Understanding Migration and Income Inequality

Author(s):  
Assaf Razin

Because the Soviet-Jews exodus was not foreseen ahead of time, Israel’s migration experience is amenable to the natural-experiment methodology. Disposable-income inequality in Israel, was roughly stable until the beginning of the 1990s, rose sharply following the immigration wave, even though no such change occurs with respect to the market-generated inequality. The chapter develops a stylized general equilibrium model with free migration, where wages are endogenous and redistribution policy is determined by (endogenously determined) majority voting. It address the issue of how migration can reshape the political balance of power, especially between skilled and unskilled and between native-born and migrants, and consequently to political-economic equilibrium redistribution policy of the welfare state.

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
David R. Mares

ABSTRACTThis article examines how government policy affects the sustainability and inclusiveness of national development after the boom. The impact of the latest commodity boom (2003-2014) on the sustainability and inclusiveness of Latin American national development varies, but not by whether governments were ideologically left. I present the economic results of the commodity boom for the major Latin American countries, followed by the social results as measured by the reduction in poverty rates and income inequality. I examine potential countervailing economic factors that could mitigate the importance of the political economic determinants of the use of resource wealth. Finding the countervailing economic factors inadequate to explain the variation in social results, I propose that the political economy of linking resource wealth with economic and social outcomes is the key determinant. I conclude the paper with a discussion of current challenges post-commodity boom.Keywords: Commodity Boom; Poverty; Income Inequality. RESUMOEste artigo examina como a política do governo afeta a sustentabilidade e a inclusão do desenvolvimento nacional após o boom. O impacto do último boom das commodities (2003-2014) na sustentabilidade e inclusão do desenvolvimento nacional da América Latina varia, mas não pelo fato de os governos serem ideologicamente de esquerda. Apresento os resultados econômicos do boom das commodities para os principais países da América Latina, seguidos pelos resultados sociais medidos pela redução das taxas de pobreza e desigualdade de renda. Examino os possíveis fatores econômicos compensatórios que podem mitigar a importância dos determinantes político-econômicos do uso de recursos financeiros. Considerando os fatores econômicos compensadores inadequados para explicar a variação nos resultados sociais, proponho que a economia política de vincular os recursos financeiros a resultados econômicos e sociais seja o principal determinante. Concluo o artigo com uma discussão dos desafios atuais do pós boom das commodities.Palavras-chaves: Boom de Commodities; Pobreza; Desigualdade De Renda.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sotiris Zartaloudis

<p>This paper discusses the levels, trends and causes<br />of income inequality in Europe and the US. On<br />the one hand, it finds that although market<br />income inequality has generally risen, it did so<br />more in some countries and less in others. On<br />the other hand, disposable income inequality<br />has had a puzzling irregular development. The<br />latter is higher in the US, whereas in Europe<br />three clusters of countries exist: Mediterranean<br />and Central and Eastern European (CEE)<br />countries have the highest disposable income<br />inequality –with the UK being the only rich EU<br />country belonging to this group. Continental<br />Europe has medium to low inequality while the<br />lowest is found in the Scandinavian ones. The<br />only exceptions to this ranking are some of the<br />CEEs who belong to the group with the lowest<br />disposable income inequality. It is argued that<br />the best explanation for this classification and the<br />national disposable income inequalities’ history<br />is the different national public policy, that is,<br />national redistributive policies, different taxation<br />systems and social security contributions, which<br />stems from the political ideology of the ruling<br />party, the overall effectiveness and generosity of<br />redistributive policies.</p>


2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Ezequiel Molina

Although several papers in the political economy literature suggest a positive relationship between income inequality and redistribution, the data for Latin America does not support this claim. Countries with more income inequality also have less redistribution. This paper explores how the degree of imperfection in the political institutions influences equilibrium redistributive tax rates and income distributions. A citizen-candidate model is developed (Osborne and Slivinski, 1996 and Besley and Coate, 1997) in which candidates face a cost for representing other citizens in politics. Political-economic equilibria for diferent degrees of imperfection of the political system are derived and compared. In particular, two distinct cases are found. Countries where the cost of entry to politics is low can have higher redis tribution and lower inequality if the median run as a candidate or ,when there is a two candidate equilibria, redistribution and inequality could go either way. On the other hand, countries where the cost of entry is high will not be able to translate the will of the people into political action and will end up with little redistribution and high levels of inequality.


