Egalitarian Countries Research Articles

Socioeconomic differences in health over the life cycle in an Egalitarian country

A strong cross-sectional relationship between health and socioeconomic status is firmly established. This paper adopts a life cycle perspective to investigate whether the socioeconomically disadvantaged, on top of a lower health level, experience a sharper deterioration of health over time. Data are drawn from the Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) Health Interview Surveys covering the period 1983-2000. The analysis focuses on the self-rated health and disability of persons aged 16-80. We show that in the Netherlands, as in the US, the socioeconomic gradient in health widens until late-middle age and narrows thereafter. The analysis and the available evidence suggests that the widening gradient is attributable both to health-related withdrawal from the labor force, resulting in lower incomes, and the cumulative protective effect of education on health outcomes. The less educated appear to suffer a double health penalty in that they begin adult life with a slightly lower health level, which subsequently declines at a faster rate.

Socioeconomic Differences in Health Over the Life Cycle in an Egalitarian Country

A strong relationship between health and socioeconomic status is firmly established. Yet, partly due to the multidimensional and dynamic nature of the variables, the causal mechanisms connecting them are poorly understood. This paper argues that adoption of a life-cycle perspective is essential to uncover these causal pathways. A life-cycle perspective also allows investigation of whether the socioeconomically disadvantaged, on top of a lower health level, experience a sharper deterioration of their health over the life cycle. We show that in the Netherlands, as in the US, the socioeconomic gradient in health widens until late-middle age and narrows thereafter. The analysis and the available evidence suggests that the widening gradient is attributable both to health-related withdrawal from the labor force, resulting in lower incomes, and the cumulative protective effect of education on health outcomes. The less educated suffer a double health penalty in that they begin adult life with a slightly lower health level, which subsequently declines at a faster rate. The observed narrowing of the gradient in old age is partly an artefact stemming from the fact that only the most healthy of the disadvantaged survive into old age. It also reflects that after middle age, withdrawal from the labor force increasingly occurs for non health-related reasons.

Why Do Scandinavian Governments Employ So Many and the United States Government So Few?

Is it a sheer coincidence that the egalitarian Scandinavian countries have significantly larger government employment shares than the much less egalitarian United States? A positive correlation bet ...

Family and motivation effects on mathematics achievement: Analyses of students in 41 countries

This study examines family and motivation effects on student mathematics achievement across 41 countries. The Rasch estimates of PISA mathematics test scores and questionnaire responses of 107,975 15-year-old students were analyzed via multilevel analyses. Students scored higher in richer or more egalitarian countries; when living with two parents, without grandparents, with fewer siblings (especially fewer older siblings); with higher family SES, more books, cultural possessions, or cultural communication; or when they had greater interest in mathematics, more effort and perseverance, and higher self-efficacy or self-concept. Family structure effects were stronger in individualistic or richer countries. Richer countries showed stronger family cultural communication effects, suggesting stronger, intangible resource effects.

Gender and the Division of Household Labor in Older Couples

Using microdata from the 2004 Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), this study takes a cross-national perspective to investigate the division of household labor among older couples (aged 50 years or more). Across nine continental European countries, the authors find considerable variation in the overall distribution of housework between partners, with more egalitarian countries in northern Europe and more traditional countries in southern Europe. A multilevel analysis shows that about half of the between-country variance in the division of housework is due to differences in older couples’ characteristics, but that there are no country-specific effects of the main microlevel explanatory variables. Finally, the authors find a significant effect of macrolevel gender inequalities on couples’ division of housework, suggesting that older couples living in more gender-egalitarian countries are more likely to exhibit an equal sharing of household labor.

The Determinants of Political Knowledge in Comparative Perspective

Political knowledge is a powerful predictor of political participation. Moreover, what citizens know about the political system and its actors is a central aspect of informed voting. This article investigates how and why political knowledge varies between citizens. The analysis is comparative and based on data from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems. At the micro level, the results confirm results from national surveys – specifically that education explains what citizens know about politics. It is found in a contextualized analysis, however, that the effect of education varies with the country's degree of economic redistribution. In more egalitarian countries, political knowledge is less contingent on education attained than in more inegalitarian countries. Similarly, education seems to have a stronger effect in countries with majoritarian electoral systems compared to countries with proportional systems.

