scholarly journals Towards a Utilitarian Social Welfare Function—Income Inequality and National Welfare Growth in China

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 344
Author(s):  
Songtao Wang ◽  
Bin Li ◽  
Tristan Kenderdine
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Gini Coefficient ◽  
Social Welfare Function ◽  
Loss Rate ◽  
Welfare Loss ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Reform Period ◽  
National Welfare ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Loss Formula

Since the beginning of the reform period, China's income inequality has increased. However, loss of national welfare and the impact of income inequality on the growth of national welfare has not been adequately assessed. The result is that any development model myopically focusing on efficiency and ignoring equality cannot maximize growth in national welfare. Grounded in utilitarian theory, this paper builds a national welfare function which incorporates the Gini coefficient and demonstrates the negative effects of income inequality on China’s national welfare. We then provide a welfare-loss formula of income inequality and another formula to calculate the influence of income inequality change on national welfare growth. Our calculations show that from 1996 to 2010, the average welfare-loss rate of China’s residents' income inequality was 8.08%, with absolute welfare loss increasing1.44 times; while the relative impact of Gini coefficient increases on national welfare growth was (-) 8.66%.

scholarly journals Financialization and Income Inequality in Selected European Countries, 2004–2013

e-Finanse ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 20-32
Author(s):  
Grzegorz Golebiowski ◽  
Piotr Szczepankowski ◽  
Dorota Wisniewska
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Gini Coefficient ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Value Added ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Total Employment ◽  
The Gini Coefficient ◽  
Synthetic Indicator ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The article examines the impact of financialization on income inequality between 2004 and 2013, through a panel analysis of seven European countries. Moreover, it attempts to examine differences in the perception of the phenomenon between the selected European countries belonging to the G-7 and countries from Central and Eastern Europe. The results demonstrate the existence of individual effects, which means that the level of inequality under examination is influenced predominantly by country-specific factors. The most significant correlation is noticeable between the level of unemployment and the degree of income inequality. An increase in unemployment is accompanied by a rise in the disproportions in the level of income that individual citizens have at their disposal whereas a decrease in the unemployment level contributes to an improvement of the GINI coefficient. Simultaneously, the results confirm the existence of significant correlations between the level of the GINI coefficient and such financialization indicators as the share of employment in finance in total employment and the contribution of the financial sector to total value added creation. The most prominent dependency was discovered when a constructed synthetic indicator was adopted as an indicator of financialization. At the same time, analysis of the synthetic country financialization indicator points to a conclusion that the level of financialization is higher in European countries belonging to the G-7 (especially Great Britain) than in countries from Central and Eastern Europe.

Impact of Self-Help Group (SHG) Membership on Income and Income Inequality

2019 ◽  
pp. 341-364
Author(s):  
Maniklal Adhikary ◽  
Sumanta Kumar Das
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Gini Coefficient ◽  
Rural Women ◽  
Lorenz Curve ◽  
Direct Impact ◽  
Self Help ◽  
Birbhum District ◽  
Direct Outcome ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Self Help Group

The microfinance program has now been recognized as an effective tool to empower economically the rural women folk. The earning is the most important direct outcome of micro finance participation unlike acquiring empowerment. Participation in the program helps women to inculcate their saving habit. It gives access to the formal credit to them. All these have direct impact on their economic condition. This study explores the impact of microfinance program on the income of the program participants of Birbhum District in West Bengal in India. The study also focuses on how participation helps in reducing inequality in income of the participants. The major finding of the study is that women self-help group (SHG) members have the higher level of income compared to that of non-SHG members. The study also shows that SHG participation also helps them in reducing inequalities in their income. Gini coefficient and Lorenz curve technique has been used to assess the income distribution of the respondents.

scholarly journals Sampling Errors and Cross-Country Comparisons of Income Inequality

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rolf Aaberge
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Gini Coefficient ◽  
Alternative Measure ◽  
Sampling Errors ◽  
The Gini Coefficient ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Cross Country ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Cross National

The growing interest in cross-national comparisons of income inequality is primarily a result of the establishment of the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) database and the wide range of studies on income inequality based on LIS data. The majority of these studies suffer, however, from a major weakness since sampling errors are neither reported nor taken into account when nations are ranked according to estimates of the Gini coefficient or some alternative measure of inequality. This paper discusses the impact of accounting for sampling errors when making comparisons of income inequality across nations.

