Individual Wealth Research Articles

Progression through emergency and temporary shelter, transitional housing and permanent housing: A longitudinal case study from the 2018 Lombok earthquake, Indonesia

Increasing quality while reducing the time and costs of progressing disaster-affected populations from emergency shelter to permanent housing is key for improving post-disaster resilience. However, targets set around quality and time are often overly optimistic; the process is complex and factors affecting the progression of shelter and housing through the initial weeks and months following a disaster are diverse and not well documented. To identify which contributors are key to recovery efforts and at what stages in the process they can help or hinder, we need to study post-disaster environments over time. This longitudinal study of the shelter and housing evolution over the first eight months following the August 2018 Lombok earthquake helps to provide some insight. We argue that unrealistic expectations over timelines and standards were set. We consider the humanitarian response through aid and grants, the role of individual actors, and wealth and location of those affected. Hampering overall recovery efforts were a lack of transitional housing policy, an overly complex grant process for permanent housing construction, and a failure to declare a national disaster in a politicised environment. Conversely, shelter vulnerability reduction (people moving into more secure shelter then housing) at household level was marginally affected by wealth, proximity to a regency centre, being in an urban location or receiving additional shelter aid in the first few months, but less influential four months following the disaster. Most households self-recovered, with those recovering fastest being the most proactive and adaptable, who were supported by an effective village leader.

The personality traits of self-made and inherited millionaires

Very wealthy people influence political and societal processes by wielding their economic power through foundations, lobbying groups, media campaigns, as investors and employers. Because personality shapes goals, attitudes, and behaviour, it is important to understand the personality traits that characterize the rich. We used representative survey data to construct two large samples, one from the general population and one consisting of individuals with at least 1 million euros in individual net wealth, to analyse what personality traits characterize the wealthy and why their traits differ from those of the general population. High wealth was associated with higher Risk tolerance, Emotional Stability, Openness, Extraversion, and Conscientiousness. This “rich” personality profile was more prominent among individuals who had accumulated wealth through their own efforts (“self-mades”) than among individuals who had been born into wealth (“inheritors”). Thus, our evidence is suggestive of a unique configuration of personality traits contributing to self-made millionaires’ economic success.

Intrahousehold moral hazard frictions and household poverty traps in rural India

We empirically study the role of assets held by women in the creation of household wealth using data from rural India. We design a streamlined model of intrahousehold project funding where moral hazard frictions between spouses and women's asset control are the main ingredients. As predicted by the model, the data show that household asset accumulation depends on women's asset control in a non-monotonic way. Results indicate no presence of multiple equilibrium poverty traps, but do show that exogenous negative shocks will trigger assets aggregation within households where both spouses are present. This resilience mechanism is, however, not found in female headed household as these households have a monotonic relationship between women's wealth control and asset creation. We thus argue that policies to support women's empowerment need to distinguish women based on their individual wealth levels and headship status to enhance household well-being in remote Indian communities.

Knowledge of wealth shapes social impressions.

Seven experiments conducted in India and the United States (N ∼7,000; 5 preregistered) examined the effects of wealth on warmth and competence, 2 fundamental dimensions of social impressions. Wealth causally influenced perceptions of a target's competence: high wealth increased perceived competence and low wealth decreased perceived competence (Experiments 1-3). Furthermore, both high and low wealth reduced perceived warmth compared with control conditions that provided no wealth-related information (Experiments 2 and 3). Attributing prosocial tendencies to the target in the form of charitable donations reversed wealth-induced reductions in warmth, while low levels of charitable donations lowered both perceived warmth and competence (Experiment 3). Reciprocally, information about the target's competence or warmth influenced how wealthy they were perceived to be (Experiment 4). Knowing the source of wealth (e.g., entrepreneurship, corporate fraud, inheritance) also affected perceptions of competence and warmth (Experiments 5 and 6). Moreover, participants expressed greater willingness to hire wealthier targets compared with poorer targets in hypothetical employment scenarios, a relationship mediated by perceived competence, suggesting that an individual's wealth may influence consequential assessments and decisions (Experiment 7). With rising economic inequality, it is crucial to understand how wealthy and poor individuals are perceived and the implications of these perceptions. The present experiments offer insight in this direction. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Financial Risk-Taking and the Gender Wage Gap