For whom is income inequality most harmful? A multi-level analysis of income inequality and mortality in Norway

This study investigates the degree to which contextual income inequality in economic regions in Norway affected mortality during the 1990s, above the effects of mean regional income and individual-level confounders. A further objective is to explore whether income inequality effects on mortality differed between socioeconomic groups. Data were constructed by linkages of administrative registers encompassing all Norwegian inhabitants. The outcome variable was all-cause mortality during 6 years (i.e., died 1994–1999 or alive end of 1999). Men and women aged 25–66 in 1993 were analysed. Regions’ mean income and income inequality (in terms of gini coefficients) were calculated from consumption-units-adjusted family disposable income. Individual-level variables included sex, age, marital status, individual income, education, and being a recipient of health-related welfare benefits. Multilevel logistic regression models were fitted for 2,197,231 individuals nested within 88 regions. After adjusting for regional mean income and individual-level variables, the odds ratio (OR) for mortality 1994–1999 was 1.028 (95% CI 1.023–1.033) on the gini variable multiplied by 100. Analyses of cross-level interactions indicated some, albeit modest, income inequality effects on mortality in the upper income and educational categories. Among those with low individual income, low education, and among recipients of health-related welfare benefits, mortality effects of higher regional income inequality were significantly stronger than among those more advantageously placed in the social structure. The results of this study differ from previous studies which have suggested that contextual income inequality has a minor impact on population health in egalitarian countries. The results indicate that in Norway, neither a comparatively egalitarian income distribution nor generous and comprehensive welfare institutions hindered the emergence of regional-level income inequality effects on mortality, and these effects were particularly marked among socioeconomically disadvantaged groups. Explanations for the results are discussed.

Inequalities in school systems: effect of school structure or of society structure?

In this study the authors start from the observed fact that equality of opportunities of educational achievement is higher in integrated school systems than in differentiated school systems. In other words, in integrated school systems, a pupil’s school achievement depends less than elsewhere on the social and cultural resources of his or her family. However, before concluding that school structure has a significant influence on inequalities at school, it is important to distinguish between the influence of the socio‐economic context underlying each school system, and the specific influence of the structure or organisation of the school system itself. The fact is that not only do the most egalitarian countries with regard to schooling have in common an integrated structure, but also these schools are set within the context of countries which are more egalitarian in other ways, particularly with regard to income distribution. To distinguish between the influence of this social environment and that of school structure, the authors offer three analyses based on a comparative analysis of international databases measuring educational achievement. The results of these three analyses lend credence to the hypothesis that the structure of the school system has a specific effect on the extent of inequalities.

Social capital and health: does egalitarianism matter? A literature review.

The aim of the paper is to critically review the notion of social capital and review empirical literature on the association between social capital and health across countries. The methodology used for the review includes a systematic search on electronic databases for peer-reviewed published literature. We categorize studies according to level of analysis (single and multilevel) and examine whether studies reveal a significant health impact of individual and area level social capital. We compare the study conclusions according to the country's degrees of economic egalitarianism. Regardless of study design, our findings indicate that a positive association (fixed effect) exists between social capital and better health irrespective of countries degree of egalitarianism. However, we find that the between-area variance (random effect) in health tends to be lower in more egalitarian countries than in less egalitarian countries. Our tentative conclusion is that an association between social capital and health at the individual level is robust with respect to the degree of egalitarianism within a country. Area level or contextual social capital may be less salient in egalitarian countries in explaining health differences across places.

