Beliefs About Wealth and Mobility are Related to Evaluations of Economic Inequalities

This article investigates to what extent the worldwide increase in body mass index (BMI) has been affected by economic globalization and inequality. We used time-series and longitudinal cross-national analysis of 127 countries from 1980 to 2008. Data on mean adult BMI were obtained from the Global Burden of Metabolic Risk Factors of Chronic Diseases Collaborating Group. Globalization was measured using the Swiss Economic Institute (KOF) index of economic globalization. Economic inequality between countries was measured with the mean difference in gross domestic product per capita purchasing power parity in international dollars. Economic inequality within countries was measured using the Gini index from the Standardized World Income Inequality Database. Other covariates including poverty, population size, urban population, openness to trade and foreign direct investment were taken from the World Development Indicators (WDI) database. Time-series regression analyses showed that the global increase in BMI is positively associated with both the index of economic globalization and inequality between countries, after adjustment for covariates. Longitudinal panel data analyses showed that the association between economic globalization and BMI is robust after controlling for all covariates and using different estimators. The association between economic inequality within countries and BMI, however, was significant only among high-income nations. More research is needed to study the pathways between economic globalization and BMI. These findings, however, contribute to explaining how contemporary globalization can be reformed to promote better health and control the global obesity epidemic.

Although several scholars and international institutions have considered high levels of economic inequality an issue for society, the populations who live in more unequal countries tend to be less concerned about it. Given the ideological connotations in the construct of people’s concerns about economic inequality, whether those who live in more unequal countries are more interested in economic inequality remains unclear. In this research, we aimed to examine whether objective economic inequality is related to individuals’ interest in the topic of economic inequality. First, we used data from the United States Census Bureau and Google Trends to examine whether the objective level of economic inequality predicted the interest of the population in searching Google for terms such as “economic inequality” and “income inequality.” Our results showed that individuals who live in more economically unequal U.S. states more often search these terms. Second, we analysed the tweets that contained the terms “economic inequality” and “income inequality” (10,118 tweets) published over 9 days and localised by U.S. state. We found that individuals who live in more economically unequal U.S. states more often post tweets about economic and income inequality. To take a closer look at the narrative around economic/income inequality, we conducted a network analysis using tweets as nodes and retweets as edges. Our results suggest that the public narrative about economic inequality via Twitter was built on three large communities. Finally, we discuss the implications of our results in relation to economic inequality consequences.

When the economy (economic inequality) develops to a certain level, does the impact of economic inequality on health inequality change? Through threshold regression, this study analyses the impact of city-level economic inequality on the absolute and economic-related inequality in under-5 child mortality rate (U5MR) (2001–2012) and maternal mortality rate (MMR) (2001–2015), along with the threshold values for economic development stages and economic inequality. Findings show: For the relationship between economic inequality and absolute inequality in U5MR, as well as economic-related inequality, there exists an economic development threshold effect. For the relationship between economic inequality and absolute inequality in MMR, an economic inequality threshold effect is illustrated. The improvement of economic conditions contributes to alleviating inequality in U5MR. Economic development inequality has a significant impact on the equality of maternal health development, but for enhancing the equality of women's health, health promotion policies may be more feasible.

