scholarly journals Manufacturing Jobs and Inequality

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (191) ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalija Novta ◽  
Evgenia Pugacheva

We examine the extent to which declining manufacturing employment may have contributed to increasing inequality in advanced economies. This contribution is typically small, except in the United States. We explore two possible explanations: the high initial manufacturing wage premium and the high level of income inequality. The manufacturing wage premium declined between the 1980s and the 2000s in the United States, but it does not explain the contemporaneous rise in inequality. Instead, high income inequality played a large role. This is because manufacturing job loss typically implies a move to the service sector, for which the worker is not skilled at first and accepts a low-skill wage. On average, the associated wage cut increases with the overall level of income inequality in the country, conditional on moving down in the wage distribution. Based on a stylized scenario, we calculate that the movement of workers to low-skill service sector jobs can account for about a quarter of the increase in inequality between the 1980s and the 2000s in the United States. Had the U.S. income distribution been more equal, only about one tenth of the actual increase in inequality could have been attributed to the loss of manufacturing jobs, according to our simulations.

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (7) ◽  
pp. 736-745 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik P. Duhaime ◽  
Evan P. Apfelbaum

Scholars, politicians, and laypeople alike bemoan the high level of political polarization in the United States, but little is known about how to bring the views of liberals and conservatives closer together. Previous research finds that providing people with information regarding a contentious issue is ineffective for reducing polarization because people process such information in a biased manner. Here, we show that information can reduce political polarization below baseline levels and also that its capacity to do so is sensitive to contextual factors that make one’s relevant preferences salient. Specifically, in a nationally representative sample (Study 1) and a preregistered replication (Study 2), we find that providing a taxpayer receipt—an impartial, objective breakdown of how one’s taxes are spent that is published annually by the White House—reduces polarization regarding taxes, but not when participants are also asked to indicate how they would prefer their taxes be spent.


Author(s):  
Stephanie Moller ◽  
Joya Misra

Social policy plays a central role in redistributing resources to ensure greater equality or at least increased opportunities for members of disadvantaged groups. This essay considers how the U.S. welfare state redistributes incomes through social policies, while reinforcing other forms of stratification. The essay begins by comparing inequality in the United States to other advanced industrialized countries, and shows that the level of income inequality is higher in the United States than in most of these nations. It then presents data on inequality in the United States by race and gender. Finally, it discusses how specific policies alter levels of inequality by redistributing income or institutionalizing sources of income inequality. In general, U.S. social policies help to reduce inequality, but they have limited effectiveness, particularly in comparison to other advanced industrialized countries, in reducing inequality by race, class, gender, and family structure.


1985 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Lewis Feldman

The Malvinas (Falklands) war of April-June 1982 has generated little attention among international scholars largely because neither its causes or consequences are. assumed to have great power significance.The thesis of this article is that the timing of the Malvinas invasion, and the subsequent miscalculation that the United States would tacitly assist Argentina, were partly shaped by U. S. policies. Although the principal motive for the invasion was to vindicate a claim stretching back to the early 19th century (U.S. House 1982c: 50-51; Etchepareborda, 1983:48-58), the abruptness of Argentina's actions was conditioned by Reagan administration overtures towards a grand “anti-Communist” alliance (Maechling, 1982:75-82; Sunday Times, 1982: 63); an increase in the frequency and prestige of high-level contacts between the U.S. and Argentina between 1980-1982; the cultivation of official links between Galtieri and high-ranking U.S. national security officials (U.S. House, 1982d: 67; Hastings and Jenkins, 1983:46); the intense, personal diplomacy of former Secretary of State Haig during the conflict (Hastings and Jenkins, 1983: 104-113); and by covert efforts by Argentina to extend and strengthen U.S.-Argentine ties (Cardoso et al., 1983: 60-61).


