Between-group Inequality Research Articles

Quel rôle pour les inégalités dans les conflits ? Étude du cas des conflits religieux en Inde

Ce papier traite du lien entre conflits et inégalité de revenus, et montre l’importance de désagréger les indices d’inégalités par groupes. Plus spécifiquement, il teste le lien entre trois mesures de l’inégalité et les conflits religieux de faible intensité dans les villages indiens. Les trois mesures de l’inégalité sont l’inégalité agrégée (verticale), et sa décomposition pour les groupes religieux, entre une composante intergroupe (horizontale) et une composante intra-groupe (au sein des groupes). Les résultats montrent que les deux composantes de l’inégalité agrégée ont des liens opposés avec les conflits. En effet, l’inégalité intra-groupe augmente l’incidence des conflits entre les groupes religieux. A l’opposé, quand l’inégalité intergroupe joue un rôle significatif, elle diminue l’incidence des conflits. La distribution des revenus au sein des groupes est donc corrélée avec l’incidence de conflits, même pour des conflits identitaires de faible intensité. De plus, la relation empirique identifiée est cohérente avec les théories les plus récentes, qui soulignent l’importance de la contrainte de mobilisation dans l’incidence de conflits. A l’inverse, les résultats sont incohérents avec une interprétation des conflits liés aux griefs ou à la cupidité.

Inequality in water supply in India: an assessment using the Gini and Theil indices

Provision of drinking water is considered to be an essential public service. Ensuring adequate water supply remains a challenge in Indian cities that are experiencing rapid growth and often exhibit a mismatch between increasing demands and inadequate supply infrastructure. This study quantifies the existing inequality in water supply within Indian cities through Lorenz curve, Gini coefficient as well as Theil indices. Two types of Theil indices are estimated to gain different perspectives: water supply and population-weighted. Both the Theil indices are disaggregated, according to economic and regional categorisation of the cities, to explore the within- and between-group inequality. The water supply and population-weighted Theil indices provide different outlook of the inequality amongst the cities. But the population-weighted index is often better and pragmatic. Further, the inequality in access to tap water in India is studied by estimating modified Lorenz curves and Theil indices. Again, the Theil indices are decomposed into within and between components according to economic and regional grouping of states. The results suggest that there is disparity in supply of water in India, and infrastructure has to be boosted to meet the growing demand. This study is a step towards quantification of water supply inequality. The approach used in the study can contribute to monitoring of water supply equity as well as in formulating sustainable and equitable water policies.

Social Patterns of Inequality, Partisan Competition, and Latin American Support for Redistribution

This article argues that social patterns of inequality and structures of partisan competition play central roles in shaping support for redistribution, offering three important insights concerning redistribution attitude formation. First, pronounced income disparities between ethnic/racial groups reduce support for redistribution. Second, for members of marginalized ethnic groups, entrenched discrimination reflected in large between-group inequalities provokes skepticism regarding state redistributive efforts, undermining their generally favorable attitudes toward redistribution. Third, when party systems feature programmatic competition around distributional issues, citizens are more likely to view government redistribution favorably, particularly where meaningful left options are present, while in systems without programmatic parties advocating pro-poor policy, support for redistribution is weaker. The results based on multilevel analysis of survey data from 18 Latin American countries suggest that buil...

Changing Contours of Income Stratification and Decomposition of Income Inequality: Evidence from Recent Longitudinal Survey in India

The paper, based on India Human Development Survey (IHDS) data, tries to address the question- how unequal is India in terms of income distribution? Accordingly, the paper examines the trends, levels, sources and factors of income inequality in India between 2005 and 2012. Three important results stemmed from our analysis. First, in this paper we use Gini as a measure of inequality and find that income inequality in rural India has increased from 0.50 to 0.54 between 2005 and 2012, whereas, in urban India income inequality has increased from 0.48 to 0.49 during the same period. Next and most importantly, we decompose income inequality by income sources and find that amongst different sources of income inequality; the contribution of farm income in total inequality has decreased from 35 percent in 2005 to 21 percent in 2012 in rural India. On the other hand, the contribution of salaried income in total inequality has plummeted drastically from 65 percent in 2005 to 16 percent in 2012 in urban India. Finally, we use Theil’s T index from the class of Generalized Entropy (GE) inequality measures, while decomposing income by four most important factors; namely, place of residence, social, educational and occupational groups. It is irrespective of these factors; the relative share of within-group inequality is not only much higher than that of between-group inequality, also its share has increased between these two periods. Thus, our paper suggests that these mutually reinforcing inequalities, in the long run, if not addressed effectively, will create a hard-hitting division between the privileged and the rest in Indian society.

