Income Inequality In Countries Research Articles

Trade Openness, Conflict Risk and Income Inequality

This paper investigates the effect of trade openness on income inequality, and shows how this effect is shaped by the presence of conflicts. I argue that income-generating activities controlled by the rich expand during conflicts, whereas those controlled by the poor contract. I find that trade openness leads to greater income inequality in countries where the risk of conflicts is high. Moreover, income inequality is directly affected by conflicts, and is higher in more ethnically diverse countries and lower under democratic regimes. The econometric analysis suggests that these effects are robust to a wide range of economic and institutional factors.

The impact of income inequality on self-rated general health: Evidence from a cross-national study

Previous studies report a strong negative association between income inequality and population health at the aggregate level. However, it is still in hot debate whether this ecological association indicates a genuine, causal effect of income inequality on health, as asserted by the Wilkinson hypothesis, or it simply reflects a nonlinear effect of individual income on health, as suggested by the absolute income hypothesis. Drawing data from the 2005 round of the World Values Survey, I analyze the relationship between individual income, income inequality, and self-rated general health in a multilevel framework. Results show no independent detrimental effect of country income inequality on individual self-rated general health. In contrast, self-rated general health is strongly associated with absolute material conditions both at the individual and at the country level. Therefore, this study gives more evidence to the absolute income hypothesis, i.e., the strong ecological association between income inequality and population health is more likely a reflection of the nonlinear effect of individual income on health rather than a genuine effect of income inequality.

A cross-country study on income distribution and school enrolment

This study examines whether income distribution affects school enrolment at primary, secondary and tertiary levels. Using cross-national evidence, it is found that a country's income inequality is positively and significantly associated with primary school enrolments. However, there is a negative association between income inequality and enrolment at both secondary and tertiary levels, even after controlling for some explanatory variables.

Will Foreign Capital Inflow Alleviate Income Inequality?

ABSTRACT With the rapid increase in foreign capital inflow, a major concern for policy makers is whether such capital accumulation will help to alleviate a developing country's income inequality or make the rich richer and the poor poorer. This paper points out that more intensive competition in the labor market can be one of the reasons causing China's rising income inequality. This is because of, first, the increase in urban unemployment, especially from the state-owned enterprises, and, second, the rising nominal wage gap between the state-owned enterprises and firms with whole or partial foreign ownership. However, the overall productivity and hence the real wage can increase in both the private sector and the state sector. To reduce income inequality, the government should further enable the state sector to compete on an equal footing with the private sector. This includes both increasing labor mobility and removing the state sector's obligations to provide social welfare to its employees. Moreover, it is essential to build a social safety net to assist the losers in this labor market reform to ensure social stability as China opens both good and financial markets.

Cross-Country Differences in Intergenerational Earnings Mobility

International studies of the extent to which economic status is passed from one generation to the next are important for at least two reasons. First, each study of a particular country characterizes an important feature of that country's income inequality. Second, comparisons of intergenerational mobility across countries may yield valuable clues about how income status is transmitted across generations and why the strength of that intergenerational transmission varies across countries. The first section of this paper explains a benchmark measure of intergenerational mobility commonly used in U.S. studies. The second section summarizes comparable empirical findings that have accumulated so far for countries other than the United States. The third section sketches a theoretical framework for interpreting cross-country differences in intergenerational mobility.

Income Inequality in Small Regions: A Study of Australian Statistical Divisions

This paper provides "empirical analysis of the nature of the relationship between economic development of regions and income inequality in Australian sub-state regions. It does so in the context of considering the validity of the 'augmented inverted U' hypothesis and the influence of factors such as the business cycle, political issues, and demographic trends, which are likely to cause income inequality to change over time." Data are from the Australian censuses for the years 1976 and 1981.