Wealth distribution and inequality in the UK: A survey

Time to close the socioeconomic gap in access to childcare.

ABSTRACT South Africa’s agricultural legislation has undergone substantial reforms in the past centuries, spanning the colonial, apartheid and democratic regimes. Notably, the policy framework evolved from a regulated landscape to one that ascribes to principles of a free market, liberalised trade and minimum government involvement, underpinned by the neoliberal epistemology. Since 1994, most sectoral laws have advanced inclusive agricultural growth, land equality and commercialisation. Notwithstanding the improved agricultural growth and footprint in export markets, the structure of agriculture remained characterised by dualism and skewed landownership patterns despite policy reforms. This signals the invisible hand of market forces that have unintentionally excluded small-scale farmers in the democratic epoch. Most policy studies in the past 31-years attributed the sustained dualism problem to small-scale farmers’ technical inefficiencies and budget limitations, coupled with the state’s executional deficiencies. This address argues that executional failure is not sufficient to explain small-scale farmers’ problems. It contends that the dominant research paradigm of accrediting small-scale farmers’ underdevelopment to implementation failures tends to mask policy denialism that has maintained market power relations and wealth distribution channels in the democratic dispensation. This address encourages intellectual diversity to stimulate a new wave of agricultural policy reforms for inclusive agriculture. It illustrates that, while commercialisation is a practical developmental model, it treats policy as a technical outcome instead of being a consequence of a contested space influenced by market and institutional structures. This tends to minimise structural and systematic challenges faced by small-scale farmers in the country.

This study aims to analyze the conformity of zakat implementation with the principles of Maqasid Syariah in promoting the welfare of the Muslim community in Palembang. Zakat is positioned as an instrument for wealth distribution and social empowerment within the Islamic economic system. This research employs a qualitative approach using a descriptive–analytical method based on library research and secondary data analysis, including classical and contemporary literature on Maqasid Syariah as well as official reports from zakat management institutions. The results indicate that the implementation of zakat in Palembang generally aligns with the primary objectives of Maqasid Syariah, particularly in the aspect of protection of life (ḥifẓ al-nafs) through humanitarian programs and health services, as well as protection of religion (ḥifẓ al-dīn) through support for religious education and spiritual development. Meanwhile, the aspects of protection of intellect (ḥifẓ al-ʿaql) and protection of wealth (ḥifẓ al-māl) have been implemented through educational assistance and economic empowerment programs, although they still face sustainability challenges. The protection of lineage (ḥifẓ al-nasl) is reflected implicitly through health initiatives and family assistance programs. This study concludes that optimizing zakat requires more integrated management that is oriented toward fulfilling all dimensions of Maqasid Syariah.

Phage therapy under multiple abiotic stresses: Systematic review on mechanisms of plant disease control

The "socioeconomic achievement gap" refers to socioeconomic disparities in children's academic outcomes. Do these gaps invariably reflect cognitive processes that are similar in kind across the socioeconomic status (SES) spectrum but differ quantitatively in their efficacy? Or, in some cases, do they reflect cognitive processes that differ, in kind, between higher and lower SES, that is, qualitatively? In this systematic review, we used the ways in which brain structure and function relate to cognitive performance to answer these questions, focusing on academically relevant cognitive abilities. Specifically, the brain correlates of performance served as a signal regarding the underlying cognitive processes used to perform cognitive tasks. The literature was searched for studies that reported whether SES moderated the brain-cognition relation. In 15 cases, significant moderation was found, suggesting that children from diverse SES backgrounds may use underlying brain systems differently to achieve cognitive task performance. Three general mechanisms are reviewed, as are the broader implications of qualitative differences for teaching and for the causal relations leading to socioeconomic disparities in cognition.

