Inequality Decomposition Research Articles

Mancession vs. Shecession: gender disparities during COVID-19 in Indonesia

ABSTRACT Economic downturns may affect men more than women (mancession) or vice versa (shecession). However, evidence of this phenomenon during COVID-19 in Indonesia remains inconclusive, with studies often overlooking quantile variations and missing observation biases. Using logistic regression with multiple imputations and Blinder – Oaxaca inequality decomposition through unconditional quantile regressions on labour force survey data, we find that the pandemic’s impact on individual workers varied by gender and probability level. In the third-quartile probability groups, job (income) loss showed a mancession (shecession) pattern owing to discrimination (female vulnerable characteristics). Given Indonesia’s existing focus on supporting women, gender-specific interventions are essential: revising male-dominated gender norms for men, expanding vocational training programs, and strengthening cash transfer initiatives for women.

Measurement and decomposition of education-related inequality in exclusive breastfeeding practice among Ethiopian mothers: applying Wagstaff decomposition analysis

BackgroundHuman breast milk, a naturally balanced source of infant nutrition, promotes optimal growth and health when exclusively fed for 6 months. Exclusive breastfeeding reduces common childhood infections, provides protection against some chronic illnesses, and contributes to achieving several Sustainable Development Goals. Despite its benefits, only 58% of Ethiopian women practice it, and the associated education-related inequality is not well documented. Thus, this study aims to quantify and decompose the education-related inequality in exclusive breastfeeding practice among Ethiopian mothers.MethodsA total of 1,504 weighted samples were studied using a Performance Monitoring for Action Ethiopia longitudinal panel survey dataset (2021–2023). Wagstaff normalized concentration index and its concentration curve were used to assess education-related inequality in exclusive breastfeeding practice. Wagstaff decomposition analysis was performed to decompose the concentration index and identify factors contributing to the observed education-related inequality. Significance was declared at p-value <0.05.ResultsThe overall prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding among Ethiopian women was 57.29% (95% CI: 54.79, 59.80%), with a greater concentration found among women with lower levels of education. This indicates an inequality that favors less educated women (pro-less educated inequality), as demonstrated by the Wagstaff normalized concentration index of −0.058 (95% CI: −0.113, −0.002). Factors that made a significant contribution to the observed education-related inequality in exclusive breastfeeding practice were residence (18.80%), region (29.31%), place of birth (−7.38%), and the wantedness status of the indexed pregnancy (82.58%). The indexed pregnancy’s wantedness was made a more elastic (elasticity = 0.282) contribution.ConclusionThe study identified a small yet significant education-related inequality in exclusive breastfeeding, favoring less educated women. Hence, emphasis should be placed not only on educating women but also on healthy habits that they can leave behind when they learn. Residence, region, place of birth, and indexed pregnancy’s wantedness significantly contributed to the observed education-related inequality. The elasticity value for each factor suggests that policy changes addressing these factors could readily reduce the observed inequality.

Children's Personality and Its Contribution to School Grades Inequality: Evidence From Mexico

ABSTRACTWe explore the relationship between Big‐5 Personality Traits and school grades, using a novel survey of state primary school children in Mexico. Linear school fixed‐effects estimates controlling for household income, principal caregiver's education, IQ, and personality traits indicate that higher conscientiousness and agreeableness consistently and significantly correlate with high school performance in all subjects, net of child's IQ. A regression‐based inequality decomposition shows that a child's personality accounts for 5.1% and 6.5% of the inequality in mathematics for girls and boys, whereas for Spanish, it accounts for 3.9% and 8.0%, respectively. Results are robust to unobservable confounders using Oster bounds.

Does geographical location impact educational disparities among Ecuadorians? A novel two-stage inequality decomposition method

The aim of this paper is to assess the extent of educational disparities among Ecuadorians attributed to their geographical location. For this purpose, a novel two-stage hierarchical decomposition of inequality for the half of the square of the coefficient of variation is introduced. This method, an extension of the one-stage (within/between) decomposition, is applicable to variables that can take the value zero, such as the ‘years of schooling’ variable. Using microdata bases from Ecuador’s National Survey of Employment, Unemployment and Underemployment (encompassing all twenty-four provinces and four regions in 2014 and 2021), we estimated the ‘years of schooling’ for individuals aged 24 and over, determining provincial, regional and national mean values. The proposed method allows the identification of the extent to which educational disparities among Ecuadorians (total inequality) can be attributed to differences between provinces and regions (spatial inequality), and the extent to which such educational inequality is due to variations among individuals within provinces. Moreover, it measures the educational inequality within each province and evaluates the contribution of each province to intra-provincial inequality. The results indicate that, although spatial inequality increased between the study years, total educational inequality decreased. This is because the contribution of spatial inequality to total inequality was practically negligible compared to the influence of disparities among individuals within provinces. Consequently, the reduction in the intra-provincial inequality is the reason for the decrease in educational differences among Ecuadorians. The findings potentially reflect individual-focused policies, socioeconomic features of Ecuador’s provinces and align with the official educational statistics.

