Distribution Of Economic Resources Research Articles

Balance of payments and power: assessing China's global and regional interdependence relationship

Global economic imbalance leads to change in the global distribution of economic resources. While some foresee the inevitable decline of US power, others consider China’s forthcoming global primacy to be an exaggeration. This paper seeks to contribute to the debate by linking balance of payments (BOP) to power analysis. Dimensions of BOP are connected to Keohane and Nye’s two ideal-types of interdependence relationship: realist and complex interdependence. The former relates to the global distribution of aggregate economic resources; the latter emphasizes a detailed investigation of distinct interdependence situations between countries. China’s BOP from 1997 to 2012 is assessed through † An earlier version was presented at the IISS-SAIS Merrill Center Young Strategists Programme in Security and Geo-economics in Bellagio, Italy, on 30 July 2013. The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies at SAIS of the Johns Hopkins University, and the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center supported and hosted the programme.

“Economic Development as Opportunity Equalization”

Economic development should be conceived of as the degree to which an economy has implemented an efficient and just distribution of economic resources. The ubiquitous measure of GDP per capita reflects a utilitarian conception of justice, where individual utility is defined as personal income, and social welfare is the average of utilities in a population. A more attractive conception of justice is opportunity-equalization. Here, a two-dimensional measure of economic development is proposed, based upon viewing individuals’ incomes as a consequence of circumstances, effort, and policy. The first dimension is the average income level of those in the society with the most disadvantaged circumstances, and the second dimension is the degree to which total income inequality is due to differential effort, as opposed to differential circumstances. This pair of numbers is computed for a set of 22 European countries. No country dominates all others on both dimensions. The two-dimensional measure induces a partial ordering of countries with respect to development.

Does a House Divided Stand? Kinship and the Continuity of Shared Living Arrangements.

Shared living arrangements can provide housing, economies of scale, and other instrumental support and may become an important resource in times of economic constraint. But the extent to which such living arrangements experience continuity or rapid change in composition is unclear. Previous research on extended-family households tended to focus on factors that trigger the onset of coresidence, including life course events or changes in health status and related economic needs. Relying on longitudinal data from 9,932 households in the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), the analyses demonstrate that the distribution of economic resources in the household also influences the continuity of shared living arrangements. The results suggest that multigenerational households of parents and adult children experience greater continuity in composition when one individual or couple has a disproportionate share of the economic resources in the household. Other coresidential households, those shared by other kin or nonkin, experience greater continuity when resources are more evenly distributed.

SPREADING THE WEALTH: THE EFFECT OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME AND RACE/ETHNICITY ACROSS HOUSEHOLDS AND NEIGHBORHOODS ON CITY CRIME TRAJECTORIES*

This study tests the effect of the composition and distribution of economic resources and race/ethnicity in cities, as well as how they are geographically distributed within these cities, on crime rates during a 30-year period. Using data on 352 cities from 1970 to 2000 in metropolitan areas that experienced a large growth in population after World War II, this study theorizes that the effect of racial/ethnic or economic segregation on crime is stronger in cities in which race/ethnicity or income are more salient (because of greater heterogeneity or inequality). We test and find that higher levels of segregation in cities with high levels of racial/ethnic heterogeneity lead to particularly high overall levels of the types of crime studied here (aggravated assaults, robberies, burglaries, and motor vehicle thefts). Similarly, higher levels of economic segregation lead to much higher levels of crime in cities with higher levels of inequality.

Policy evolution in South African fisheries: the governance of the sector for small pelagics

This article analyses the evolution of policy in South Africa's fishing industry using the fishery for small pelagics as a case study. Policy changes were largely instigated to reverse the inequitable distribution of economic resources and productive assets that had historically favoured the white minority at the dawn of democracy in 1994. The analysis combines ‘actor-oriented’ and ‘institutional’ perspectives, and proposes that the evolution of policy is driven by interests, networks, alliances and discourses, which are largely determined by the power and resources that can be mustered by specific actors. A major lesson from the study is that it is particularly difficult for new entrants to influence policy for transforming capital intensive fisheries, where the need for capital, market forces and conservation ideology collude to raise the entry bar.