The socioeconomic gradient of secondhand smoke exposure in children: evidence from 26 low-income and middle-income countries

ObjectiveTo provide the first analysis of socioeconomic inequalities in children's daily exposure to indoor smoking in households in 26 low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs).MethodsWe used nationally representative household samples (n=369...

Income inequality between overlapping and stratification: a longitudinal analysis of personal earnings in France and Italy

The aim of this paper is to gain new insights into the generation process of personal income in France and Italy, two countries that are in close geographical proximity but have a large disparity in terms of income growth and distribution. In the first step, the potential of EU-SILC balanced panel (2004–2007) is exploited by random effects models, which also make it possible to explore the primary factors that are likely to explain differences in generating personal labour earnings. In the second step, the ANOGI (Analysis of Gini) decomposition enables one to assess the contribution of each sub-population to overall income inequality and the degree to which each subgroup is stratified. A joint evaluation of income determinants gives evidence of the high complexity of inequality process and throws light on the role of gender, skill levels and job characteristics in determining different degrees of income stratification. Indeed, although the high heterogeneity among members of a same subgroup (within-group inequality) explains a large share of overall income inequality, the between-group inequality becomes significant in explaining the income differentials between employment status and occupation types.

Ethnicity, class, and civil war: the role of hierarchy, segmentation, and cross-cutting cleavages

Why are some countries prone to ethno-nationalist conflict, whereas others are plagued by class conflict? This is a question that has seldom been raised and rarely been examined empirically. This paper presents a social-structural theory to account for the variable incidence of these two forms of political instability. These two types of conflict result from distinct principles of group solidarity – ethnicity and class – and since each individual is simultaneously a member of an ethnic group (or many such groups) and a particular class, these two principles vary in the degree to which they are mutually exclusive or cross-cutting. The degree of economic stratification between groups and economic segmentation within them shapes the relative salience of each principle of group solidarity in any society and is associated with a characteristic form of political mobilization. In places where between-group inequalities are high, and within-group inequalities low, ethnicity should be the dominant principle of group solidarity and serve as the primary basis of group conflict. By contrast, in countries where between-group inequalities are low, and within-group inequalities high, class is more likely to serve as the dominant principle of group solidarity, and conflicts along class lines are more likely. We test these conjectures with data in over 100 countries on cross-cutting cleavages, ethnic war, and class conflict. The results are supportive of the theory, and provide evidence that how groups are stratified and segmented in societies shapes the type of civil war.

Inequality in Laos and the role of FDI

The paper examines the changes in inequality in Laos between 2002/03 and 2007/08 when there was a rapid influx of FDI. The empirical findings show that both inequalities in consumption expenditure and in assets have risen in this period. Inequality rates in assets are higher and have grown faster in Laos. Within group inequality continues to be the major source of inequality in consumption expenditure whereas between-group inequality is the major cause of variation in assets. This study substantiates the fact that there is a weak negative relationship between FDI and inequality in Laos. Although the relationship between growth and inequality in Laos might be moving along the Kuznets curve, the problem of inequality should not be neglected in the development agenda of Laos because improvement in income distribution reduces poverty. Therefore, this paper proposes region specific and broad-based policies as the keys to reducing inequality in Laos.

Income Inequality and the Veteran Experience

Previous researchers have evaluated how the dramatic rise in income inequality has affected the members of various groups of workers, such as those defined by gender, union status, and educational attainment. Yet apparently no researchers have yet explored how this increase may have affected people grouped by previous military service. This chapter addresses this gap by assessing trends in wage inequality between male veterans and nonveterans, and among veterans between 1979 and 2010. The findings suggest that similar to other groups, veterans have experienced decreased between-group inequality and increased within-group inequality and that these changes may stem not just from period but also from cohort effects.