Could differences in risk attitudes explain parts of the gender wage gap? We present estimates on the association between labor market outcomes and financial risk-taking using individual level administrative data on individual wealth portfolios and wage rates from year 2000, when high-quality wealth data were available in Sweden. The individual’s share of risky to total financial assets is significantly and positively associated with the wage rate. However, it turns out that our risk measure explains only a small part of the observed gender difference in wages.

Farklı Sosyo-Ekonomik Gruplara Göre Osmanlı Bireylerinin Zenginliği, 1650-1918: Kurumsal Değişim Bağlamında Betimsel Bir Analiz

The study offers a descriptive analysis of individual wealth in the Ottoman Empire, employing a new dataset from inheritance records of 36 different provinces located in Anatolia. The main purpose is to contribute to the discussion on the relationship between wealth inequality and changing institutional structures, spanning from 1650 to 1918. The limitations of data entail restrictions to construct a quantitative research, and hence, the study provides an implicit analysis on this relationship. A new dataset on individual wealth, however, allow to present a descriptive analysis in a long-term perspective. Establishing information on individual wealth by socio-economic groups, the study estimates wealth inequality according to Gini coefficients. This estimates also include a comparative analysis among different groups, including four quartiles starting from the wealthiest 25 percent. Our findings underlie the importance of the role of institutional change over the wealth inequality. We suggest the wealth inequality is higher under the periods of decentralized institutions, particularly during the pre-industrial period. This trend has become better with series of political, economic and institutional reforms towards centralization during the second half of the nineteenth century.

WEALTH TAX MODIFICATIONS: STATUS AND TRENDS

The purpose of this article is to study the topical issues of wealth taxation, which is due to the existing stable trends of growth of wealth of market subjects. Modern society is characterized by a marked increase in the wealth of individuals and corporations. Especially the number of wealthy individuals is growing. The aim of the paper is to define the essence of wealth and prerequisites of its taxation. The theme of the article is conditioned by the necessity to reveal different forms and methods of wealth taxation. At the same time the aim of the article is not to study wealth, but its taxation. In this connection the general system of taxes on wealth is considered and the peculiarities of functioning of different types of tax on wealth are determined. Methodology. A proper analysis of the social structure of society in the context of individual groups of taxpayers allows us to assess the effectiveness of the application of specific forms of wealth taxation. Results. The issue and modern specificity of the system of wealth taxes is explored. Wealth taxes exist in many countries in various forms. Practical implications. The peculiarities of application of different wealth taxes to different categories of taxpayers are investigated. The economic essence of taxes on wealth is investigated. The specifics of functioning of various taxes on wealth in modern conditions are considered. Value/originality. It has been established that taxation of wealth is a perfectly acceptable and even necessary form of fiscal influence of the state on society. A wealthy society is able to pay more taxes. This is important for the formation of state revenues. The economic potential of a large part of society is sufficient to pay a wealth tax. The peculiarities of functioning of different types of wealth tax for different taxpayers in different countries of the world are considered. The use of various taxes on wealth as a fiscal tool in the tax system of the state is proposed. Improvement of fiscal mechanisms of wealth taxation is recommended.

Ergodicity breaking in wealth dynamics: The case of reallocating geometric Brownian motion.