Thirty Years of Chinese Reform --- Transition from Planned Economy to Market Economy

The traditional Chinese planned economic system was formed during the first several years of the founding of PRC. Under this system, all sorts of behaviors by individuals, economic organizations and administrative organizations for their interests restrained vigor of the economy. Cost of this system was extremely high, but its efficiency was rather low. Reform started in the late 1970s has taken on features of gradual progress. The period before 1992 was the double-system stage, and afterwards has been the overall market economy stage. At present, framework of Chinese market economic system has taken its initial step, but its reform is not thorough. Several inertia factors and thinking methods in the traditional system still have impact on distribution of economic resources, and on behaviors of individuals, enterprises, and government, especially state-owned enterprises and departments.

Theoretical reflections

The article starts with a discussion about the frequent statement that culture is a marginal area in politics. It proceeds with an analysis of the phenomenon and concept of “the cultural turn” and its possible consequences for cultural democracy. Then there follows a reflection on the potential power of religion and culture in political developments. After these introductory sections I present and discuss what I call five “democracy dimensions” of cultural policy: norms and ideologies; distribution of economic resources; institutional structures and decision‐making procedures; agents and interests in the policy‐making process; and access to and participation in cultural life. The conclusion is that under certain circumstances culture may mobilise huge masses of people in political actions but this is unlikely to happen in Western European democracies where culture in a long historical process has been privatised and isolated from big politics by the establishment of a specific sphere with its own structures, norms, logics and discourses. It is questionable if cultural policies will be more democratic under the reign of global capitalism and new liberalism. “The cultural turn” is an ambivalent phenomenon which cannot by itself bring about more cultural democracy. The future of cultural democracy cannot be decided for by cultural life or the cultural policy system themselves, it is dependent on what will happen to democracy as a total political system, of which cultural policy is only a small part.

A Problem of Riches: Towards a new Social Policy Research Agenda on the Distribution of Economic Resources

The distribution of economic resources in society is a central concern for social policy. But research in this area has primarily concentrated on the bottom of the economic distribution, namely ‘the poor’. In this article, we argue that it is time for social policy to move away from a narrow focus on poverty to consider the broader issue of inequality between different groups in the economic distribution and, by implication, the position of better-off citizens. This raises a number of conceptual challenges due to the current lack of consideration of wealth and inequality at a political, theoretical or empirical level. The article discusses the challenges and concludes by outlining a possible research agenda. However, the underpinning argument is that social policy needs to develop a broader understanding of the economic distribution.

Seeing Difference: The Effect of Economic Disparity on Black Attitudes toward Latinos

Rapid growth in the size of the Latino population has increased the ethnic diversity of urban neighborhoods, transforming the residential experiences of many black Americans. The competition for scarce resources is considered a central force in black‐Latino relations and a source of anti‐Latino sentiment among blacks. This article examines how the level and the distribution of economic resources within diverse areas affect black attitudes toward Latinos. Drawing on a multilevel dataset of individual racial attitudes and neighborhood characteristics, the analysis reveals that the relative economic status of racial groups is an important influence on black attitudes. In environments where Latinos are economically advantaged relative to their black neighbors, blacks are more likely to harbor negative stereotypes about Latinos, to be reluctant to extend to Latinos the same policy benefits they themselves enjoy, and to view black and Latino economic and political interests as incompatible. While the results suggest that diversity without conflict is possible, they make clear that the prospects for intergroup comity depend on some resolution of blacks' economic insecurities.