“A Fair Share: Reflecting Essays on Economic Inequality in South Africa” explores the multifaceted issue of economic inequality in South Africa, delving into its historical roots, current manifestations, and potential solutions. Edited by Nico Keyser, the book comprises essays from various experts, addressing topics such as income and wealth disparities, the impact of urbanization, land distribution, the role of banks, service delivery, health inequalities, and education. It aims to provide insights and policy recommendations to foster a more equitable society. Main Themes Economic Disparities and Their Roots Chapters: 1 (Introduction), 2 (Measuring Inequality), 3 (Income and Wealth Inequality), 5 (From Van Riebeeck to Ubuntu: Exploring South Africa’s Land Legacy) Sectoral Analysis of Inequality Chapters: 4 (Cities are at the Centre of South Africa’s Wage Inequalities), 6 (Are Banks Doing Enough to Address Inequality?), 7 (Service Delivery Inequality), 8 (Socioeconomic Inequalities in Health), 9 (Education and Inequality) Policy Recommendations and Future Directions Chapters: 10 (Income Inequality, Employment, and the Informal Sector), 11 (The Case for a ‘Workable’ Basic Income Grant for Addressing Income Inequality), 12 (Economic Inclusion and Inequality), Conclusion “Why all the fuss about economic inequality? Why does economic inequality matter? Is it just a political theme used to support (or win over) the have-nots?” “The theories on inequality are imperfect and dynamic, and the measurement of inequality is multidimensional.” “The land is thus an example of historical injustices colliding with demands for contemporary fairness.” “At its core, such a state bank is seen by the South African government as a key enabler to address the inequality problem in South Africa as part of their broader developmental policy agenda.” “South Africa is known as one of the countries with the most income inequality globally.” These quotes capture the essence of the discussions in the book, highlighting the critical issues and debates around economic inequality in South Africa.

In this chapter, I explain the relationship between economic inequality and three concepts with which it might be confused. Poverty is closely related to economic inequality, and is a symptom of it. In richer countries it is usually understood as relative poverty, which necessarily grows as inequality rises, but absolute poverty has also reappeared in the UK, as illustrated by official reports and research findings. Lack of opportunity for economic and social mobility is also closely related to economic inequality. Examples are given to illustrate how relative socio-economic position, combined with educational inequality, can affect access to and advancement in important life areas. Social class, a difficult and much debated and contested concept, is often confused with economic inequality, although the two terms mean very different things. What can be said is that economic inequality intensifies social class differences, making status differences more salient. Focusing on poverty, social and economic mobility, and social class serves to divert attention away from the more fundamental, systemic problem of economic and wealth inequality. Finally, the concept of intersectionality is helpful for understanding that economic inequality deserves attention in its own right, whilst sharing features and interacting with other forms of inequality.

Using cross-nationally comparative data from 15 country contexts, we focus on economic inequality at the national-level and its direct and moderating effects on the likelihood of couples having equal versus unequal arrangements for managing money. Confirming earlier research and theory, we find that the gendered context matters. Our results also show that the overall level of economic inequality in a country shapes the likelihood of having equal versus unequal money arrangements in marriage. All three measures of economic inequality-national income inequality, public spending on social programs, and ideological support for inequality-are significantly related to how couples manage their money. Within a context which practices and supports economic inequality, couples themselves are more likely to practice economic inequality.

South Africa is a country of stark contrasts, with opulence co-existing alongside poverty. Historically the issue of class has been narrowly linked to race, yet in present day South Africa, economic inequ ality and poverty know no racial boundary. Teachers often struggle to integrate these issues into the curricu l um in a meaningful way. South African education has witnessed significant curriculum reform. While some teachers view this as a da unting endeavou r, others disturb this assumption and embrace the opportunity and challenge of curriculum development especially as it relates to addressing the nation's transformation agenda. Th is paper focuses on the experiences of a novice primary school economics teacher as she engaged with the chal lenge of curriculum development in economics. It examines how a teacher's cultural capital influenced her abi lity to interpret and enact the economics curriculum in ways that offer meaningful opportunities to explore issues of economic and social inequality through innovative pedagogy.

SummaryThe impact of climate change on economic inequality has attracted increasing attention from both government and academia. Here, we present a protocol for estimating both the impact of climate change on economic growth and economic growth inequality under multiple climate policies. We describe steps for constructing an uncertainty analysis framework, collecting and pre-processing data, and estimating the climate-economic response. We then detail procedures of predicting climate policy impact and calculating inter-country economic growth inequality.For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Tang et al. (2023).1