Wealth Inequality and Homeownership in Europe

The recently published Household Finance and Consumption Survey has revealed large differences in wealth inequality between the countries of the Euro area. We find a strong negative correlation between wealth inequality and homeownership rates across countries. We use two decomposition methods to shed more light on this correlation. First, a Gini decomposition by homeownership status shows that the negative relationship is mostly driven by large between-group inequality across owners and renters. Second, to control for other observables, we conduct a detailed counterfactual decomposition of cross-country inequality differences. We confirm the major role for homeownership rates in accounting for the wealth inequality differences. Our analysis suggests that the cross-country variation is mostly driven by differences in the savings behavior of households in the bottom half of the wealth distribution and that those differences in savings are to a large extent channeled through housing wealth.

Inequality of Carbon Intensities Across OECD Countries

Abstract This study recommends the use of Theil's second measure to investigate international carbon intensity disparities. This index permits disparities to be broken down within and between groups of countries in a reliable style. An analysis of OECD countries for 1980-2011 shows some basic points: first, drop in carbon intensities disparities is attributable both to within-group and between-group inequality components; second, between-group inequalities are presently the key contributor to the inequality; and, further investigation on within-group inequalities divulges the significant explanatory role played by North American, and Central and South American countries.

International inequality in CO2 emissions: A new factorial decomposition based on Kaya factors

In this paper, we analyze the determinants of inequality in the global distribution of CO2 emissions across the regions considered by the International Energy Agency during the period 1990–2010. The inequality analysis is carried out using a factorial decomposition of the second Theil index of inequality. Specifically, based on Kaya factors, CO2 emissions by active population are decomposed into four factors: carbon intensity of electricity production, electricity intensity of GDP, economic growth in terms of labour productivity and employment rate. The results show that global inequality in CO2 emissions by active population declined by 22 percent between 1990 and 2010, where the economic growth in terms of labour productivity is the main item responsible for the whole inequality value. Then, a second decomposition by multiplying factors for analyzing the within- and the between-group inequality components is described. In relation to the study of inequality by population groups, it was found that the within-group inequality component had been the main contributor to the whole inequality during all the period. Finally, some economic policy implications are discussed.

Studying Income Inequality of Immigrant Communities in Italy

This article deals with the issue of economic integration of immigrants in Italy. Ethnic inequality and economic stratification are analysed based both on the European Survey on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) and the ad-hoc survey on households with foreign people conducted by the National Institute of Statistics in 2009. With reference to the native group and the groups identified by the largest ethnic communities living in Italy, through the Analysis of Gini decomposition technique, the article highlights that the between-group inequality accounts for a barely four percent of the overall inequality, the largest share being due to the inequalities within the groups. The policy prescription suggested is the adoption of “peculiar” policies on specific subgroups of immigrants aimed at reducing the disparities within the subgroups.

Inequality in per capita water availability: a Theil’s second measure approach

This paper puts forward the application of Theil’s second measure in order to investigate international per capita water availability disparities. This index permits disparities to be disintegrated within and between groups of countries in a reliable way. An analysis of 188 countries for the period of 1990–2012 demonstrated three observations: first, decline in per capita water availability disparities is characterized by both within-group and between-group inequality elements; second, between-group inequalities are at present the key contributors of the entire inequality scenario; and third, a comprehensive investigation on within-group inequalities divulges the noteworthy explanatory role played by Middle East countries toward increase in inequalities and countries pertaining to North America and Asia and Oceania toward decline in inequalities.

Inequality in Access to Improved Water Source: A Regional Analysis by Theil Index

This study applies Theil’s second measure for looking into inequality in access to improved water source. This index allows inequalities to be broken up within and between groups. An analysis of 188 countries for the period 1990-2012 demonstrates three observations: first, decline in inequality in access to improved water source is characterized by both within-group and between-group inequality elements; second, between-group inequalities are at present the key contributor of the entire inequality scenario; and lastly, an inclusive study on within-group inequalities divulges the significant role played by Central and South American and Middle East countries towards increase in inequalities and countries pertaining to North America, Asia and Oceania, Africa, and Europe towards decline in inequalities.