Comprehensive Peace? An Analysis of the Evolving Tension in Eastern Sudan

Eastern Sudan is the site of a little known armed struggle by popular forces against the government in Khartoum, which in turn has been engaged in counter-insurgency and repression there. A complex set of interrelated factors is driving the war: historical grievances, feelings of exclusion and marginalisation, demands for fair sharing of power between different groups, inequitable distribution of economic resources and benefits, underdevelopment, the absence of a genuine democratic process and other governance issues. The article documents the particular patterns of marginalisation and underdevelopment among the predominant population of the Beja people, whose livelihoods are mainly based on pastoralism. It also shows the patterns of political alienation and the emergence of the Beja Congress as a movement that has given voice to those grievances. Excluded from normal political expression or dialogue with the government and then from the political dispensations that the South gained from its peace agreement with the North, the Congress has made common cause with the Rashaida Free Lions, formed among a smaller group of pastoralists of Bedouin origin and other small groups to form the Eastern Front. Operating from logistical bases on the Eritrean border, the Front has made armed incursions into Eastern Sudan and controls some territory. Pressures from inside and outside Sudan have finally led to both sides agreeing to talks, which have finally started in August 2006 under Eritrean mediation. The prospects of these talks leading to a sustainable agreement are explored. This article is an extract from a much longer study entitled ‘Comprehensive Peace? Causes and Consequences of Underdevelopment and Instability in Eastern Sudan’, Nairobi: NGO Paper. The article was first presented at the 7th International Sudan Studies Conference ‘Fifty Years After Independence: Sudan's Quest for Peace, Stability and Identity’, 6-8 April 2006, University of Bergen, Norway.

The Language of Its Builders: Stone in the Vernacular of Rural Wales During the Nineteenth Century

Variations in the use of stone in nineteenth-century rural Welsh building provide important evidence for the nuances of social and economic structure. Interpretation of this evidence is assisted by a range of sources that help to document the building process, from the supply of materials, through the organisation of building work to the craft of construction. What this study reveals is the considerable expenditure of resources embodied in all but the most rudimentary constructions: access to materials with which to build was a pre-requisite, and was often dependent on the ability to pay for them; preparation and haulage required careful organisation and also contributed considerably to the expense of building; craft skills were obtained at a price. The distribution of economic resources and the social patterns of tenure are both manifest in the variable detail of vernacular building.

The rule of law in nascent democracies: judicial politics in Argentina

This book explains how the rule of law emerges and how it survives in nascent democracies. The question of how nascent democracies construct and fortify the rule of law is fundamentally about power. By focusing on judicial autonomy, a key component of the rule of law, this book demonstrates that the fragmentation of political power is a necessary condition for the rule of law. In particular, it shows how party competition sets the stage for independent courts. Using case studies of Argentina at the national level and of two neighboring Argentine provinces, San Luis and Mendoza, this book also addresses patterns of power in the economic and societal realms. The distribution of economic resources among members of a divided elite fosters competitive politics and is therefore one path to the requisite political fragmentation. Where institutional power and economic power converge, a reform coalition of civil society actors can overcome monopolies in the political realm.

Neoclassical and structural analysis of poverty: winning the ‘Economic Kingdom’ for the poor in Southern Africa

In situations characterised by historical injustice in the distribution of economic resources, such as in many southern African ‘settler’ countries, there is a powerful intuitive case that ameliorative and palliative public policy is insufficient to significantly affect poverty reduction. This is because of the dulling effects on growth caused by significant structural inequality in the distribution of resources. However, the proposition that inequality is a problem for poverty reduction is contentious. This article reviews the neoclassical and structuralist literatures on the relationship between growth, inequality and poverty. It argues that the first is inconclusive and, furthermore, can only be so, while the second requires to be made more relevant to the discussions of how redistribution and inequality relate in legitimate policy and practice. The concept of property regimes can help here, within a more contextual understanding of development in practice as not necessarily involving growth and economic progress, but as being subject to periodic phases of ‘de‐development’, or well‐being retrogression. The paper concludes that state‐sponsored redistribution policy has an important role to play in changing underlying property regimes for the benefit of the poor in southern Africa. Inequality does matter, and a consideration of radical, redistributive social change is worth rehabilitating as an efficient means of reducing poverty, particularly in situations of low or fluctuating growth. This consideration, in turn, requires a political acceptance of the legitimacy of a broader role for economic public policy and state action.