Decomposition of Economic Inequality in Age-Related Macular Degeneration by Using Oaxaca-Blinder Decomposition: Tehran Geriatric Eye Study

ABSTRACT Purpose To investigate economic inequality in age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and decompose it into its determinants using Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition (OBD). Methods The Tehran Geriatric Eye Study was a cross-sectional study conducted on individuals aged 60 years and older, utilizing stratified random cluster sampling. Each participant received a comprehensive optometric, and slit-lamp examination. Diagnosis and classification of AMD were conducted utilizing fundus camera images. Results The data of the 3268 participants were analyzed. According to OBD, a significant difference was found in AMD between the rich and poor groups (8.36%) disfavoring the poor (p < 0.001). The explained and unexplained portions comprised 93.37% and 6.63% of the difference (p < 0.001 and p = 0.405, respectively). Among study variables, age (coefficient = 4.70; p < 0.001), economic status (coefficient = 3.58; p = 0.004), and myopia (coefficient = 0.73; p = 0.001) were significant determinants of inequality in the explained portion. Conclusion A significant disparity in the prevalence of AMD was observed between individuals of different socioeconomic statuses, primarily attributed to the explained factors. Factors such as age, economic status, and myopia were found to have the most substantial impact in exacerbating the inequality that disadvantaged the poor group (contributing percentages: 52.17%, 39.73%, and 8.10%, respectively). The findings of this research can be valuable for health policymakers in prioritizing and addressing the determinants of inequality within the population.

Decomposition of the wealth gradient in maternal healthcare quality in low- and middle-income countries

Although access to health services by poor populations has improved in most low- and middle-income countries, wealth remains associated with better quality of care that in turn leads to better health outcomes. Understanding the patterns of such inequities can inform the design of policies to improve services received by poor populations. We employ regression and inequality decomposition analyses using household survey data from 58 low- and middle-income countries between 2010 and 2021 to characterize inequity in quality of antenatal care, to test at which levels inequity exists, and to assess at which levels inequities are most pronounced. We find that in most countries and in both rural and urban areas, wealthier women are more likely to receive high-quality antenatal care than their poorer peers who reside in the same locality (village or neighborhood), even when attending similar types of health facilities (public vs. private, and primary care facilities vs. hospitals). However, although inequity exists at such a local level, most of the wealth gradient in quality of antenatal care is explained by variation in quality of care between wealthier and poorer localities.

Decomposing socioeconomic inequality in household out of pocket health expenditures in Pakistan (2010-11–2018-19)

BackgroundThe increased socioeconomic inequality in catastrophic health expenditure (CHE) disproportionately affects disadvantaged populations, subjecting them to financial hardships, limiting their access to healthcare, and exacerbating their vulnerability to morbidity.ObjectivesThis study examines changes in socioeconomic inequality related to CHE and analyzes the contributing factors responsible for these changes in Pakistan between 2010-11 and 2018-19.MethodsThis paper extracted the data on out-of-pocket health expenditures from the National Health Accounts for 2009-10 and 2017-18. Sociodemographic information was gathered from the Household Integrated Economic Surveys of 2010-11 and 2018-19. CHE was calculated using budget share and the ability-to-pay approaches. To assess socioeconomic inequality in CHE in 2010-11 and 2018-19, both generalized and standard concentration indices were used, and Wagstaff inequality decomposition analysis was employed to explore the causes of socioeconomic inequality in each year. Further, an Oaxaca-type decomposition was applied to assess changes in socioeconomic inequality in CHE over time.ResultsThe concentration index reveals that socioeconomic inequality in CHE decreased in 2018-19 compared to 2010-11 in Pakistan. Despite the reduction in inequality, CHE was concentrated among the poor in Pakistan in 2010-11 and 2018-19. The inequality decomposition analysis revealed that wealth status was the main cause of inequality in CHE over time. The upper wealth quantiles indicated a positive contribution, whereas lower quantiles showed a negative contribution to inequality in CHE. Furthermore, urban residence contributed to pro-rich inequality, whereas employed household heads, private healthcare provider, and inpatient healthcare utilization contributed to pro-poor inequality. A noticeable decline in socioeconomic inequality in CHE was observed between 2010 and 2018. However, inequality remained predominantly concentrated among the lower socio-economic strata.ConclusionThese results underscore the need to improve the outreach of subsidized healthcare and expand social safety nets.