A growing body of empirical evidence suggests that the dynamics of wealth within a population tends to be nonergodic, even after rescaling the individual wealth with the population average. Despite these discoveries, the way in which nonergodicity manifests itself in models of economic interactions remains an open issue. Here we shed valuable insight on these properties by studying the nonergodicity of the population average wealth in a simple model for wealth dynamics in a growing and reallocating economy called reallocating geometric Brownian motion (RGBM). When the effective wealth reallocation in the economy is from the poor to the rich, the model allows for the existence of negative wealth within the population. In this work, we show that in the negative reallocation regime of RGBM, ergodicity breaks as the difference between the time-average and the ensemble growth rate of the average wealth in the population. In particular, the ensemble average wealth grows exponentially, whereas the time-average growth rate is nonexistent. Moreover, we find that the system is characterized with a critical self-averaging time period. Before this time period, the ensemble average is a fair approximation for the population average wealth. Afterwards, the nonergodicity forces the population average to oscillate between positive and negative values since the magnitude of this observable is determined by the most extreme wealth values in the population. This implies that the dynamics of the population average is an unstable phenomenon in a nonergodic economy. We use this result to argue that one should be cautious when interpreting economic well-being measures that are based on the population average wealth in nonergodic economies.

Mapping of Female Breast Cancer Incidence and Mortality Rates to Socioeconomic Factors Cohort: Path Diagram Analysis.

ObjectivesBreast cancer is the leading cause of death in women around the world. Its occurrence and development have been linked to genetic factors, living habits, health conditions, and socioeconomic factors. Comparisons of incidence and mortality rates of female breast cancer are useful approaches to define cancer-related socioeconomic disparities.MethodsThis was a retrospective observational cohort study on breast cancer of women in several developed countries over 30 years. Effects of socioeconomic factors were analyzed using a path diagram method.ResultsWe found a positive, significant association of public wealth on incidence and mortality of breast cancer, and the path coefficients in the structural equations are −0.51 and −0.39, respectively. The unemployment rate (UR) is critical and the path coefficients are all 0.2. The path coefficients of individual economic wealth to the rates of breast cancer are 0.18 and 0.27, respectively.ConclusionThe influence of social pressure on the incidence and mortality of breast cancer was not typical monotonous. The survival rate of breast cancer determined by the ratio of mortality rate to incidence rate showed a similar pattern with socioeconomic factors.

The dynamics of fitness and wealth distributions — a stochastic game-theoretic model

<p style='text-indent:20px;'>A model of the dynamics of distributions of individual wealth, or of individual Darwinian fitness, is here developed. Pairs of individuals are recurrently and randomly matched to play a game over a resource. In addition, all individuals have random access to a constant background source, and their fitness or wealth depreciates over time. For brevity, we focus on the well-known Hawk-Dove game. In the base-line model, the probability of winning a fight over a resource is the same for both parties. In an extended version, the individual with higher current fitness or wealth has a higher probability of winning. Analytical results are given for the fitness/wealth distribution at any given time, for the evolution of average fitness/wealth over time, and for the asymptotics with respect to both time and population size. Long-run average fitness/wealth is non-monotonic in the value of the resource, thus providing a potential explanation of the so-called curse of the riches.</p>

Financial literacy and crime incidence

Financial literacy is a determinant of individual wealth accumulation and social well-being. In this study, we examine the relationship between financial literacy and crime incidence using financial literacy data and crime data in the U.S. from 2009 to 2018. We posit that citizens’ financial literacy is negatively associated with the crime rate because financially literate citizens are better at managing their wealth and improving their economic condition. They are less likely to have unfulfilled basic needs, and thus are less prone to crimes, especially crimes driven by economic need. We find that the financial literacy of citizens is negatively associated with crime rates. Furthermore, examining on a disaggregated basis, financial literacy is negatively associated with violent crimes and property crimes. Our findings reveal the necessity of mandating financial education programs in workplaces and highlighting the role of financial literacy in corporate governance. This study is the first to empirically address the criminological consequences of low financial literacy and underline the way to improve social security by increasing people’s financial condition