Decomposing the Gini Inequality Index

The aim of this article is to propose a new breakdown of the Gini inequality ratio into three components ( within-group inequality, between-group inequality, and intensity of transvariation between groups to the total inequality index). The between-group inequality concept computes all the differences in salaries between men and women. The main contribution is to show this relationship when dealing with noninteger frequency data appearing on survey data. This article also proves the relationship between the very intuitive Gini concentration ratio and the very commonly used Gini index in the case of discrete distributions with a finite number of observations. The former refers to the relationship between the cumulative proportion of population and income, while the latter is the absolute mean difference divided by twice the arithmetic mean. This article complements the inequality decomposition literature that has stemmed from Gini’s work. The research is applied to analyze gender income inequality in a Spanish region using Spanish Structure of Earnings Survey data from 2010.

Income stratification and between-group inequality

The paper shows explicitly how the overlapping of groups impacts between-group inequality by generalizing a result on the group-wise decomposition of the Gini index to more than two groups. It is demonstrated that the ratio of Yitzhaki’s measure of between-group inequality to the conventional measure is in general equal to one minus twice the weighted average probability that a random member of a richer (on average) group is poorer than a random member of a poorer (on average) group, and may therefore be interpreted as an overall index of income stratification in the population. The results are used to tabulate the contribution of each pair of regions in the world to the overall level of global income stratification.

How population structure shapes neighborhood segregation.

This study provides a framework for understanding how population composition conditions the relationship between individuals' choices about group affiliation and aggregate patterns of social separation or integration. The substantive focus is the role of income inequality in racial residential segregation. The author identifies three population parameters--between-group inequality, within-group inequality, and relative group size--that determine how income inequality between race groups affects racial segregation. She uses data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to estimate models of individual-level residential mobility and incorporates these estimates into agent-based models. She then simulates segregation dynamics under alternative assumptions about (1) the relative size of minority groups and (2) the degree of correlation between race and income among individuals. The author finds that income inequality can have offsetting effects at the high and low ends of the income distribution. She demonstrates the empirical relevance of the simulation results using fixed-effects, metro-level regressions applied to 1980-2000 U.S. census data.

Inequality Decomposition in the Distribution of Carbon Emission across Country Groups: Historical Trends and Future Implication

The measurement of carbon inequality including Gini coefficient and historical cumulative Gini coefficient shows the current situation of carbon emissions, while the group decomposition of carbon inequality enables us to further unearth and understand the components and causes of the inequality. This paper takes use of two methods to calculate the contributions of between-groups and intra-group inequalities in order to decompose the overall inequality properly. In addition, all countries in the world are divided into Annex I Parties and Non-Annex I Parties which are the main sides in climate change negotiations. Then, considering the special situations of the least developed countries (LDCs), we make a comparative analysis by dividing the countries into LDCs, Annex I Parties and Non-Annex I Parties (without LDCs). The results prove that between-groups inequality is the main cause of overall inequality, taking the percentage of 60% to 80%, before 2009; total inequality reduces rapidly and between-groups and intra-group inequalities tend to reach the same level during 2009-2100. Furthermore, the declination of total inequality mainly results from the decrease of between-groups inequality; and intra-group inequality appears a mild upward tendency. Finally, between-groups inequality can be hidden to some extent if we don’t take historical cumulative emissions into consideration.

Economic Change and Rising Income Inequality in the Oslo Region: The Importance of Knowledge-Intensive Business Services