Macro-level Gender Inequality and the Division of Household Labor in 22 Countries

While most previous studies focus on the effects of individuals' and couples' characteristics on the division of housework, this study argues that macro-level factors are equally important in the dynamics of housework distribution between spouses. Data from the 1994 International Social Survey Programme is used to examine whether macro-level gender inequality limits the effect of individual-level variables (relative resources, time availability, and gender ideology) on the division of housework in 22 industrialized countries. The results show that the equalizing effects of time availability and gender ideology are stronger for women in more egalitarian countries; women in less egalitarian countries benefit less from their individual-level assets. Additional analysis shows that other macro-level factors (economic development, female labor-force participation, gender norms, and welfare regimes) may also influence the division of housework. The results suggest that changes in individual-level factors may not be enough to achieve an equal division of housework without the reduction of macro-level gender inequality.

The Role of Children in Eastern European Families

This study examines the additive effect of attitudes towards gender roles and importance of marriage on the centrality of children in seven East European countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, the former East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Russia, and Slovenia using the data from the 1994 International Social Science Survey (ISSP). Results support country related differences in participants' attitudes about gender roles, marriage and children. The results show former East Germany as being the most egalitarian country, Bulgaria and Hungary as the most traditional ones, and Poland, Slovenia, Russia and Czech Republic in between. A model of the dynamics among attitudes towards gender roles, importance of marriage and the centrality of children was tested for the goodness‐of‐fit using structural equation models (AMOS 4.0) techniques by the method of maximum likelihood. The goodness‐of‐fit provided evidence that the hypothesised model was stable. The results indicated that attitudes towards gender roles and marriage have a strong impact on attitudes toward children.

Discourse in Development: A Post-Colonial Theory 'Agenda' for the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

This article uses post-colonial theory to examine the cluster of international human rights known as economic, social and cultural rights. The article surveys the jurisprudence of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, making it relevant for scholars of international human rights as well as post-colonial theory. Traditionally, international human rights divide into two branches: 1) civil and political rights, and 2) economic, social and cultural rights (ESCRs). ESCRs were virtually ignored during the cold war era, but they now receive expanded attention at the international and regional levels. The creation of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the mid-1980s began this process. The Committee has been highly influential in ESCR norm development. Post-colonialism is a branch of critical theory aimed at exposing the exploitative and paternalistic legacy of the international community's relationship to former colonies in the developing world. There is a small body of post-colonial theory literature examining international human rights, but it focuses on civil and political rights. The author, a specialist in ESCRs, seeks to engage theorists with another branch of human rights. ESCRs should be of interest to post-colonial theorists because these rights implicate economic national sovereignty, most importantly social spending. Developing country social spending has been uniquely politicized in post-colonial north-south relations through controversies over structural adjustment and trade liberalization. Post-colonial theorists should acknowledge that emerging ESCR jurisprudence and Committee procedures are responsive to north-south concerns on many levels. For example, the Committee's Concluding Observations concentrate on recommendations rather than on violations. This modality permits sensitivity to differential southern budgetary realities while facilitating critique of wealthy egalitarian countries. A second example is that the Committee is progressive, within its limited means, about facilitating participation by subaltern southern groups. An important challenge post-colonial theory presents to the emerging ESCR regime is the Committee's record on encouraging southern governments to protect social welfare spending from external pressure. What does it mean for a country to cut social spending by IMF mandate, incur external debt for large-scale development projects through World Bank, and lower trade barriers pursuant to the WTO, only to be condemned by a UN human rights body for any resulting intensification of hunger, ill health and population displacement? The Committee could adjust its processes to better address this conundrum by routinely pursuing and analyzing information about the status of international negotiations.

A Nation for All: Race, Inequality, and Politics in Twentieth Century Cuba

After 30 years of anti-colonial struggle against Spain and four years of military occupation by the United States, Cuba formally became an independent republic in 1902. The nationalist coalition that fought for Cuba's freedom, a movement in which blacks and mulattoes were well-represented, had envisioned an egalitarian and inclusive country - a nation for all, as Jose Marti described it. But did the Cuban republic, and later the Cuban revolution, live up to these expectations? Tracing the formation and reformulation of nationalist ideologies, government policies, and different forms of social and political mobilization in republican and post-revolutionary Cuba, de la Fuente explores the opportunities and limitations that Afro-Cubans experienced in such areas as job access, education and political representation. Challenging assumptions of both underlying racism and racial democracy, he contends that racism and anti-racism co-existed within Cuban Nationalism and in turn, Cuban society. This coexistence has persisted into the 21st century, despite significant efforts by the revolutionary government to improve the lot of the poor and build a nation truly for all.