ABSTRACT This article develops an insurer-based contingent-claim framework to examine how green finance supports the low-carbon transition of fossil-fuel supply chains under cap-and-trade regulation, with a focus on emerging markets. The model integrates circular production strategies with stranded-asset risks to evaluate their impacts on equity valuation, equity risk, and insurer guaranteed-rate setting across an interconnected supply chain consisting of an upstream fossil-fuel producer and downstream plastic and electric power firms. Comparative statics show that stricter cap-and-trade regulation reduces equity values and increase equity risk for carbon-intensive firms, potentially destabilizing clean energy investment incentives associated with SDG 7. Recycling in plastic production raises downstream equity while amplifying equity risk, whereas slag downcycling supported by carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) generates asymmetric spillovers by improving upstream equity performance and lowering its risk through demand and financing channels. Overall, the results highlight how circular production and carbon regulation interact with insurer-mediated green finance to shape investment incentives, risk allocation, and the pace of the transition toward affordable and cleaner energy systems.

To synthesize contemporary research findings regarding the impact of GLP-1 receptor agonists on cardiovascular outcomes, including major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), heart failure, arrhythmias, and peripheral vascular health across diverse clinical populations. The review utilises 948 original studies with 24310384 total participants (topic deduplicated ΣN). The mapped evidence indicates that glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists are associated with consistent reductions in major adverse cardiovascular events, cardiovascular mortality, and stroke across type 2 diabetes, obesity, and established atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease populations, with representative hazard ratios as low as 0.466 in high-risk atherosclerotic cohorts and 26% to 42% reductions in ischemic stroke risk. Dominant topic signals support anti-atherosclerotic, anti-inflammatory, endothelial, and lipid-handling mechanisms, alongside emerging benefits in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, peripheral artery disease, chronic kidney disease, and post-myocardial infarction secondary prevention. The evidence map also highlights important heterogeneity, including mixed atrial fibrillation findings, uncertain perioperative cardioprotection, chronotropic effects, and persistent prescribing gaps with uptake often below 10% to 20% despite guideline-supported indications. Clinically, these findings support integration of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists into multidisciplinary cardiorenal pathways, with pharmacist- and cardiology-led programs showing improved evidence-based prescribing. Overall, the synthesis suggests a broad cardioprotective signal that extends beyond glycemic control, tempered by disparities in access and unresolved arrhythmic and perioperative questions. Future research should prioritize randomized confirmation of benefit in non-diabetic peripheral artery disease, dual-agonist hemodynamic safety, perioperative arrhythmia prevention, and equitable implementation strategies to close observed racial, socioeconomic, and age-related access gaps.

ABSTRACT This study aims to measure the distribution of wealth in Turkey. It employs a range of data collection methods, including household surveys, household financial balance sheets and rich people list, and utilizes the capitalization method. This is the first study to construct a time series of wealth distribution in Turkey using the capitalization method. The findings indicate that the wealth distribution in Turkey is highly distorted and that it is directly affected by international financial flows.

The objective of this journal is to analyze the regulation and supervision of the distribution of goods and services from a micro level Islamic economic perspective. This study employs a qualitative descriptive method, systematically and coherently structured, using data obtained through library research, including books, journal articles, and credible online sources. The findings reveal that distribution in Islam is founded upon two core principles: the principle of justice and the principle of freedom. The regulatory and supervisory framework for distribution is reflected in the provisions of Fiqh Muamalah, which include the prohibition of ikhtikar (hoarding), guidelines for reasonable profit, equitable distribution, social justice, and the prohibition of monopoly. Islam instructs individuals to manage, allocate, and distribute wealth fairly and proportionally to those in need, thereby preventing the concentration of wealth within a particular group.

This study examines socioeconomic gaps affecting productive and commercial dynamics in urban community contexts of Quito. From a territorial perspective, it explores conditions influencing the sustainability of small local businesses. The objective was to identify key productive and commercial weaknesses perceived by community actors. The research adopts a qualitative, descriptive approach, with a sample of businesses collected during university outreach activities. An anonymous survey was applied using EPICOLECT5 and textual analysis was conducted with Voyant Tools. Results reveal structural shortages, high dependency, and limited competitiveness, highlighting university engagement as a strategy for capacity building and inclusive territorial development processes locally.