Wessel T. Economic change and rising income inequality in the Oslo region: the importance of knowledge-intensive business services, Regional Studies. The growth of market income inequality in the Oslo region of Norway between 1993 and 2004 is investigated. Using two measures, it is shown that most of the change occurred within knowledge-intensive business services, and further within demographic subgroups. Changes in mean income (‘between-group inequality’) and shifts in the balance between segments of the economy are of minor importance. The results support a combined focus on productive paths and institutions. Labour relations, in particular, appear as an important explanation. However, labour relations can hardly explain why men rather than women, and Western immigrants rather than non-Western immigrants, converge towards employment in high-profit businesses. This particular pattern requires research beyond the economic and institutional landscape. Wessel T. 奥斯陆地区经济变化及增加的收入不均：知识密集型服务产业的重要性，区域研究。 本文对挪威 1993–2004 年间区域市场收入不均的增长进行了考察。使用两种方法，文章表明，大多数变化发生在知识密集型服务产业，且多出现在人口亚群中。实质性收入中的变化（组团间不均）以及经济部门间平衡的转化重要性较小。结果支持了生产路径与制度整合性相关研究，劳动力关系是其中重要的解释因素。然而，劳动力关系很难解释为何在高收益的产业中，男性较之女性、欧洲移民较之非欧洲移民比率更高。除了经济与制度领域的相关研究之外，解释这一特定的模式还需要其他相关知识。 增长不均 商业服务 劳动力流动性 奥斯陆 Wessel T. L'évolution économique et le creusement de l'inégalité de revenus dans la région d'Oslo: l'importance des services aux entreprises à forte intensité de connaissances, Regional Studies. On examine la croissance de l'inégalité des revenus du marché dans la région d'Oslo, en Norvège, entre 1993 et 2004. A partir de deux mesures, on montre que la plupart de la variation a eu lieu au sein des services aux entreprises à forte intensité de connaissances, et aussi dans des sous-groupes de la population. La variation du revenu moyen (dite ‘inégalité inter-groupe’) et les déplacements de l'équilibre des secteurs de l'économie s'avèrent moins importants. Les résultats mettent l'accent à la fois sur les sentiers productifs et les institutions. En particulier, il semble que les relations de travail sont un facteur décisif. Toujours est-il que les relations de travail n'expliquent guère pourquoi les hommes plutôt que les femmes, et les immigrés de l'Ouest plutôt que les immigrés non ressortissants des pays de l'Ouest, convergent vers l'emploi dans des entreprises très rentables. Cette structure nécessite des recherches qui vont au-delà des milieux économique et institutionnel. Inégalité croissante Services aux enterprises Mobilité de la main-d'oeuvre Oslo Wessel T. Wirtschaftlicher Wandel und zunehmendes Einkommensungleichgewicht in der Region Oslo: die Bedeutung von wissensintensiven Geschäftsdiensten, Regional Studies. In diesem Beitrag wird die Zunahme des Ungleichgewichts beim Markteinkommen in der norwegischen Region von Oslo im Zeitraum von 1993 bis 2004 untersucht. Anhand zweier Maßstäbe wird gezeigt, dass die meisten Veränderungen innerhalb von wissensintensiven Geschäftsdiensten und außerdem innerhalb bestimmter demografischer Untergruppen aufgetreten sind. Die Veränderungen beim mittleren Einkommen (‘Ungleichgewicht zwischen Gruppen') und die Verlagerungen im Gleichgewicht zwischen den verschiedenen Segmenten der Wirtschaft sind hingegen von geringerer Bedeutung. Die Ergebnisse sprechen für einen kombinierten Fokus auf produktive Wege und Institutionen. Eine wichtige Erklärungskraft kommt hierbei insbesondere den Arbeitsbeziehungen zu. Allerdings lässt sich anhand der Arbeitsbeziehungen kaum erklären, warum eher Männer als Frauen und eher westliche als nichtwestliche Einwanderer hinsichtlich einer Beschäftigung in hochrentablen Unternehmen konvergieren. Dieses spezielle Muster bedarf einer Erforschung, die über die wirtschaftlichen und institutionellen Grenzen hinausgeht. Zunahme des Ungleichgewichts Geschäftsdienste Mobilität von Arbeitskräften Oslo Wessel T. Cambio económico y el aumento de las desigualdades en los ingresos en la región de Oslo: la importancia de los servicios comerciales con alto nivel de conocimientos, Regional Studies. Analizamos el aumento de las desigualdades en los ingresos comerciales en la región de Oslo en Noruega entre 1993 y 2004. Con ayuda de dos mediciones, mostramos que los mayores cambios ocurrieron en los servicios empresariales con un uso intensivo de conocimientos, y además en determinados subgrupos demográficos. Los cambios en los ingresos medios (‘desigualdades entre grupos’) y los desplazamientos en el equilibrio entre los segmentos de la economía son factores de menor importancia. Los resultados respaldan un foco combinado en las rutas productivas y las instituciones. Una explicación particularmente importante podrían ser las relaciones laborales. Sin embargo, las relaciones laborales apenas pueden dar una explicación de por qué los hombres más que las mujeres, y los inmigrantes de países occidentales más que los de países no occidentales convergen hacia el empleo en negocios con beneficios altos. Este modelo particular requiere ser estudiado más allá del campo económico e institucional. Aumento de desigualdades Servicios comerciales Movilidad de los trabajadores Oslo