A Comprehensive Analysis of the Economic Development and Income Gap

The third wave of global economic integration is advancing at an unprecedented speed. At the same time, there is intense debate among people about the impact of globalization on the economy, society, environment, and other aspects. One of the core issues of debate is the impact of globalization on income disparities between countries. Many people believe that the rules of globalization are beneficial to rich countries by sacrificing the interests of the third world, exacerbating inequality between countries and exacerbating poverty. This article uses literature review and case analysis methods, and panel data to study the impact of globalization on income inequality between countries through a regression based inequality decomposition framework. This paper will start with theoretical analysis and then test these theories with empirical data. Our goal is to provide a comprehensive perspective to understand the interaction between these two important economic variables and to look for possible equilibrium strategies.

A Comprehensive Analysis of the Economic Development and Income Gap

The third wave of global economic integration is advancing at an unprecedented speed. At the same time, there is intense debate among people about the impact of globalization on the economy, society, environment, and other aspects. One of the core issues of debate is the impact of globalization on income disparities between countries. Many people believe that the rules of globalization are beneficial to rich countries by sacrificing the interests of the third world, exacerbating inequality between countries and exacerbating poverty. This article uses literature review and case analysis methods, and panel data to study the impact of globalization on income inequality between countries through a regression based inequality decomposition framework. This paper will start with theoretical analysis and then test these theories with empirical data. Our goal is to provide a comprehensive perspective to understand the interaction between these two important economic variables and to look for possible equilibrium strategies.

Decompositions of Inequality and Poverty by Income Source

Abstract There is ample empirical literature on the contributions of different income sources to total income inequality. In contrast, studies estimating the contributions of income sources to income poverty are scarce. This paper presents a new decomposition of the Foster–Greer–Thorbecke poverty index, based on a marginal approach previously employed to decompose income inequality. We apply these marginal decompositions to data for 15 EU countries and classify six income sources according to their impact on inequality and poverty. Our results indicate that there are significant differences in the contributions of income sources to poverty compared to their respective contributions to inequality.

Evolution and driving factors of inequality in CO2 emissions from agricultural energy consumption in China

The inequality in CO2 emissions from agricultural energy consumption is a major challenge for coordinating low-carbon agricultural development across regions in China. However, the evolutionary characteristics and driving factors of inequality in China’s agricultural energy-related CO2 emissions are poorly understood. In response, the Kaya–Theil model was adopted to examine the three potential factors influencing CO2 emission inequality in China’s agricultural energy consumption. The results revealed that, from 1997 to 2021, agricultural energy-related CO2 emissions per capita showed a significant upward trend, with prominent polarization and right-tailing phenomena. Overall, the inequality was on a downward trend, with the Theil index falling from 0.4109 in 1997 to 0.1957 in 2021. Meanwhile, the decomposition of the national inequality revealed that the within-group inequality declined from 0.3991 to 0.1634, which was greater than between-group inequality, based on zoning the 28 provinces into three grain production functional areas. As for the three kaya factors, the energy intensity contributed the most to the overall inequality, followed by the agricultural economic development and CO2 emission intensity. Based on these results, this study provided some potential strategies to reduce agricultural-related CO2 emissions.

지니계수 분해를 이용한 에너지 빈곤 가구와 일반가구의 소득 및 에너지 구입비 불평등 분해

지니계수 분해를 이용한 에너지 빈곤 가구와 일반가구의 소득 및 에너지 구입비 불평등 분해

Socioeconomic Inequalities in Catastrophic Health Expenditure in Sindh Province of Pakistan

This study aims to examines the socio-economic inequality in Catastrophic Health Expenditure(CHE) by using the data from the Household Integrated Economic Surveys. Catastrophic Health Expenditure(CHE) was computed using the ability-to-pay-approach. To assess socioeconomic inequality in CHE for the years 2018, both generalized and standard concentration Indices were used. The results of concentration index revealed that Catastrophic Health Expenditure(CHE) concentrated among the poor in Sindh. The inequality decomposition analysis reveals that wealth status was the main cause of the inequality. The upper wealth quantiles had larger contribution, while the lower quantiles showed smaller contribution to inequality in CHE. Further, employed head of the household, Educated head of household, private provision of healthcare, and inpatient access of healthcare were negative contributors to CHE inequality in Sindh.