This study examined whether developmental losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic predicted later academic performance. Participants were 3,760 children enrolled in public preschools in Uruguay, assessed with the Child Development Inventory at ages 4 and 5 (2019-2020) and later with the national third-grade assessment (2023). The sample was 51.5% female, 48.5% male, 83.6% White, with the remainder identifying as other racial/ethnic groups, mean age 8.53 years (SD = 0.50). Simulating what would have occurred if the pandemic had not affected development, results suggested that children would have achieved higher mathematics and reading scores if their cognitive and motor development had not been affected. Effects were small (<0.10 SD) but statistically significant, with no evidence of widening socioeconomic gaps.

This study evaluates the relationship between anti-corruption regulation and environmental justice in Africa, and argues that fragmentation among legal and institutional frameworks has greatly diminished the ability of African states to stop environmentally destructive practices caused by corruption. This study also develops the central argument that effective environmental justice can only occur when it is supported by strong, cohesive anti-corruption laws. The study uses a comparative legal and doctrinal methodology to examine how international anti-corruption instruments and regional African legal frameworks interact with national systems of regulation regarding environmental protection and natural resource management. Focusing on Nigeria and Uganda, this study identifies how poor enforcement of existing regulations, regulatory capture, lack of transparency in the issuance of licenses, and limited access to the courts contribute to both environmental degradation and unequal distribution of wealth and benefits. Additionally, this study examines the normative overlap between anti-corruption laws and environmental justice principles such as accountability, transparency, participatory and equitable sharing of benefits. Finally, the paper presents a framework for a unified legal regime that coordinates anti-corruption mechanisms within environmental governance by establishing harmonised legislation, enhancing interagency cooperation, expanding public participation and developing rights-based mechanisms of enforcement. In its efforts to recognise anti-corruption regulation as one of the primary pillars of sustainable environmental justice development, this research will inform current debates on governance reform in Africa and provide actionable recommendations for connecting legal accountability to ecological sustainability and social equity.

Socioeconomic achievement gap in Taiwan: The impact of COVID-19 on math performance

A Preference-Weighted Scoring Algorithm for Assessing Quality of Care for Patients With Advanced Illness in Singapore: Bereaved Caregiver Perspectives.

Research objectives: To characterize the features of Mongolian urbanization in the first half of the 13th century, to identify the continuity in urban development and to determine the functions and role of towns in the Golden Horde in the second half of the 13th–14th century. Research materials: materials of archaeological research in the towns of Avarga, Karakorum, Sarai-Batu, Sarai-Berke, Sarai-Jük, a complex of written sources, including “The Secret History of the Mongols”, Compendium of Chronicles by Rashid al-Din, Ystoria Mongalorum by Plano Carpini, works of Arabic and Persian authors collected by V.G. Tiesenhausen. Results and novelty of the research: The construction of Chings Khan’s urban residence of Avarga was caused by the need to protect the wealth obtained as a result of conquests and to accommodate his family next to the ruler as well as his close associates and guards, who had increased in number by the early 1220s. The transfer of the capital to the Orkhon Valley, where Karakorum was built from 1235, allowed the imperial authorities to solve new problems including information exchange thanks to the horseman-employing post service and trade routes, the management of remote territories of the empire, the demands of the nobility for prestigious goods, an increase in the intensity of international trade and profitability of selling goods in Karakorum, and the development of handicraft production. With the emergence of the Golden Horde, the Jochids did not declare any of the already existing towns of the subordinate peoples as their capital, but in accordance with the traditions of the Mongol-speaking nomads, they built their own capital cities of Sarai-Batu and Sarai al-Dzhedid in the conventional centre of their ulus (the Lower Volga region). The concentration of enormous wealth and the development of crafts in the old and new towns of the Jochi ulus contributed to their rapid inclusion in trade relations with Central Asia, the Middle East and the Mediterranean in the last third of the 13th century and the 14th century. Within the framework of Mongolian globalization, the combined economic potential of the urban centres of the Golden Horde were able to cause the transformation of the ulus into one of the world-system centers of that era’s oecumene. However, internal conflicts, and especially, the devastating invasions of Timur’s troops, reduced the role of the urban economy of the Golden Horde to the level of semi-peripheral exploitation of dependent territories.