Income Dynamics and Stability in the Transition Process

Income distribution is a widely neglected subject in applied macroeconomics. This paper looks at the current state of art, which can be summarised as the “Transatlantic Consensus”explaining inequality through a partial analysis approach with changes on the labour market at its core. The potential interrelationship between inequality and growth is particularly important for transition countries, because according to common knowledge in this case the change of regime went along with rising inequality and declining income in the initial phase. The Czech case - the Czech Republic being the most egalitarian country among the former socialist economies - is even more interesting, because here income distribution remained relatively stable before and throughout the transition period. This result is illustrated by Lorenz curves. The analysis of so-far unpublished empirical data indicates that there is no need for active distribution policy in the Czech Republic. This result might not hold for other transition countries, which find themselves at the initial part of the Kuznets curve, but on a lower level of income.

China's Retreat from Equality: Income Distribution and Economic Transition (review)

Reviewed by: China's Retreat from Equality: Income Distribution and Economic Transition Kristen Parris (bio) Carl Riskin, Zhao Renwei, and Li Shi, editors. China's Retreat from Equality: Income Distribution and Economic Transition. Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe, 2001. vii, 358 pp. Hardcover $85.00, ISBN 0-7656-0690-9. Paperback $32.95, ISBN 07656-0691-7. When the Chinese Communist Party first inaugurated its reform program in 1978, China was one of the most egalitarian countries in the world. Two decades later, even the most casual observer is struck by the glaring gaps in income and wealth that have developed in China during this period of rapid growth and change. By the mid-1990s China had become one of the "more unequal countries in its region and among developing countries generally" (p. 3). This new book edited by Riskin, Zhao, and Li contributes to a growing body of recent research on the Chinese economy that is focused on analyzing the changing distribution of household income and delineating the patterns and causes of "China's retreat from equality." China's pattern of development, interesting in itself, also represents an opportunity for an in-depth examination of the more general relationship between growth, liberalization, and inequality. Such an examination can provide insights into one of the key debates in contemporary economic theory and practical politics: do growth, liberalization, and globalization bring efficiency, equity, and shared prosperity, as proponents of liberal economic theory hold, or do they dramatically increase inequality and poverty, as many critics have argued?1 Taken together, the careful studies in this book suggest that there is no simple, generalizable answer to this question. While reform policies have reversed, and indeed were intended to reverse, what was considered China's excessive and artificial egalitarianism, the rapidity and extent of the increase in inequality and an attendant decline in poverty reduction have been exacerbated, if not caused, by what Zhao calls "policy inertia" in the traditional planned economy. This includes a regressive system of taxes and fees, restrictions on migration, and the highly de-equalizing pattern of government subsidies and benefits. Thus, as contributors Knight and Song argue, there may be no stable relationship between these dynamics; rather, initial conditions and specific government policies are as important for understanding patterns of distribution and poverty as are rates of growth and the extent of liberalization (p. 85). Written by a team of economists from China, Europe, and the United States, the studies in this book are based on two national surveys for the years 1988 and 1995, designed by the authors under the auspices of the Institute of Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. The surveys were drawn from the national urban and rural samples used by the Chinese State Statistical Bureau [End Page 522] (SSB) for its own annual household surveys. Using data for 1988 and 1995, the authors adjusted the income estimates in order to correct perceived weaknesses in the original SSB data and to bring them into accord with international standards of household income. In particular, they imputed the rental value of housing, widened the range of subsidies counted as income, and revalued self-consumed farm products. This reappraisal produced significant differences from the SSB data by increasing household income per capita, generating higher Gini coefficients (0.45 as opposed to 0.41 for overall inequality), and revealing no significant increase in the average urban-rural income gap between the two years under study. This volume is one of a number of recent publications using these surveys. While covering some of the same ground as others, most notably Khan and Riskin's Inequality and Poverty in China in the Age of Globalization,2 it represents a valuable contribution by providing more in-depth and technical analyses of the data within a set of narrowly focused studies. Some of the findings are familiar but important nonetheless: land exercised an equalizing effect on overall wealth distribution because it was so equally distributed, but income from farming was falling sharply as a share of total rural income. The single most important source of increased rural inequality was unequal access to wage income from off-farm employment...