The changing distribution of land in rural Vietnam, 2004–2014

This paper analyses the changing distribution of land in rural Vietnam based on plot-level information in the Vietnam Household Living Standards Surveys. Both agricultural and residential land holdings in Vietnam became more unequally distributed between 2004 and 2014, due to rising landlessness in the bottom quintile and land accumulation in the top quartile of the land distribution. Applying Fields’ regression-based inequality decomposition, we find the main drivers of land inequality were the share of household members working in agriculture and the shares of forestry and perennial crop land. In contrast, irrigation and off-farm employment contributed to reducing land inequality. Landlessness and near landlessness, which increased by almost two-fifths, is associated with similar factors, along with higher education of the household head. Taken together, these results underline the rapid structural transformation that has occurred in rural Vietnam. The rise in functional landlessness observed presents a challenge to the Vietnamese Government’s desire to promote growth with equity.

An assessment of the distributional impacts of autonomous adaptation to climate change from European agriculture

Farmers facing a durable change in climate conditions may autonomously adapt through the intensive margin, the extensive margin, or through the adoption of new practices. Based on a coupling between a microeconomic model of European agriculture (AROPAj) and a crop model (STICS), this article investigates the potential distributional impacts of farm-level autonomous adaptation to climate change within the European Union (EU-27). Considering the representative concentration pathway (RCP) 4.5 of the second report on emission scenario of the fifth assessment report (SRES AR5), we implement two levels of autonomous adaptation for farmers, and three time horizons. The results indicate that ceteris paribus, climate change may lead in terms of social welfare to a slightly worse situation in the middle term and a slightly better situation in the long term with respect to the present. However, the ranking of agents in the distribution is importantly impacted. Our Shapley inequality decomposition shows that income inequality is largely explained by the region and type of farming. Climate change barely affects the marginal contribution of these two characteristics to overall income inequality.

Influencing factors, gender differences and the decomposition of inequalities in cognitive function in Chinese older adults: a population-based cohort study

BackgroundEvidence remains limited and inconsistent for assessing cognitive function in Chinese older adults (CFCOA) and inequalities in cognitive function in Chinese older adults (ICFCOA) and exploring their influencing factors and gender differences. This study aimed to identify influencing factors and inequality in CFCOA to empirically explore the existence and sources of gender differences in such inequality and analyse their heterogeneous effects.MethodsBased on data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) for three periods from 2011 to 2015, recentered influence function unconditional quantile regression (RIF-UQR) and recentered influence function ordinary least squares (RIF-OLS) regression were applied to assess influencing factors of CFCOA, while grouped treatment effect estimation, Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition, and propensity score matching (PSM) methods were conducted to identify gender differences in ICFCOA and influencing factors, respectively.ResultsThe results showed heterogeneous effects of gender, age, low BMI, subjective health, smoking, education, social interactions, physical activity, and household registration on CFCOA. Additionally, on average, ICFCOA was about 19.2–36.0% higher among elderly females than among elderly males, mainly due to differences in characteristic effects and coefficient effects of factors such as marital status and education.ConclusionsDifferent factors have heterogeneous and gender-differenced effects on CFCOA and ICFCOA, while the formation and exacerbation of ICFCOA were allied to marital status and education. Considering the severe ageing and the increasing incidence of cognitive decline, there is an urgent need for the government and society to adopt a comprehensive approach to practically work for promoting CFCOA and reducing ICFCOA.

Determinants of Income Inequality Sources among Women in Rural Oyo State, Nigeria

This paper applies the regression-based inequality decomposition approach to explore determinants of income inequality sources among women in rural Oyo State, Nigeria. A four-stage sampling procedure was used in the collection of primary data with purposive selection of two agricultural development programme zones in Oyo State of Nigeria. 150 respondents were eventually used for the study. Structured questionnaires and interview schedules were used to collect data. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Shapley decomposition approach. Age and household size of women were 35.5±1.06 years and 8.0±0.59 persons, respectively. Most respondents (88.0%) were married and 43.3% were farmers with income of N24,196.76±11,897.90 per month. Sources that largely explain inequality were primary occupation (0.5551), farm size (0.2523) and household assets (0.0766) and the relative contributions of these factors sum up to 80%. Total inequality computed by the Gini index was 0.2206 and it implies that the contribution of the predicted residual term to income inequality in this case was 22.06%.The marginal contribution of the estimated income sources of the weighted mean with no negative values from level 1 to 12 were primary occupation, educational level, workers per household, number of assets and location with weighted marginal contribution of 0.0125, 0.0120, 0.0105, 0.0071 and 0.0053 respectively. Narrowing the gap between those at the top and the bottom of income distribution will reduce inequality in the households and the nation at large and that is the more reason this study needs attention because within group components overwhelmingly accounted for inequality compared to the between group components. The role of spatial inequality and policies that encourage entrepreneurship training and non-formal education for women in rural areas would be inequality reducing, and would tend to be more effective if additional policy instruments are used to target other sources of measured income inequality.

