◽  
Economic Problems ◽  
The Third World ◽  
Unexpected Outcome

Abstract Economic development is the term that has been associated with less developed countries in the Third World (“developing countries”), not the economically advanced countries (“developed countries”), such as the United States. However, the changing economic conditions in recent decades, such as the widening income gaps among individual citizens and regions within developed countries, stagnant economic growth deepening economic polarization, and an institutional incapacity to deal with these issues, render the concept of economic development relevant to the assessment of the economic problems in developed countries. In the United States, these economic problems caused a significant political consequence such as the unexpected outcome of the presidential election in 2016. This article examines the applicability of the legal and institutional approaches, which were originally adopted to stimulate economic development in successful developing countries, to the economic problems in the United States.

THE IMPACT OF SMALL AND MEDIUM BUSINESSES ON THE UNITED STATES ECONOMY

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-82
Author(s):  
Nathaniel Sanchez ◽  
Balasundram Maniam ◽  
Hadley Leavell
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Economy ◽  
Medium Businesses ◽  
The Impact

INCOME INEQUALITY AND OBESITY PREVALENCE AMONG OECD COUNTRIES

2011 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 417-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
DEJUN SU ◽  
OMAR A. ESQUEDA ◽  
LIFENG LI ◽  
JOSÉ A. PAGÁN
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
The United States ◽  
Oecd Countries ◽  
Central Intelligence Agency ◽  
World Health ◽  
Obesity Prevalence ◽  
The Us ◽  
The World ◽  
The Impact

SummaryUsing recent pooled data from the World Health Organization Global Infobase and the World Factbook compiled by the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States, this study assesses the relation between income inequality and obesity prevalence among 31 OECD countries through a series of bivariate and multivariate linear regressions. The United States and Mexico well lead OECD countries in both obesity prevalence and income inequality. A sensitivity analysis suggests that the inclusion or exclusion of these two extreme cases can fundamentally change the findings. When the two countries are included, the results reveal a positive correlation between income inequality and obesity prevalence. This correlation is more salient among females than among males. Income inequality alone is associated with 16% and 35% of the variations in male and female obesity rates, respectively, across OECD countries in 2010. Higher levels of income inequality in the 2005–2010 period were associated with a more rapid increase in obesity prevalence from 2002 to 2010. These associations, however, virtually disappear when the US and Mexico have been excluded from the analysis. Findings from this study underscore the importance of assessing the impact of extreme cases on the relation between income inequality and health outcomes. The potential pathways from income inequality to the alarmingly high rates of obesity in the cases of the US and Mexico warrant further research.

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