A Predictive Evaluation of the Relationship Between Operation Workforce Prerequisites Sustainable Development

For instance, poor education leads to a high unemployment rate in isolated rural regions. Students from various areas get education but not educational chances, which is the biggest difficulty that regional youth confront today. Most rural employees have just one way to improve their lives or income, and that is via education, but they lack the necessary knowledge, skills, and ability to do so due to a lack of educational options. A pleasant learning environment empowers all students to be economically productive, to create sustainable development, to contribute to free and stable societies, and to increase individual wealth. Unqualified education is a trap for all students. You never know what people will pay for it in the future. It's preferable to be alphabetical rather than allegedly talented and jobless. In India, poor schooling results in poor learning outcomes. Supply chain management is the administration of the flow of goods and services, and it includes all procedures that turn raw materials into completed products. The use of knowledge, statistical methodologies, and machine learning technologies to forecast future events based on previous data is known as predictive analytics. The major purpose of this article is to examine current human resources, forecast future needs and availability, and take measures to ensure that the supply of people and skills meets demand.

Quantitative Structural Models to Assess Credit Risk on Individuals

Default Probabilities quantitatively measures the credit risk that a borrower will be unable or unwilling to repay its debt. An accurate model to estimate, as a function of time, these default probabilities is of crucial importance in the credit derivatives market. In this work, we adapt Merton’s [1] original works on credit risk, consumption and portfolio rules to model an individual wealth scenario, and apply it to compute this individual default probabilities. Using our model, we also compute the time depending individual default intensities, recovery rates, hazard rate and risk premiums. Hence, as a straight-forward application, our model can be used as novel way to measure the credit risk of individuals.

Wealth mobility in the United States: 1860–1870

AbstractWe offer new evidence on the dynamics of wealth holding in the United States over the Civil War decade based on a hand-linked random sample of wealth holders drawn from the 1860 census. Despite the wealth shock caused by emancipation, we find that patterns of wealth mobility were broadly similar for northern and southern residents in 1860. Looking at the determinants of individual wealth holding in 1870, we find that the elasticity with respect to 1860 wealth was quite low in both regions – consistent with high levels of wealth mobility.

Rubin’s Emporiophobia

Upon a request from the president of the southern economics association to a gathering of the Southern Economics Association for the members of the association to reduce their use of the word competition and replace it with what he considered to be the more apt term, cooperation, I had a mildly negative reaction to the notion and this article is a summary of that reaction, as it relates to individual wealth and the role of governments and corporations in the attainment of such wealth. Having enough wealth to participate in economic exchanges should inspire us to drill deeper on the definition of wealth before we are lured into opting for the definition imposed upon us by the culture in which we are bound. This article takes on that challenge of more defining wealth in a way that defies assumptions made by economists such as Rubin.

Local Characteristics Shape the Intended Political Behaviours of Adolescents

Among the different factors that predict political participation, the characteristics of the local community are often described. The types and the intensity of political participation differ in urban and rural communities. The local community provides social and cultural resources for political participation and at the same time acts as a driver of political socialisation. The political attitudes of adolescents differ depending on the characteristics of the communities in which they live, i.e. the local context of their political socialisation. This paper describes the context of the political socialisation of adolescents in the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) in terms of geographical differences in socioeconomic, sociostructural, and sociocultural characteristics. The approach uses public databases to construct indicators that describe administrative districts in terms of their degree of urbanisation, degree of aggregated individual wealth, and variety of opportunity. These indicators were merged with the NRW subset of the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS 2016), which comprises N = 1451 students in N = 59 schools. Neither the degree of urbanisation nor the degree of aggregated individual wealth was suitable for explaining differences in the intended political behaviour of secondary school students in the 8th grade in NRW. However, the higher the variety of opportunity in a certain district, the less frequently students intend to participate in elections as adults. Also, the higher the measure, the more frequently students intend to participate in illegal protest activities. Apparently certain local environments mobilise intentions to participate in protest activities and suppress more conventional political activities.