Socioeconomic differences in health and well-being of children and adolescents in Iceland.

To assess differences in health, healthcare use and well-being of children according to their socioeconomic situation. Part of a larger cross-sectional survey on health and well-being of children and their parents in the Nordic countries. Iceland. A questionnaire was sent to the parents of a nationally representative sample of 3,007 school children aged two to seventeen years. The SES indicators used were education and occupation of both parents and the disposable income of the family. Logistic regression models were used for the analysis. Children of lower SES were found to have worse health and well-being than those of higher SES. Children of lower SES appeared to use doctor's services to the same degree as children of higher SES, especially after differences in ill health were taken into account. The association between SES and health status and well-being in adulthood can already be detected in childhood, even in an egalitarian country with a homogeneous population.

Income distribution and cause-specific mortality

The aim was to identify the age-, sex- and cause-specific premature mortality rates contributing to the association between life expectancy and income distribution in developed countries. Income distribution was calculated for the 13 OECD countries and years for which the Luxembourg Income Study held data. The potential years of life lost (1-65 years) by sex and cause, as well as the age- and sex-specific all-cause mortality rates and standardized mortality ratios for children 1-19 years were calculated from data supplied by the WHO. On finding evidence suggesting that reported income distribution is strongly affected by low response rates in some income surveys, we used 2 measures of income distribution: that among households where the 'head of household' was aged less than 65 years (weighted by response rates) and that among households with children (among whom response rates are thought to be higher). Partial correlations and regressions controlling for the year were used to analyse the relationship between mortality and income distribution. Both measures of income distribution showed broadly similar results. A more egalitarian distribution of income was related to lower all-cause mortality rates In both sexes in most age groups. All 6 major categories of cause of death contributed to this relationship. The causes of premature mortality contributing most were road accidents, chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, infections, ischaemic heart disease among women and other injuries among men. Income distribution was associated not only with larger absolute changes in mortality from these causes, but also with larger proportionate changes. Suicides and stomach cancer tended to be more common in more egalitarian countries.

Health and social inequities in Sweden

Sweden is one of Europe's most egalitarian countries. The social inequities in living conditions have been gradually reduced to a level that is more equal than in most countries in Europe. Even if general health development has been positive during recent years, data reviewed here indicate that there may be adverse effects for some groups which may increase inequities. This article presents results on inequities in health from the Public Health Report of Sweden 1987 and discusses causal mechanisms and implications for health policy.

Better health--but not for all: the Swedish Public Health Report, 1987.

This article is a summary of the Public Health Report submitted to the Swedish Parliament in 1987. Health development, especially that of underprivileged groups, is regarded as an indicator of the quality of social and economic development of the country. Sweden is a very egalitarian country, but in spite of decreasing inequalities in living standards, the Report shows increasing inequalities in health. At the same time, the state has put restraints on health care spending, and the shift in the health care budget toward more primary care has stopped. This development seriously impairs the ability of the health and medical services to cope with inequities described in this Report.

Income and inequality as determinants of mortality: An international cross-section analysis

Summary This paper analyses the effects of income and income distribution on mortality. The likely relation between income and mortality for individuals is discussed, and implications for the determinants of mortality at the community level inferred. Measures of income inequality are likely to be related to mortality on aggregate data because of the non-linearity of income effects. An international cross-section analysis is then undertaken in which different measures of income and income distribution are investigated as determinants of mortality, with life expectancy at birth and age five, and infant mortality taken as measures of the dependent variable. It is found that income distribution is consistently and strongly related to mortality; in a relatively inegalitarian country life expectancy may be between five and ten years lower than in a more egalitarian country.