Cross-National Differences in Wealth Portfolios at the Intensive Margin: Is there a Role for Policy?. The Asset Price Meltdown and Household Wealth over the Great Recession in the United States. The Decomposition of Well-Being Dimensions: An Application to Germany. On the Estimation of the Global Income Distribution Using a Parsimonious Approach. Poverty has Declined, but What about the Burden of Non-Extreme Poverty? Generalized Dominance Criteria for Convex Subsets within the Poverty Domain. Are Mass Media and ICTs Associated with Inequality and Poverty?. Socioeconomic Inequality in Happiness in the United States. Cross-Country Intergenerational Status Mobility: Is there a Great Gatsby Curve?. Perception of Income Inequality: A Multidimensional Scaling Study. Polarization of Time and Income - A Multidimensional Analysis for Germany. On the Measurement of Regional Convergence in Inequality and Welfare. Regional Income Convergence in Portugal (1991-2002). Inequality, Welfare, and Order Statistics. On the Measurement of Intermediate Inequality: A Dominance Criterion for a Ray-Invariant Notion. Wage Distributions and the Accounting Period: An Assessment of the Shorrocks Effect. Tournaments and Superstar Models: A Mixture of Two Pareto Distributions. Determinants of Active Income Inequality for Non-Wage Earners in Cameroon. Economic Well-Being and Inequality: Papers from the Fifth ECINEQ Meeting. Economic Well-Being and Inequality: Papers from the Fifth ECINEQ Meeting. Research on Economic Inequality. Copyright page. List of Contributors. Introduction.

Is inequality harmful for economic growth? Is the underdevelopment of Latin America related to its unequal distribution of wealth? A recently emerging consensus claims not only that economic inequality has detrimental effects on economic growth in general, but also that differences in economic inequality across the American continent during the 19th century are responsible for the radically different economic performances of the north and south of the continent. In this paper we investigate this hypothesis using unique 19th century micro data on land ownership and political office holding in the state of Cundinamarca, Colombia. Our results shed considerable doubt on this consensus. Even though Cundinamarca is indeed more unequal than the Northern United States at the time, within Cundinamarca municipalities that were more unequal in the 19th century (as measured by the land gini) are more developed today. Instead, we argue that political rather than economic inequality might be more important in understanding long-run development paths and document that municipalities with greater political inequality, as measured by political concentration, are less developed today. We also show that during this critical period the politically powerful were able to amass greater wealth, which is consistent with one of the channels through which political inequality might affect economic allocations. Overall our findings shed doubt on the conventional wisdom and suggest that research on long-run comparative development should investigate the implications of political inequality as well as those of economic inequality.

To social workers, extreme economic inequality is primarily a violation of social justice, but this article shows how growing economic inequality since the mid-1970s was not only unjust, but also dysfunctional to the U.S. economy and linked to the recent economic crisis with its devastating effects, particularly on the social work clientele. The article identifies interrelated changes in ideology, the market economy, and government policies since the mid-1970s; contrasts the political economy of this period with the preceding post-World War II decades when the trend was toward a "shared prosperity"; and shows how increased economic inequality and political consequences that undermined democracy itself contributed to the economic meltdown. The analysis has implications for the direction of social reform and for broadening the constituency of social movements in pursuit of the social work mission of social justice. How social workers can contribute to such movements and to a reduction of economic and political inequality is explored.

Cross-National Differences in Wealth Portfolios at the Intensive Margin: Is there a Role for Policy?. The Asset Price Meltdown and Household Wealth over the Great Recession in the United States. The Decomposition of Well-Being Dimensions: An Application to Germany. On the Estimation of the Global Income Distribution Using a Parsimonious Approach. Poverty has Declined, but What about the Burden of Non-Extreme Poverty? Generalized Dominance Criteria for Convex Subsets within the Poverty Domain. Are Mass Media and ICTs Associated with Inequality and Poverty?. Socioeconomic Inequality in Happiness in the United States. Cross-Country Intergenerational Status Mobility: Is there a Great Gatsby Curve?. Perception of Income Inequality: A Multidimensional Scaling Study. Polarization of Time and Income - A Multidimensional Analysis for Germany. On the Measurement of Regional Convergence in Inequality and Welfare. Regional Income Convergence in Portugal (1991-2002). Inequality, Welfare, and Order Statistics. On the Measurement of Intermediate Inequality: A Dominance Criterion for a Ray-Invariant Notion. Wage Distributions and the Accounting Period: An Assessment of the Shorrocks Effect. Tournaments and Superstar Models: A Mixture of Two Pareto Distributions. Determinants of Active Income Inequality for Non-Wage Earners in Cameroon. Economic Well-Being and Inequality: Papers from the Fifth ECINEQ Meeting. Economic Well-Being and Inequality: Papers from the Fifth ECINEQ Meeting. Research on Economic Inequality. Copyright page. List of Contributors. Introduction.