Direct and Indirect Effects of Income Inequality On Economic Growth Through Political Economy

2019 ◽  
pp. 5-17
Author(s):  
Goksu Aslan
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Indirect Effects ◽  
Direct Effects ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Transmission Channels ◽  
Interaction Terms ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Different Levels

In addition to its direct effects, income inequality may affect economic growth indirectly through various transmission channels. Negative effects may arise from a political economy, socio-political instability, and credit market imperfections. In other words, inequality may have indirect effects on economic growth through these transmission channels. In this article, the focus is on testing the impact of income inequality through the political economy channel, using several types of taxes as the proxy for redistributive pressure. In order to test the possible effects through these channels, income inequality, taxation, and related interaction terms are added into the growth model. The results show that there is a significant negative interaction between income inequality and tax channels. This interaction is also justified with the tax index calculated by the PCA. Marginal effects of the related tax channels are interpreted for different levels of income inequality.

Income Inequality and Health: Panel Data Evidence from Canada

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 927-959 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ehsan Latif
Keyword(s):  
Health Status ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Theil Index ◽  
Mean Deviation ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Absolute Income ◽  
Current Health ◽  
Current Health Status ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Positive Effect

AbstractUsing longitudinal data from the Canadian National Population Survey (1994–2006), this study examines the impact of income inequality on current health outcomes. The result suggests that once unobserved individual specific heterogeneity is controlled for, income inequality as measured by Gini Coefficient has no significant impact on current health status. This result holds true for contemporaneous income inequality as well as for lagged income inequalities. There are mixed results from the robustness check using various measures of income inequality. Decile Ratio (90P/10P) and Coefficient of Variation have no impacts on current health status. On the other hand, contemporaneous income inequality measured by Log Mean Deviation and Theil Index have significant negative effects on current health. All of the models suggest that absolute income has a significant positive effect on health status

scholarly journals Income inequality and financialization: a not so straightforward relationship

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Constantinos Alexiou ◽  
Emmanouil Trachanas ◽  
Sofoklis Vogiazas
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Gini Coefficient ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Credit Market ◽  
Market Regulation ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Panel Fixed Effects ◽  
The Impact

PurposeThe authors explore the impact of financialization on income inequality for a panel of 19 OECD countries over the period 2000–2017. The authors control for the effect of banking crises, credit market regulation and globalization, among other factors.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use three proxies for income inequality and four proxies for financialization. The authors employ a panel fixed effects approach using Driscoll and Kraay’s (1998) nonparametric covariance matrix estimator, which produces standard errors that are robust to general forms of cross-sectional dependence.FindingsThe authors provide evidence which to a great extent supports the view that the process of financialization has increased income inequality. In the disposable Gini specifications, two out of the four financialization measures are found to significantly contribute to rising inequality whilst in the specification with the market income Gini coefficient, three out of the four financialization proxies appear to adversely affect inequality. In the specification with the Gini coefficient based on manufacturing pay, the evidence is weak. Furthermore, trade unions appear to play a significant role in reducing inequality in two out of the three Gini specifications while the effect of credit market regulation is rather ambiguous.Originality/valueThe authors’ findings suggest a positive relationship between financialization and income inequality; however, the results depend on the proxies used to measure financialization and income inequality. The authors conclude that the process of financialization in triggering income inequality is complex and merits additional research.

scholarly journals The labor share and income inequality: some empirical evidence for the period 1990-2015

