Cent Of Household Income Research Articles

Inequality in America and Spillover Effects on Mediation Practice: Disputing for the 1 Per Cent and the 99 Per Cent

We are living in an era of vast inequality. Income and wealth gaps between ‘the haves’ and ‘have-nots’ have reached epidemic proportions. The top 1 per cent of earners in the United States pulled in a whopping 19.3 per cent of household income in 2012, their biggest slice of total income in more than 100 years. In 2014, the World Economic Forum listed severe income inequality as the number one global risk and Tom Piketty’s unlikely best seller, Capital in the 21st Century, documented the rising ratio of wealth to income and the growth of a ‘rentier class’. Even in Australia, where the mining industry continues to power economic growth, the income and wealth gap between the lowest and highest quintile of earners is stark. According to recent data, the top 20 per cent of Australians earn five times the income of the bottom 20 per cent, while holding 71 times more wealth. The question for mediation scholars and practitioners is whether this growing gap is affecting the way in which society’s ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ access and experience mediation. At the low end of the socio-economic totem pole, government cuts in legal services – combined with mediation practitioners’ obsession with neutrality – potentiate uninformed decision-making by unrepresented parties. At the high end, models of practice catering to legal professionals’ preferences threaten to rob mediation of its transformative, therapeutic potential. This paper will explore these troubling developments and query whether growing social inequality should precipitate shifts in our thinking about mediation ethics and the way we educate the next generation of lawyers.

The Link between Health Condition Costs and Standard of Living Through Out-of-Pocket Health Expenditures and Labour Market Outcomes in Turkey: A Structural Equation Modelling

This study employs a Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to understand the effect of the costs related to health conditions of people on their standard of living (SoL)using the data from the cross-sectional Household Budget Survey (HBS) for the period 2002-2013 and the panel Income and Living Conditions Survey (ILCS) in Turkey during the period 2009-2012. Using HBS, it is tested whether out-of-pocket health expenditures (OOPEs), which is directly affected by the health conditions of people, contribute to the standard of living in a negative way. Using ILCS, it is examined the effect of labor market outcomes (wages and hours of work loss due to bad health conditions) on SoL. A Structural Equation model allows us to investigate all these concerns simultaneously. Referring health conditions, two different health-condition indices are constructed using two different datasets since they have various questions representing health status of people. Using HBS a health condition index is created regarding questions related to the mental and physical limitations (disability) of people. The second health condition index is created using ILCS that includes questions both related to disability and chronic diseases. The study extends the previous research by several ways. First, the application of a structural equation modelling (SEM) accounts for the measurement error both in the SoL and health-condition indices and it allows for the simultaneous estimation of the link between health condition costs and SoL through out-of-pocket expenditures as well as labor market outcomes using structural equations. Second, it will contribute to existing literature by analysing not only the impact of health condition costs but also the impact of health insurance types on OOPEs and therefore SoL. Third, using a propensity score matching, it creates comparable groups. Finally, the impact of disability and relevant OOPEs on transportation expenditures is analysed and their association with SoL is investigated. The results show that OOPEs and disability have a significant and negative impact on SoL. The disability related costs consist of the 24-30 per cent of the household income corresponding to monetary values ranging between 4,200-4,600 Turkish Liras (TL) per annum, while the respective values in terms of wages range between 1,000-1,200 TL. OOPEs costs are estimated at 2.5 per cent of the household income, which are equal at 540 TL per annum and OOPEs consist of 10 per cent of the non-wage household income corresponding to 870 TL per year. Moreover, the disability leads to significant increases of transportation expenditures and the associated costs are estimated at roughly 470 TL per year. However, when the households with members that have been disabled during the survey are compared with the non-disabled households, the disability costs reach 8,500 TL.

Urban households’ access to water for livelihoods enhancement in Accra, Ghana

This paper presents the results of research conducted in Accra, Ghana, aimed at understanding how access to water allows small-scale, water-dependent livelihoods to contribute to the household income of urban and peri-urban communities. Ten communities were selected in Accra and its surrounding communities to reflect different levels of infrastructure provision and conditions of water supply. Focus group discussions were held in each community. Issues which emerged were investigated further in a structured household questionnaire survey involving 443 respondents. A wide range of small-scale water dependent occupations were observed. Among the households surveyed, 59.14 per cent were engaged in a water-dependent occupation which contributed over 80 per cent of household income in some cases. Small-scale, water-dependent occupations, thus, constitute an important source of income for urban and peri-urban households.

The Development Imperatives of SMEs in Bangladesh

SMEs are the engine of growth in Bangladesh. There are about 6.0 million SMEs in the country. About 90 per cent of all industrial units in Bangladesh are SMEs generating about 25 per cent of the GDP, employing about 31 million people and providing 75 per cent of household income. Various categories of SMEs together contribute between 80 per cent to 85 per cent of industrial employment and 23 per cent of total civilian employment in Bangladesh. About 60 per cent 65 per cent of SMEs are located outside the metropolitan areas of Dhaka and Chittagong. SMEs are providing job opportunities to about 70-80% of the non-agricultural labour force. The SME share in manufacturing value added to GDP varies at 28-30%. The services sector is primarily composed of SMEs, which is responsible for the bulk of employment growth. SME contribution to national export is significant through different industries such as ready-made garments, jute, and leather etc. Electrical and electronics, light engineering, and plastic goods, leather goods and footwear, agro-processing, fashion designing, knitwear and readymade garments, pharmaceuticals, jute and jute goods, handicraft, frozen fish, ceramics and furniture are the most promising SME industries in Bangladesh.

Impact of a commercial destocking relief intervention in Moyale district, southern Ethiopia

A commercial destocking intervention was piloted in southern Ethiopia during the drought of early 2006. The intervention led to the purchase of an estimated 20,000 cattle valued at USD 1.01 million. On average, destocked households received USD 186 from the sale of cattle--approximately 5,405 households were involved. In terms of aid investment, the approximate cost-benefit ratio was 41:1. During the drought, income from destocking accounted for 54.2 per cent of household income (n = 114 households), and was used to buy food, care for livestock, meet various domestic expenses, support relatives, and either pay off debts or augment savings. Seventy-nine per cent of the income derived from destocking was used to buy local goods or services. Expenditure on livestock care amounted to 36.5 per cent of local spending, and included the private transportation of livestock to better grazing areas. The buoyant livestock export trade was considered to be an important driver of commercial destocking, demonstrating a positive link between livestock and meat exports, and pastoral vulnerability during drought.

Willingness to pay and accept risks to cure chronic disease.

Measurements of disease burden focus most often on economic outputs--neglecting effects on quality of life. More comprehensive quantification is based on what people would pay or risk to avoid illness. Many, however, find it difficult to respond thoughtfully to hypothetical questions about what they would pay or risk. With response rates frequently under 50 per cent, the practicality of these methods has been of concern. In this study, specially trained interviewers asked 247 subjects with rheumatoid arthritis how much of their income they would pay and how large a mortal risk they would accept to achieve a hypothetical cure. Ninety-eight per cent of the subjects estimated their maximum acceptable risk (MAR) at an average 27 per cent chance of immediate death. Eighty-four per cent gave plausible responses to the willingness-to-pay (WTP) questions, with a mean WTP of 22 per cent of household income. The aspect of disease most strongly associated with WTP was impairment in activities of daily living; measured pain was most associated with MAR. The response rates achieved indicate the overall feasibility of these methods; the associations of WTP and MAR with other variables suggest systematic consideration of personal circumstances.