Factor Decomposition of Rural Income Inequalities in China

A Chinese geographer explores changes in inter-provincial rural income inequality in China since the late-1970s economic reforms by decomposing it into different component factors based on the Gini index (more specifically, into contributions by different income sources: wages, household operations, properties, and transfers). The influence of each factor on inequality changes is further decomposed into its structure effects and its real inequality effects. Quantitative analysis then makes it possible to determine the relative influence of each component on changes in rural provincial inequality over time.     

西安市微区域收入及贫困空间格局研究

以街道办事处为研究单元,以居民收入数据为基础,采用FGT指数法和矢量数据符号法,分别从收入等级、收入差距、贫困程度等方面对西安市主城区的收入及贫困空间格局展开研究。结果表明:①1收入等级空间特征为"南高北低,西高东低"、"中心城区,高低交错";②街道办之间平均收入差距不大,街道办内部个人收入差距较大;③贫困地区主要集中在老城衰退区、老工业区、城中村棚户区及近郊城乡交错区;④收入高低、收入差距分别与贫困程度呈现反比和正比关系。本文的研究为政府部门从街道层面制定脱贫对策提供参考。     

Losing Control? Inequality and Social Divisions in Oslo

The debate on inequality and social divisions in Western cities has been dominated by three positions - the polarization thesis, the 'skills mismatch' thesis and a specific European approach emphasizing the significance of welfare state structures. These three positions are examined with data from Oslo, Norway. It is shown that although income inequality has increased, there is no consistent pattern of social divisions. The evidence provides support both for the polarization and the mismatch thesis, dependent on the unit of analysis and the group in question. It is difficult to spot influences of the welfare state in these data, and it is argued that rising inequality, contrary to service provision, poverty and segregation, approaches a 'closed process'. Increased earnings at the very top, however, may be explained in terms of social networks.     

Political Economy of Income Distribution: A Comparative Study of Taiwan and Mexico

Both Taiwan and Mexico have experienced remarkable economic growth since the 1960s. Taiwan demonstrates that higher income level can be accompanied by falling income inequalities. However, unlike Taiwan, the course of economic growth in Mexico has left the country with a very unequal distribution of income. This paper compares the government policies of income distribution in Mexico and Taiwan and identifies the factors contributing to the success of Taiwan and to the highly uneven income distribution in Mexico. The paper concludes that market-oriented growth does not automatically reduce inequality or poverty. The prospects for better income equity and sustainable economic development would be greatly enhanced through implementation of policies aimed at redistributing land and skills, facilitating small enterprises, and increasing domestic saving.     

Income Inequality,Welfare and Poverty in Ukraine

Ukraine is now faced with economic crisis on an unprecedented scale. The country is on the brink of hyperinflation. The government has to follow rigorous demand management policies which entail lowering the standard of living of the population. To design policies which protect the poorest and most vulnerable groups in the society, it is important to understand the nature of poverty and income inequality. This study attempts to do exactly this for Ukraine for the first time. The paper demonstrates that the standard of living in Ukraine has been falling at an alarming rate. The government welfare programmes are ineffective in protecting the poorest and most vulnerable groups in the society. This article provides an empirical basis to design appropriate policies, but a lot more work needs to be done.     

THE OPTIMAL CONVERGENCE OF REGIONAL INCOMES*

For many policy considerations it is assumed that the convergence of regional mean income will improve national equity by reducing overall inequality. The literature on decomposability of social welfare functions implies that this assumption is unwarranted. This paper develops a notion of optimal regional convergence. In general, the point of optimal convergence depends on the shapes of the regional income distributions, the inequality index used, and the rule for distributing interregional transfers. These concepts are illustrated with data on the regional income distributions of the Southern and Northern United States.     

Laboratories of (In)equality? Redistributive Policy and Income Inequality in the American States

Prior literature has emphasized demographic, economic, and political explanations for increasing income inequality in the United States, with little attention paid to the role of state‐level policy. This is despite great variation across states in both the level of inequality and the rate at which it is rising. This paper asks whether differences in state policy choices can help explain this variation; specifically, we examined a range of state redistributive policies enacted between 1980 and 2005 and identified four common approaches likely to impact inequality: taxes on the wealthy, taxes on the poor, spending on the poor, and labor market policies. We used pooled cross‐sectional time‐series data and a fixed‐effects model to assess the relationship between states’ use of each policy approach and two measures of market income inequality: the Gini coefficient and the income share of the top 1 percent. We find policies played a significant role in shaping income inequality in the states. For three of these four policy approaches, we found less inequality following expansions of state redistributive policy. Yet, for another, we identified the opposite pattern. These findings highlight the importance of state policy choices in shaping market inequality, and have implications for designing state policies to reduce income inequality since the success of these efforts depends on the policy approach used to redistribute income and wealth.     