Legitimidad política y organización social en las comunidades indígenas de la provincia de Chayanta (siglo XVIII)

This article explores the relationship between the indigenous hierarchies of government, the ethnic organization, and the shifting notions of political legitimacy in the Upper Peruvian province of Chayanta during the eighteenth century. It argues that the crisis of Andean chieftainships resulting in the 1780 insurrection was originated in that the caciques continued to play a central role in the functioning of the rural society —a role that could not be diminished unless drastic changes in the ayllus’ traditional patterns of ecological verticality and distribution of economic resources among their members occurred—, at the same time that that their ideological legitimacy was no longer subjected to somewhat rigid aristocratic principles. Peasant protests affected interim and hereditary caciques alike and tried to bridge the gap between the economic and political rationality of the communities’ authorities. The work seeks to locate these developments within the general context of the Andean area.

Income inequality and health. Coastal communities in British Columbia, Canada.

An imbalance in the distribution of economic resources, i.e., income inequality, is a characteristic of a community that may influence the aggregate health of the population. In North America, income inequality seems to be strongly related to mortality rates among American communities such as states and metropolitan areas but largely irrelevant for health at similar levels of geopolitical aggregation in Canada. This article summarizes relevant international and North American evidence and then explores relationships between income inequality and mortality rates among coastal communities in the province of British Columbia, Canada. Cross-sectional analysis was conducted among twenty-four coastal communities in British Columbia, utilizing four measures based on the 1996 Census to measure income inequality and crude, age-standardized and age- and gender-specific mortality rates averaged over the five-year period 1994-98 to measure health. The three valid measures of income inequality were positively and significantly related to the crude mortality rate but were not significantly related to the age-standardized mortality rate. Two of the inequality measures were related to mortality rates for males aged 0-44 and for males aged 45-64 before but not after controlling for mean household income. Health researchers have yet to report a meaningful relationship between income inequality and population health within Canada. At the risk of committing the ecological fallacy, these findings provisionally support a psycho-social interpretation of the individual-level relationship between income and health wherein members of these communities compare themselves to an encompassing community, e.g., all Canadians.

Income Inequality and Health

An imbalance in the distribution of economic resources, i.e., income inequality, is a characteristic of a community that may influence the aggregate health of the population. In North America, income inequality seems to be strongly related to mortality rates among American communities such as states and metropolitan areas but largely irrelevant for health at similar levels of geopolitical aggregation in Canada. This article summarizes relevant international and North American evidence and then explores relationships between income inequality and mortality rates among coastal communities in the province of British Columbia, Canada.Cross-sectional analysis was conducted among twenty-four coastal communities in British Columbia, utilizing four measures based on the 1996 Census to measure income inequality and crude, age-standardized and age- and gender-specific mortality rates averaged over the five-year period 1994-98 to measure health.The three valid measures of income inequality were positively and significantly related to the crude mortality rate but were not significantly related to the age-standardized mortality rate. Two of the inequality measures were related to mortality rates for males aged 0-44 and for males aged 45-64 before but not after controlling for mean household income.Health researchers have yet to report a meaningful relationship between income inequality and population health within Canada. At the risk of committing the ecological fallacy, these findings provisionally support a psycho-social interpretation of the individual-level relationship between income and health wherein members of these communities compare themselves to an encompassing community, e.g., all Canadians.

Stepparents

In most states, stepparents have little or no legal decision-making authority. Stepchildren do not receive the legal recognition as dependents that triggers a safety net in the event of death or divorce, nor do former stepparents have the legal right to visitation or custody. However, the lack of legal recognition of the stepparent role may not reflect the reality of contemporary stepfamilies. This article examines stepfamily functioning with the aim of creating a new policy orientation. We draw on both the National Survey of Families and Households and an in-depth study of 27 stepfamilies to investigate the everyday functioning of stepparents with regard to caregiving tasks, discipline, distribution of economic resources, attitudes toward legal status, and perception of parental roles. The findings support a new policy initiative that would legally recognize stepparents as de facto parents for a variety of purposes.