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (84) ◽  
pp. 173-195
Author(s):  
Iñaki Erauskin
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Panel Data ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Gini Coefficient ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Labor Share ◽  
Income Share ◽  
The Gini Coefficient ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze empirically the relationship between the labor share and income inequality, as measured by the Gini coefficient and by the income shares for different quintiles, during the period 1990–2015 for 62 developed and developing countries. Design/methodology/approach This study uses panel data techniques to analyze empirically the relationship between the labor share and income inequality. Findings This paper finds that a lower labor share is associated with a higher Gini coefficient. A lower labor share is found to be strongly associated with a smaller income share for the lowest two quintiles and larger income share for the highest quintile and weakly associated with a smaller income share for the third and fourth quintiles. Moreover, this paper finds that the lower the quintile, the stronger the impact of the labor share on the income share of the quintile. Social implications Policymakers should take into account the evolution of the labor share. Public policies that improve labor market outcomes, such as those aimed to promote participation in the labor market and strengthen the human capital of low-income groups, seem necessary to prevent the rise in economic inequalities. Moreover, as the digital transformation of society progresses, policies to promote skill deepening may have an important role in reversing excessive inequalities. Originality/value How changes in the labor share are associated with changes in the Gini coefficient, and how this is driven by income shares for different quintiles, for a broad range of countries during the most recent period, has not been comprehensively studied using panel data techniques.

scholarly journals The impact of income inequality on rental affordability: An empirical study in large American metropolitan areas

Urban Studies ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (10) ◽  
pp. 2106-2122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongwei Dong
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Gini Coefficient ◽  
Metropolitan Areas ◽  
County Level ◽  
Longitudinal Analyses ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
The Past ◽  
Percentage Points ◽  
The Impact

American metropolitan areas have experienced rising income inequality and worsening rental affordability in the past few decades. Has the rise of inequality caused worsening rental affordability? This study conducts both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses to examine the impact of income inequality on rental affordability for low-income tenant households at the county level in America’s largest 100 metropolitan areas. The cross-sectional analyses reveal that, everything else equal, an increase of Gini coefficient by 0.1 in a county was associated with 2.2 and 4.4 percentage points more severely rent-burdened low-income households in 2000 and 2008–2012, respectively. The longitudinal analyses confirm that rising income inequality caused worsening rental affordability for low-income tenant households in large American metropolitan areas between 2000 and 2008–2012. On average, counties that experienced a 0.1 greater increase in Gini coefficient from 2000 to 2008–2012 saw faster growth of severely rent-burdened low-income tenant households by 2.9 percentage points.

Income inequality among cities with powiat rights in Śląskie voivodship

2018 ◽  
Vol 63 (9) ◽  
pp. 52-70
Author(s):  
Jan Czempas
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Economic Policy ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Order Statistics ◽  
Gini Coefficient ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
The Gini Coefficient ◽  
Degree Of Differentiation

The aim of the research is to assess whether the socio-economic policy pursued in the years 2006—2016 resulted in the reduction of income inequality among 19 cities with powiat rights in Śląskie voivodship. The research was based on the total and the own revenues from the annual reports prepared for the Regional Chamber of Audit. In the analysis, disproportion coefficients were applied, including the Gini coefficient and indicators based on order statistics. Changes in the degree of differentiation of meters characterising the disproportions among the cities with powiat rights occurring over the analysed years were examined. Determining the direction of changes enabled to identify whether inequalities in the analysed cases are a deepening problems or losing its significance. The obtained results may be used by the decision-making bodies aware of the need for reactions anticipating the negative effects of large stratification or to abandon such actions where the disproportions are small.

The More Control, the Better?

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 81-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeeyun Oh ◽  
Mun-Young Chung ◽  
Sangyong Han
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Design ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Story Structure ◽  
Content Type ◽  
High User ◽  
User Control ◽  
Rigorous Research ◽  
Control Versus ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Impact

Despite of the popularity of interactive movie trailers, rigorous research on one of the most apparent features of these interfaces – the level of user control – has been scarce. This study explored the effects of user control on users’ immersion and enjoyment of the movie trailers, moderated by the content type. We conducted a 2 (high user control versus low user control) × 2 (drama film trailer versus documentary film trailer) mixed-design factorial experiment. The results showed that the level of user control over movie trailer interfaces decreased users’ immersion when the trailer had an element of traditional story structure, such as a drama film trailer. Participants in the high user control condition answered that they were less fascinated with, absorbed in, focused on, mentally involved with, and emotionally affected by the movie trailer than participants in the low user control condition only with the drama movie trailer. The negative effects of user control on the level of immersion for the drama trailer translated into users’ enjoyment. The impact of user control over interfaces on immersion and enjoyment varies depending on the nature of the media content, which suggests a possible trade-off between the level of user control and entertainment outcomes.

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