内蒙古自治区农村人口多维贫困特征测算与分析

针对国家精准扶贫需求,构建基于A-F双临界值法的多维贫困度量模型,进行内蒙古自治区农村人口多维贫困特征的总体测算与分析,并分别分析多维贫困的空间集聚效应及不同分类体系下的贫困分异特征。结果显示:①研究区西部存在大面积高度贫困县单元,中部存在呈东西条带状分布的中度贫困县单元,东部地区贫困程度呈现"南高北低"状态;②研究区主要致贫因素为:人均纯收入、家庭健康、平均教育年限,一般致贫因素为燃料类型、资产、房屋结构,次要致贫因素为:饮水情况、通电情况、儿童入学率;且大部分贫困指标呈显著空间集聚效应;③研究区西部县际贫困特征差异较小,东部存在显著的南北分布差异;④不同类型县各贫困指标差异不同。     

Poverty in the South and in the North

This article presents statistics and literature on poverty and inequality in and between the South and North. The main discussion is focused on identifying which years poverty and inequality increased in the UK and US, and to give some tentative reasons for this. The objectives are to show the difference in the use of the term 'poverty', the magnitude of 'poverties' in various parts of the world, and the consequences of government policies in the North. The experiences of particularly the UK and US contain lessons that may be useful for policy formation to alleviate poverty and inequality in the South.     

All in the Family

The authors look at how family income depends on family structure. Using data from the 1973, 1979, and 1987, Current Population Survey, the authors examine four income sources (earnings, property, child support, and government transfers) among seven family types for all families and for Latino, black, and white householder families. The authors find large income differences among families–primarily due to differences in earnings–but little change within family types over time. Increasing the work hours of adult members or relying on income support from nonresident family members is unlikely to substantially remedy the differences in income among family types, and specifically to improve the very low income of single-mother families. Other family policies are suggested.     

Regional inequality in China during its rise as a giant exporter: A value chain analysis

China's exports success has implications for regional income inequality, because most of its export products are manufactured in the coastal zone. We propose a value chain-based accounting framework to quantify the contributions of exports to regional income inequality. We employ newly developed interregional input–output tables for China, which distinguish between processing export activities and ordinary export activities. We analyze the period 2002–2012, the decade during which China became the “Factory of the World.” We find that an RMB of processing exports contributed much more to regional inequality than an RMB of ordinary exports or domestic final demand. Still, changes in regional inequality (increasing in 2002–2007 and decreasing between 2007 and 2012) are much more due to rising ordinary exports in the first subperiod and the growth of domestic final demand coupled with changes in the configuration of value chains in the second.     

西安市新城市贫困多维评估

本文运用FGT指数法和AF多维贫困测度法对西安市主城区收入贫困和典型贫困区多维贫困特征进行研究。主要结论:(1)主城区收入贫困空间与城市发展相对较晚的地区、城乡交错的边缘区、内城衰退区、城中村及老工业区耦合;(2)住房维度的贫困发生率最高,其次依次为暖气、电器资产、教育、职业、给排水、卫生设施维度;教育指数对多维贫困的贡献度最大,是主要的致贫因素;(3)老城衰退区(解放门)和外来人口聚集区城中村(鱼化寨)是多维贫困最严重的地区,退化的国企老工业区(纺织城)相对较轻。经济发展历史格局、城市发展政策导向、转型期社会制度变迁等是贫困形成的主要原因。     

THE POLITICS OF MEASURING POVERTY AMONG THE ELDERLY

We discuss the special problems associated with efforts to measure poverty among the elderly. Income measures must be adjusted for a variety of non-income sources of well-being such as net worth, human capital, and in-kind, transfers. While such adjustments are needed, efforts to date are problematic to the extent that new sources of error are introduced. A close analysis of official government measures of poverty reveals that they reflect a variety of political assumptions and compromises. Examination of the eligibility criteria associated with various government social programs for the elderly reveal implicit poverty lines that differ from the official poverty lines. The importance of these operational poverty lines cannot be overestimated.     

Helping the Rich get Richer: A Re-assessment of the Income Distributional Trend in Hong Kong

Although many are under the impression that income inequality in Hong Kong has been continually on the rise, the picture presented by official statistics is mixed. This article suggests that official statistics, due to limitations in their design, have underestimated the impact of the top earners. Utilising taxation data, a continuous and strong growth in inequality can be identified when the distribution among taxpayers is considered, providing an alternative picture of inequality in Hong Kong. It is argued that the surge in income inequality is driven in part by the rich earning more rather than by more people becoming rich. The Hong Kong government, instead of adopting redistributive measures to alleviate the situation, has exacerbated inequality through policy choices that strongly favour the richest group. Although these actions might be explained in relation to the political influence wielded by the business sector and the upper class, the social implications of inequality cannot be neglected. Apart from a stronger demand for democracy, perceptions of income inequality and the pro-rich bias in the political system significantly affect people’s political views, as seen in the support for the recent Occupy Movement.     