Private wealth, as well as its distribution and intergenerational transmission have become much-debated issues. However, existing evidence remains fragmented, context-dependent, and sometimes contested. This data descriptor introduces the Graduate Center (GC) Wealth Project data warehouse, a collection of databasescovering multiple countries and time periods, designed to address these challenges. The data warehouse consolidates most existing evidence on private wealth and undertakes a significant data harmonization effort. We supplement each data point with extensive metadata on methodology. The data warehouse features an extensive collection of information on the household wealth levels and balance sheets, along with distributional statistics from a wide range of sources. Moreover, it draws together data on wealth transfer tax revenues, and tax features such as rates, exemption thresholds, and tax schedules. The broad range of data sources in the warehouse allows users to assess the degree of heterogeneity of estimates, and how methodological choices affect measurement outcomes. The new data series and policy indicators also allow extending quantitative analysis of wealth and public policy.

Introduction: Micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in Muslim-majority countries face sustainability challenges amid economic instability and post-pandemic pressures. Conventional frameworks emphasize profit maximization but often overlook ethical and spiritual dimensions integral to Islamic values. This study develops Islamic Wealth Management (IWM) as a comprehensive framework for MSE sustainability through authentic Islamic principles. Methods: This exploratory study employs qualitative library research, analyzing classical Islamic texts, contemporary Islamic financial practices, and academic literature using content analysis techniques. Results: Five core IWM aspects (wealth creation, accumulation, protection, purification, distribution) form an integrated system supporting MSE sustainability across economic, social, and spiritual dimensions. This creates a sharia-based circular economy where wealth distribution becomes wealth creation, embodying Qur'anic principles of equitable circulation. Conclusion and suggestion: IWM provides a viable alternative to conventional sustainability models. Future research should develop measurement instruments for spiritual sustainability and examine institutional ecosystems required for effective implementation.

ABSTRACT India’s unemployment challenge has been steadily gaining attention, even as the government continues to roll out policies aimed at boosting job creation. Measures such as higher capital investment, more relaxed foreign direct investment (FDI) norms, and efforts to improve the ease of doing business have certainly helped in some areas, but they haven’t fully solved the problem. Data from the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) by the National Sample Survey Office highlights the situation clearly. In FY2017–18, unemployment stood at 5.3% in rural areas and 7.8% in urban areas, bringing the national average to 6.1%. These figures underline the need for fresh, more sustainable approaches to employment generation. One promising solution lies in the growth of green jobs. Sectors like renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, waste management, and environmentally responsible manufacturing are not only expanding but also offer strong potential for creating new employment opportunities. In the long run, focusing on green employment—supported by thoughtful policy design, targeted skill development, and effective implementation could provide a balanced path forward. It offers a way to tackle unemployment without compromising the country’s commitment to sustainable economic growth. Keywords- Unemployment, Inflation, Gross Domestic Product, Human Resource, Population, Wealth Distribution

ABSTRACT This study examines the impact of homework frequency on the socioeconomic achievement gap in mathematics using TIMSS 2019 eighth-grade data from Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, and the United States. Grounded in the theory of differential access and returns, the research applies a counterfactual Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition combined with inverse probability of treatment weighting via entropy balancing. Findings indicate that higher homework frequency significantly reduces the gap in Taipei and Hong Kong but not in the United States. This reduction stems primarily from heterogeneous effects: low-SES students in East Asia gain larger benefits than high-SES peers, whereas effects are statistically indistinguishable across SES groups in the United States. Despite higher homework allocation among high-SES students across all three regions, the differential returns observed in Chinese Taipei and Hong Kong effectively offset this allocation advantage, thereby promoting educational equity.