Author(s):  
Lara Deeb ◽  
Mona Harb

South Beirut has recently become a vibrant leisure destination with a plethora of cafés and restaurants that cater to the young, fashionable, and pious. What effects have these establishments had on the moral norms, spatial practices, and urban experiences of this Lebanese community? From the diverse voices of young Shi'i Muslims searching for places to hang out, to the Hezbollah officials who want this media-savvy generation to be more politically involved, to the religious leaders worried that Lebanese youth are losing their moral compasses, this book provides a sophisticated and original look at leisure in the Lebanese capital. What makes a café morally appropriate? How do people negotiate morality in relation to different places? And under what circumstances might a pious Muslim go to a café that serves alcohol? This book highlights tensions and complexities exacerbated by the presence of multiple religious authorities, a fraught sectarian political context, class mobility, and a generation that takes religion for granted but wants to have fun. The book elucidates the political, economic, religious, and social changes that have taken place since 2000, and examines leisure's influence on Lebanese sociopolitical and urban situations. Asserting that morality and geography cannot be fully understood in isolation from one another, the book offers a colorful new understanding of the most powerful community in Lebanon today.


Author(s):  
Mohd. Shuhaimi Ishak

 Abstract Generally speaking, media is extensively used as the means to disseminate news and information pertaining to business, social, political and religious concerns. A portion of the time and space of media has now become an important device to generate economic and social activities that include advertising, marketing, recreation and entertainment. The Government regards them as an essential form of relaying news and information to its citizens and at the same time utilizes them as a powerful public relations’ mechanism. The effects of media are many and diverse, which can either be short or long term depending on the news and information. The effects of media can be found on various fronts, ranging from the political, economic and social, to even religious spheres. Some of the negative effects arising from the media are cultural and social influences, crimes and violence, sexual obscenities and pornography as well as liberalistic and extreme ideologies. This paper sheds light on these issues and draws principles from Islam to overcome them. Islam as revealed to humanity contains the necessary guidelines to nurture and mould the personality of individuals and shape them into good servants. Key Words: Media, Negative Effects, Means, Islam and Principles. Abstrak Secara umum, media secara meluas digunakan sebagai sarana untuk menyebarkan berita dan maklumat yang berkaitan dengan perniagaan, kemasyarakatan, pertimbangan politik dan agama. Sebahagian dari ruang dan masa media kini telah menjadi peranti penting untuk menghasilkan kegiatan ekonomi dan sosial yang meliputi pengiklanan, pemasaran, rekreasi dan hiburan. Kerajaan menganggap sarana-sarana ini sebagai wadah penting untuk menyampaikan berita dan maklumat kepada warganya dan pada masa yang sama juga menggunakannya sebagai mekanisme perhubungan awam yang berpengaruh. Pengaruh media sangat banyak dan pelbagai, samada berbentuk jangka pendek atau panjang bergantung kepada berita dan maklumat yang brekenaan. Kesan dari media boleh didapati mempengaruhi pelbagai aspek, bermula dari bidang politik, ekonomi, sosial bahkan juga agama. Beberapa kesan negatif yang timbul dari media ialah pengaruhnya terhadap budaya dan sosial, jenayah dan keganasan, kelucahan seksual dan pornografi serta ideologi yang liberal dan ekstrim. Kertas ini menyoroti isu-isu ini dan cuba mengambil prinsip-prinsip dari ajaran Islam untuk mengatasinya. Tujuan Islam itu sendiri diturunkan kepada umat manusia ialah untuk menjadi pedoman yang diperlukan untuk membina dan membentuk keperibadian individu dan menjadikan manusia hamba yang taat kepada Tuhannya. Kata Kunci: Media, Kesan Negatif, Cara-cara, Islam dan Prinsip-prinsip.