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Dyadic employment biographies and within‐couple wealth inequality in Britain and Western Germany

AbstractObjectiveThis study examines how the interplay of both partners' employment biographies is associated with the within‐couple gender wealth gap in later life in Britain and Western Germany, including married couples born between the 1920s and 1960s.BackgroundAlthough it is well‐known that women own less personal wealth than their male partners on average, variation in the gender wealth gap across partners' employment constellations and contexts remains unaddressed. Following the life course paradigm, this study theorizes how individual wealth accumulation, within‐couple redistribution processes, and institutional arrangements shape the within‐couple gender wealth gap in later life.MethodThe analyses rely on retrospective employment and prospective survey data from Britain (UKHLS; Wave 8; 2016–2018) and Germany (SOEP, 2017). Sequence and cluster analyses detect patterns of dyadic employment biographies (ages 20–55) among different‐sex couples in their first marriage and OLS regressions associate them with the within‐couple gender wealth gap.ResultsThe within‐couple gender wealth gap to the disadvantage of women existed in Britain and Western Germany, with considerably larger inequality in Germany. German male breadwinner couples, particularly those with longer periods of female homemaking and part‐time employment, showed higher levels of wealth inequality. Whereas dyadic employment biographies were not clearly associated with the gender wealth gap in Britain, stable arrangements of female full‐time employment reduced the gap in Germany.ConclusionA similar division of labor throughout the life course can result in different levels of the within‐couple gender wealth gap in later life across country contexts, particularly depending on the housing system.

Design of Personal Trajectories for Employees’ Professional Development in the Knowledge Society under Industry 5.0

The main feature of Industry 5.0 is “personalization”, linked not only to provide customers with personalized products, but also, in our opinion, to ensure personalization in labor relations with employees, since it increases human value through human–machine collaboration. The human capital quality determines a significant contribution not only to the labor productivity growth, but also to extend a social communication, loyalty and employees’ trust. The study proposes the new methodological approach for corporate human capital assessment and management (CHCM) over new conditions of digital transformation. The CHCM uses methods of system analysis and synthesis, expert assessments, descriptive statistical analysis and survey. The novelty of CHCM is that, firstly, it reflects all the essential features and properties of human capital under emergence of new professions; secondly, it combines and comprehensively uses both quantitative and qualitative methods for human capital assessment, reflecting the subjective and objective aspects of human capital measurement; thirdly, it allows to create warranted management decisions about individual trajectories of professional development of employees, ensuring the continuous growth of individual, corporate and social wealth. It is proved experimentally that the implementation of individual trajectories for employees’ professional development provides 2–3 years’ perspective on companies’ performance growth.

Acting on Behalf of Another Without Consent as a Source of the Right of Obligations in the Republic of Kosovo

In life, it often happens that humans take different actions on different occasions to save man or his wealth. These actions can be taken when there is a need to protect the integrity of man and his wealth, both individual and social wealth. Man performs these actions morally and without any institutional obligation. Man does the action without consent in order to save one's life or another's wealth. There is a need for such an action, because everyone sometimes in certain cases needs mutual help. With these behaviors of people, it is seen that they do not take these actions out of legal obligation, but act and should act with the consciousness and conscience of the civilized man. People who do this are driven by the need for cooperation, humanity, existence at the expense of the other, namely society. A person performs this action by perpetrating the work of another without consent for any other person. Hence, they undertake some factual and legal action for the other, sacrificing something that can be the property value and their bodily integrity. Sometimes this action must be taken because there are actions that cannot be postponed, therefore someone should take an action in such situations even when uninvited. Consequently, the subject matter analyzed in this paper is the act of perpetration of the work of another without consent as a source of the right of obligations in the Republic of Kosovo.
 
 Received: 6 October 2021 / Accepted: 1 November 2021 / Published: 5 November 2021