Spatial earnings inequality

Earnings inequality in Germany has increased dramatically. Measuring inequality locally at the level of cities annually since 1985, we find that behind this development is the rapidly worsening inequality in the largest cities, driven by increasing earnings polarisation. In the cross-section, local earnings inequality rises substantially in city size, and this city-size inequality penalty has increased steadily since 1985, reaching an elasticity of .2 in 2010. Inequality decompositions reveal that overall earnings inequality is almost fully explained by the within-locations component, which in turn is driven by the largest cities. The worsening inequality in the largest cities is amplified by their greater population weight. Examining the local earnings distributions directly reveals that this is due to increasing earnings polarisation that is strongest in the largest places. Both upper and lower distributional tails become heavier over time, and are the heaviest in the largest cities. We establish these results using a large and spatially representative administrative data set, and address the top-coding problem in these data using a parametric distribution approach that outperforms standard imputations.

Simplicial decomposition of variational inequalities with multiple nonlinear column generation

&lt;abstract&gt; &lt;p&gt;Simplicial decomposition (SD) of variational inequalities experiences the long-tail convergence property. That is, the equilibrium solution rapidly progresses at first but then tails off, making only a tiny amount of progress per column generation iteration, which is a drawback of SD-VI. In the context of Dantzig-Wolfe of LP, it is reported that the more proposals are used to initialize the algorithm, the faster the solution can be found by reducing the number of decomposition steps. Therefore, I proposed to solve multiple nonlinear column generation (mNCG) subproblems in each SD-VI iteration (SD-VI-mNCG) instead of solving only one subproblem as in SD-VI. Generating multiple column generation subproblem solutions in each SD-VI iteration enabled the corresponding convex hull to be rapidly enlarged. Consequently, the number of SD-VI iterations could be greatly reduced. A transportation network equilibrium problem was used to study the performance of the SD-VI-mNCG.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/abstract&gt;

Decomposition of economic inequalities in dental caries among Iranian schoolchildren.

Monitoring social inequalities in dental caries is crucial for establishing priorities in oral health systems. This study aimed to assess economic inequalities in dental caries and its contributing factors among Iranian schoolchildren. Data were obtained from the first phase of the Shahroud Schoolchildren Eye Cohort Study in 2015. A total of 4992 children aged 6-12 years old were included in the analysis. Dental examinations were conducted following the diagnostic methods and standards of the Oral Health Examination Survey, as recommended by the World Health Organization. The concentration index (C) was utilized to assess economic inequalities in dental caries. Additionally, the decomposition of C was employed to explain the determinants of the measured inequalities. In total, 71.4% of the schoolchildren had dental caries in primary dentition (dft≥1), and 41.6% of the schoolchildren had dental caries in permanent dentition (DMFT≥1). The Cs of dft≥1, primary decayed teeth (pdt≥1), and permanent missing teeth (PMT≥1) were -0.136 (95% CI: -0.167, -0.104), -0.164 (95% CI: -0.194, -0.134), and -0.208 (95% CI: -0.262, -0.153), respectively, which indicates their more concentration among low-economic children. Conversely, pft≥1 and PFT≥1 had Cs of 0.327 (95% CI: 0.292, 0.361) and 0.218 (95% CI: 0.179, 0.256), showing more concentration among high-economic children. Basic health insurance coverage and age were the main contributors that explained 28.6% and 19.2% of the economic inequality in dft≥1, and 25.7% and 16.6% of the pdt≥1 inequality, respectively. Economic status, residence in rural areas, mother education, father education, and age were the main contributors to the measured inequality in pft≥1 by 80.5% and 26.5%, 21.9%, 22%, and -18.3%, respectively. Economic status, having a housekeeper mother, residence in rural areas, having basic health insurance coverage, mother education, and father education positively contributed to the measured inequality in PMT≥1 by 45.4%, 42.4%, 37.8%, 35.1%, 21.3%, and 15.2%, respectively, while age had a negative contribution of -19.3%. For PFT≥1, economic status, age, and father education accounted for 76%, 25.4%, and 20.3% of the measured inequality, respectively. Pro-rich economic inequalities were observed in children's primary and permanent teeth caries. Thus, government interventions to reduce these inequalities should aim to expand the coverage of basic and supplementary health insurance in line with increasing the coverage of dental health costs in these plans, training and providing access to required dental health services for low-socioeconomic children, including the poor, rural, and those who have low-educated parents and a housekeeper mother, especially at younger ages.