When and why ethnic groups rebel remains a central puzzle in the civil war literature. In this paper, we examine how different types of inequalities affect both an ethnic group’s willingness and opportunity to fight. We argue that political and economic inter-group inequalities motivate ethnic groups to initiate a fight against the state, and that intra-group economic inequality lowers their elite’s costs of providing the necessary material and/or purposive incentives to overcome collective action problems inherent to rebel recruitment. We therefore predict that internally unequal ethnic groups excluded from power and/or significantly richer or poorer relative to the country’s average are most likely to engage in a civil war. To assess our claim empirically, we develop a new global measure of economic inequality by combining high-resolution satellite images of light emissions, spatial population data, and geocoded ethnic settlement areas. After validating our measure at the country- and group level, we include it in a standard statistical model of civil war onset and find considerable support for our theoretical prediction: greater economic inequality within an ethnic group significantly increases the risk of conflict, especially if political or economic inequalities between groups provide a motive.

The idea that high levels of economic inequality negatively affect the rate and sustainability of economic growth is quite popular in the scientific literature. Therefore, it is usually proposed to take some regulative measures to reduce economic inequality in order to boost economic growth. Should the thesis be considered as a populist slogan or a scientifically proven fact? This article analyzes the results of 22 empirical studies on the relationship between economic inequality and economic growth conducted during the period of 1917–2018. We used meta-analysis to examine and systematize the results of previous empirical studies. The literature review and the analysis of the results from previous studies mainly indicate a negative relationship between economic inequality and economic growth (59% of the previous empirical research). The research gap is that on average these studies are rather controversial to each other and we cannot say that we understand these relationships correctly. To answer the questions concerning the interrelations between income inequality and sustainable economic growth, we made our own empirical research. To do this we used a qualitative pairwise correlation comparison method and analyzed panel data of 39 countries for the period of 1980–2019. The correlation between income inequality and sustainable economic growth was evaluated basing on the Gini index (GI) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Our calculations and analysis show that on average, in approximately 57.8% of moments in the period between 1980–2018, this correlation was positive in our sample of countries. The novelty of our study is that we show in detail how income inequality and economic growth are interconnected for each particular country and on average for the whole sample of countries. In addition, we used the inequality transparency index to adjust our calculations for data quality. Three hypotheses were tested in the study. Only one of them was confirmed by our research. The level of income inequality determines the direction of its impact on economic growth. An increase in income inequality in countries with low levels of inequality in most cases boosts economic growth and vice versa. Additionally, we received partial confirmation of our other hypothesis and found out that the correlation between economic growth and income inequality is definitely more negative for countries with low income and more positive in countries with high income per capita.

The aim of this research is to find the causes of the problem of economic contraction and economic inequality in the Bengkulu and Kepulauan Riau provinces. The type of data collected is only sourced from secondary data, namely from the Indonesian Central Bureau of Statistics (2022) and data from literature or libraries through the documentation method and literature study. Data analysis was carried out through statistical analysis methods and qualitative descriptive analysis methods. The results showed that the Pearson Correlation between economic growth and economic inequality was 0.696 (in Bengkulu) and 0.689 (in the Kepulauan Riau). The trend of economic growth and economic inequality in both provinces is decreasing. Bad influence (backwash effect) in the form of a global economic recession (economic downturn) and the case of the Covid-19 pandemic (2019 – 2020) are considered to be the cause of economic contraction in the form of a decrease in economic growth (the extreme occurred in 2020, with -0.02 in the provinces of Bengkulu and -3.80 in Kepulauan Riau province). The trend of economic inequality (measured by the Gini index) which has decreased from year to year is considered a form of an anomaly because it is considered contrary to the decline in economic growth at the same time.