2003 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
John J. McCall

Abstract:The United States is distinctive among advanced economies in that its employment laws and practices are governed by Employment at Will (EAW). Most other nations have variations on Just Cause dismissal rules. I argue that the U.S. preference for EAW is unsupported by concerns about net social or economic consequences. More centrally, I argue that the basic moral commitments that underlie the U.S. system of private property and freedom of contract are commitments that lend support to Just Cause over EAW.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian C. Thiede ◽  
Jaclyn L.W. Butler ◽  
David L. Brown ◽  
Leif Jensen

Since the 1970s, the U.S. has experienced dramatic increases in income inequality. Although this macro-level trend is well-established in research literature, less is known about subnational patterns of income inequality in the U.S., particularly as they vary between and within rural and urban localities. Using Census and ACS data, this study produces Gini estimates of within-county income inequality and examines these trends across a six-strata urban-rural typology from 1970 to 2016. This study finds the following. Income inequality has remained consistently higher in nonmetropolitan counties than metropolitan counties throughout the study period. However, levels of inequality have converged by 2016, a convergence that has been driven by increases in metropolitan counties. There are notable exceptions to the secular trend of increasing inequality. The central Plains region has experienced decreasing levels of inequality, and inequality in large, peripheral metropolitan counties lags noticeably behind other types of counties. Almost all low-inequality counties in 1970 have shifted to moderate- or high-inequality, such that almost no one lives in low-inequality places by 2016. This increase in exposure to inequality has been particularly dramatic among residents of large, central metropolitan counties. As the only county-level analysis to track income inequality across the rural-urban continuum from 1970 to 2016, this study lays the foundation for more sophisticated analyses that explain spatial variation in income inequality and that account for the demographic and economic diversity of the rural and urban United States.


Author(s):  
ARTURO MADRID

Making English the official language of the United States is a false policy issue. The evidence does not support arguments that the use of English is declining or that the use of other languages debilitates the social fabric of the United States. On the contrary, attempts to impose English on the U.S. population have served historically to divide the nation. The facts do not support linguistic or social fragmentation. English is the language of state and the common language of the U.S. population. Immigrants continue to enter the United States because of the protections and opportunities it offers, and they give highest priority to learning English. The real language-policy issues have to do with literacy and high-level multilingual skills. A sane national language policy would give primacy to literacy and would promote multilingualism. The nation's energies must be directed at language policies that empower all citizens rather than punish some.


SURG Journal ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-51
Author(s):  
Kathryn Swierzewski

This study examines the effect assortative mating by education has on income inequality by household. In contrast to the majority of other literature in this field which focus on the United States (U.S.) as a whole, this study makes use of state-level data to examine the marriage mating market with respect to education attainment. It also examines how homogamous partnerships increase income inequality across households by analyzing changes in the Gini coefficient over time. Panel data for this analysis is from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS-International and IPUMS-USA) from the U.S. Census of the Population. Assortative mating by education is shown in this analysis to be a contributing factor to increasing inequality among homogamous heterosexual partnerships in the U.S. from 1960 to 2005. Keywords: assortative mating; education level; United States (state-level, from 1960-2005); income inequality (household); labour economics; welfare economics


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 304-324
Author(s):  
Natalia Valerievna Galistcheva ◽  
Elena Vakhtangovna Nebolsina

The paper investigates trade and investment relations between India and its two major trading partners, viz. the U.S. and China in the 2000-2010s. On the basis of mixed method research with equal use of quantitative and qualitative, as well as historical and statistical methods, the authors estimate the possibilities for expanding interstate interactions and the difficulties the countries might face. By comparing the scale and particulars of the product structure of Indo-American and Indo-Chinese trade, the authors reveal that intra-industry trade between India and the United States is at a fairly high level, which, in turn, is not typical for the trade between India and China, which is mostly inter-industry due to the sluggish cooperation of Indian and Chinese entrepreneurs. The authors assess the intensity of the Indo-American and Indo-Chinese bilateral trade between 2000-2018 by means of indices of intensity of Indias exports and imports to / from the USA and China, as well as indices of intensity of exports and imports of its partners to / from India. The obtained results outline the upward trend of the share of Indian exports to the U.S. relative to other countries, which indicates that India is successfully conquering the U.S. market, and Indian goods are becoming increasingly competitive. Meanwhile, the volume of Indian-Chinese trade remains on a much lower level than it could be expected with the current share of India in the world trade. In the meantime, neither for the United States nor for China, India is a dominant partner. The article also investigates major obstacles hindering the development of both Indo-American and Indo-Chinese bilateral relations. The obtained results enable the authors to predict that in the short- and mid-term economic cooperation between India and its leading partners is likely to strengthen, with India keeping striving for standing neuter while building the two most crucial vectors of its foreign economic policy.


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