Intergenerational Inequality? Labour,Capital, and Housing Through the Ages

This article examines the relevance of generational relations to emerging patterns of inequality in advanced capitalist societies, with a particular focus on inequalities related to housing wealth. At its heart is a critique of the increasingly prevalent argument that generational difference is a crucial axis of inequality today. It argues that while contemporary capitalist societies are certainly characterized by marked inequalities between generations and that the latter are manifested inter alia in housing ownership, understanding such inequalities principally in generational terms is problematic because they reflect deeper, more fundamental, structural inequalities and should therefore be conceptualized as such. The article suggests that the principal significance of generational relations to contemporary inequality dynamics actually concerns economic transfers rather than differences between generations. Within‐family transfers of wealth, especially housing‐related wealth, from older generations to younger ones tend to reproduce pronounced, structurally generated existing patterns of intra‐generational inequality.     

The Australian aid program: dealing with poverty?

The Australian government's White Paper on aid provides a blue print for the Australian aid program for the next decade. While it ostensibly has a focus on poverty, it still sees economic growth and effective government as the path to poverty reduction. This article analyses and highlights the issues associated with this approach to poverty. These are: growing inequality and vulnerability, the rural–urban divide in poverty outcomes, and increasing social exclusion leading to increasing social and political insecurity. The article then examines the alternative policies adopted by the British aid agency, DFID, and concludes with some suggestions on how the practice of the Australian aid program can better match the goal of poverty reduction.     

The Occupy Movement and the Top 1% in Canada

The Occupy movement catalyzed public debate on the issue of growing income inequality. This paper examines recent patterns of inequality in Canada, paying particular attention to changes in the characteristics of the top 1% of income earners. At the national level, the gap between the top percentile and the other 99% has widened considerably: in 2006, 11% of the nation's income was concentrated in the hands of top earners (whose mean income of $344,000 is 11 times that of the average Canadian) compared with 7.7% just 15 years earlier. Beneath such national‐level figures lie important geographical differences in the income hierarchy: the thresholds, average incomes and socio‐economic characteristics of the top 1% vary widely across provinces and cities. Among the most important spatial shifts observed is the growing concentration of high‐income groups in energy‐rich Western Canada, where Calgary has become the most unequal city in the country.     

Creativity gaps and gender gaps: women,men and place in the United States

This article situates Florida's (2002) work on creative regions in the United States in the context of a critical discussion of place and gender and investigates the gender–class structure of his most and least creative regions. It analyzes the distribution of creative class, working class and service class occupations by gender within those 21 regions as well as earnings, household income, poverty and educational attainment using data from the US Census 2000. Women and men are compared within and across the two categories of most and least creative regions. The major finding is that the gender gap in earnings within categories of regions is larger than the creativity gap, i.e. the earnings gap within genders across regions. As new technology industries have been layered over old industries, altering spatial divisions of labor, gendered labor remains integrated in largely traditional ways.     

Conditional Cash Transfers and Social Mobility: The Role of Asymmetric Structures and Segmentation Processes

This article seeks to advance existing research on conditional cash transfers (CCTs) by centring the analysis of their long‐term impact on the reproduction of poverty and exclusion. To date, most analyses and assessments of CCTs’ long‐term impact have been based on simulations focused on specific parameters such as income changes and educational attainment. This study takes as its starting point the assumption that any efforts to break the cycle of chronic poverty and exclusion must address their underlying structures and processes. To that end, it presents a social mobility analysis of Uruguay's Asignaciones Familiares and its impact on residential segregation, educational segmentation and labour market segmentation. Based on empirical data from qualitative interviews, household surveys and existing research studies, the programme is found to insufficiently address these asymmetric processes. Without accompanying structural reforms, this limitation will significantly constrain the programme's capacities to promote beneficiaries’ social mobility by breaking the intergenerational transmission of poverty.     

REGIONAL EARNINGS INEQUALITY IN GREAT BRITAIN: EVIDENCE FROM QUANTILE REGRESSIONS*

ABSTRACT The increase in national earnings inequality in Great Britain over the last two decades has predominantly been a result of increasing earnings inequality within the regions of Great Britain, and not rising inequality between regions. However, there is a severe lack of empirical research exploring the evolution of earnings inequality within regions. This paper investigates the causes of rising within‐region inequality in Great Britain. It examines the changes that have taken place between 1976 and 1995, and regional quantile regressions are estimated to reveal those factors that have contributed to the rise in within‐region inequality.