Author(s):  
R.V. Vaidyanatha Ayyar

This book chronicles the history of education policymaking in India. The focus of the book is on the period from 1964 when the landmark Kothari Commission was constituted; however, to put the policy developments in this period into perspective major developments since the Indian Education Commission (1882) have been touched upon. The distinctiveness of the book lies in the rare insights which come from the author’s experience of making policy at the state, national and international levels; it is also the first book on the making of Indian education policy which brings to bear on the narrative comparative and historical perspectives it, which pays attention to the process and politics of policymaking and the larger setting –the political and policy environment- in which policies were made at different points of time, which attempts to subject regulation of education to a systematic analyses the way regulation of utilities or business or environment had been, and integrates judicial policymaking with the making and implementation of education policies. In fact for the period subsequent to 1979, there have been articles- may be a book or two- on some aspects of these developments individually; however, there is no comprehensive narrative that covers developments as a whole and places them against the backdrop of national and global political, economic, and educational developments.


Author(s):  
Andrea Harris

This chapter explores the international and interdisciplinary backdrop of Lincoln Kirstein’s efforts to form an American ballet in the early 1930s. The political, economic, and cultural conditions of the Depression reinvigorated the search for an “American” culture. In this context, new openings for a modernist theory of ballet were created as intellectuals and artists from a wide range of disciplines endeavored to define the role of the arts in protecting against the dangerous effects of mass culture. Chapter 1 sheds new light on well-known critical debates in dance history between Kirstein and John Martin over whether ballet, with its European roots, could truly become “American” in contrast to modern dance. Was American dance going to be conceived in nationalist or transnationalist terms? That was the deeper conflict that underlay the ballet vs. modern dance debates of the early 1930s.


Author(s):  
Xiaorong Gu

This essay explores the theory of intersectionality in the study of youths’ lives and social inequality in the Global South. It begins with an overview of the concept of intersectionality and its wide applications in social sciences, followed by a proposal for regrounding the concept in the political economic systems in particular contexts (without assuming the universality of capitalist social relations in Northern societies), rather than positional identities. These systems lay material foundations, shaping the multiple forms of deprivation and precarity in which Southern youth are embedded. A case study of rural migrant youths’ ‘mobility trap’ in urban China is used to illustrate how layers of social institutions and structures in the country’s transition to a mixed economy intersect to influence migrant youths’ aspirations and life chances. The essay concludes with ruminations on the theoretical and social implications of the political-economy-grounded intersectionality approach for youth studies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-7
Author(s):  
Nick Henry ◽  
Adrian Smith

It was over 25 years ago that European Urban and Regional Studies was launched at a time of epochal change in the composition of the political, economic and social map of Europe. Brexit has been described as an epochal moment – and at such a moment, European Urban and Regional Studies felt it should offer the space for short commentaries on Brexit and its impact on the relationships of place, space and scale across the cultural, economic, social and political maps of the ‘new Europes’. Seeking contributions drawing on the theories, processes and patterns of urban and regional development, the following provides 10 contributions on Europe, the UK and/or their relational geographies in a post-Brexit world. What the drawn-out and highly contested process of Brexit has done for the populace, residents and ex-pats of the UK is to reveal the inordinate ways in which our mental, everyday and legal maps of the regions, nations and places of the UK in Europe are powerful, territorially and rationally inconsistent, downright quirky at times but also intensely unequal. First, as the UK exits the Single Market, the nature of the political imagination needed to create alternatives to the construction of new borders and new divisions, even within a discourse of creating a ‘global Britain’, remains uncertain. European Urban and Regional Studies has always been a journal dedicated to the importance of pan-European scholarly integration and solidarity and we hope that it will continue to intervene in debates over what alternative imaginings to a more closed and introverted future might look like. Second, as the impacts of COVID-19 continue to change in profound ways how we think, work and travel across European space, we will need to find new forms of integration and new forms of engagament in intellectual life and policy development. European Urban and Regional Studies remains commited to forging such forms.


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