Securities legislation and the accounting profession in the 1930s: The rhetoric and reality of the American Dream

Merino and Neimark (“Disclosure Regulation and Public Policy", Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Fall 1982, pp. 33–57) examined passage of securities regulation in the United States in the 1930s, concluding that the regulation should be viewed as symbolic (i.e. not expected to result in significant changes in distribution of economic resources), a means of restoring investor confidence and preserving the status quo. Since that time, a number of traditional and critical studies have examined that thesis and offered new insights into the complex interrelationships found in the passage of securities legislation (e.g. Neu, “Reading the Regulatory Text: Regulation and the New Stock Issue Process", Critical Perspectives on Accounting, December 1992, pp. 359–388; Bealing, “Actions Speak Louder Than Words: An Institutional Perspective on the SEC", Accounting Organizations and Society, Vol. 19, 1994, pp. 555-569; Bealing, et al., “Early Regulatory Actions by the SEC: An Institutional Theory Perspective on the Dramaturgy of Exchange"Accounting Organizations and Society, Vol. 21, No. 4, 1996, pp. 317–338). We continue this line of research by developing the rationale behind the argument that symbolic legislation might be sufficient to restore investor confidence. We use as our framework the pragmatic concept of democratic conversation, unique to the United States, to frame the ideological debate. We posit that securities legislation can best be understood as an effort to reestablish the viability of what has been labeled the “American dream". We concur with the conclusion of Wettergreen (“The Regulatory Policy of the New Deal", The New Deal, 1989, pp. 199–213) that passage of the securities legislation must be examined as a response to a moral crisis of capitalism, generated by the “immoral behavior" of the capitalist elite. Following Dewey, we posit that the first priority of any regulation had to be to establish the moral legitimacy of capitalism by restoring trust in the existing system. As Dewey (Liberalism and Social Action, New York: Putnam, 1935) concluded, radical change was needed, otherwise it would merely be symbolic and used as propaganda to maintain the status quo.We then focus on the framers of regulation and the accounting profession. We do this by examining the private correspondence and the actions of the regulators during the early years of the SEC act. We believe our analysis shows that the early SEC commissioners had a commitment to the private property rights paradigm, and were unwilling to confront the monied interests. We support our position in a historical analysis of Accounting Series Release(ASR) No. 4, the Whitney case and the North American case. We interpret the historical evidence as a desire by the regulators to maintain the status quo. Thus, even if we believed the legislation was intended to cause a “real" change, the enforcement was not performed in an activist manner to initiate the change. For example, William O. Douglas (the second chairman of the SEC), who was no doubt a modern day judicial activist, was not an activist when it came to regulation and accounting related issues (e.g. full disclosure). Personal correspondence shows he had close relations with the accounting profession and raises the possibility that he may have been “captured" by the profession.In summary, our arguments are as follows: (i) the rhetoric used by the New Deal was intended to restore trust and fairness in American society; (ii) the underlying basis for the political persuasion was the restoration of the American dream in a liberal environment; (iii) in a contemporaneous analysis of the New Deal environment, Dewey (Liberalism and Social Action, New York: Putnam, 1935) states that, without radicalism of change, the New Deal was doomed to failure since it would be viewed as protecting the status quo—we concur with this view as to the securities regulation and the behavior of Douglas; (iv) Douglas appears to act in favor of the status quo due to his close relations with the accounting profession, and, in our view, being “captured" by the profession and (v) we support our thesis by examining several SEC actions during Douglas’s tenure.

El multiculturalismo : de cómo la desigualdad se convierte en diferencia cultural

Behind the fight for the recognition of an specific identity there are neglected economic and political reasons. Different ethnical background, racial differences, gender or alternative sexual orientations, are causes embraced by action groups, even violent ones, but, in which remain out of discussion the unequal distribution of economic resources. In this context, multiculturalism is a new neoliberal rhetoric which propose formal respect to the cultural minorities, leaving untouched social, political and economical inequalities of those minorities.

Equality, Pluralism, Universality: Current Concerns in Normative Theory

This article reviews recent debates in normative theory. It argues that work on equality has bifurcated in a disturbing way, with much of the work on economic equality focusing on the principles that should regulate the distribution of goods between individuals, and much of the work on social equality dealing with patterns of oppression that affect the relationship between marginal and dominant groups. The first literature has been relatively indifferent to the group nature of contemporary inequality, while the second mirrors this failing by its lack of interest in the distribution of economic resources. The implications of cultural pluralism have also contributed to debates about the status of normative theory and the basis for making universal normative claims.