Inequality Gap Research Articles

Equilibrating ripple effect, disturbing information cascade effect and regional disparity – A perspective from China's tiered housing markets

AbstractThe current study investigates the role of the tier‐one cities of China in affecting regional disparities within and across its five mega‐city clusters, through the lens of housing market. For that purpose, an equilibrating ripple effect is differentiated from a disturbing information cascade effect. Evidence suggests that a modest slow‐moving equilibrating force originated from Hong Kong has flowed across all tier‐one and most tier‐two cities in the mainland, indicating a narrowing of regional inequalities between Hong Kong and the mainland cities. On the other hand, a powerful disturbing force emanated from Beijing has affected all other cities, widening the inequality gap in between. The impulse response functions further suggest that this disturbing force has a permanent impact on regional disparity.

Beyond the shovel and the sieve: achieving better outcomes for Aboriginal people in commercial archaeology

ABSTRACT Heritage consultants engaged in development driven archaeology are typically less able than their academic counterparts to negotiate the terms of collaborative consultation with Aboriginal people. Legislation, intellectual property rights, budget and project scope all restrict the ability to achieve project goals beyond the ‘shovel, sieve and report’ formula prescribed by the heritage contract. This article asks how commercial archaeologists engaged as cultural heritage managers and consultants can create pathways to better outcomes for Aboriginal people through identifying opportunities to close the gap in social inequality.

Antitrust and Inequality: The History of (In)Equality in Competition Law and Its Guide to the Future

Is equality a value of competition law, and can competition law help to close the growing wealth/income inequality gaps? To help answer these questions, this paper explores the history of equality in the competition laws of four key jurisdictions and uses the studies as a guide to what we can expect competition law to do and not do to reduce inequality. It finds equality values deeply embedded in the antitrust jurisprudence of most (at least representative) jurisdictions, and draws connections that inevitably, albeit indirectly, impact wealth and income. It concludes: Do not overestimate, and do not underestimate, what the equality value can do.

КОНСТРУЮВАННЯ СОЦІОКУЛЬТУРНОЇ ЦІЛІСНОСТІ ЯК СКЛАДОВОЇ СУЧАСНОГО БЕЗПЕКОВОГО РОЗВИТКУ

The study aims at consideration of modern academic and applied approaches to the construction of social and cultural cohesion as a component of social cohesion in order to further explore the prospects for the consolidation of Ukrainian society. Methods. Interdisciplinary approach, axiological approach, structural analysis, methods of political science and sociology are used to study the division of modern societies along the lines of ethnic, linguistic, religious differences, and inequality of opportunities to fully perform their potential through education, access to health care, digital technology, communication, income gap, ideological differences that hinder internal transformations. It is founded that the growing gap in opportunities and inequality exacerbated by the pandemic creates an environment of mistrust both within societies and between collective communities, an atmosphere of alienation and irritation, which often become conflict triggers. Such social fragmentation and differentiation raise the question of inclusion and exclusion of individuals and collective groups (in particular, states) in / from the sphere of social interaction and, as a consequence, generates academic and analytical search for answers to the question of social cohesion as a guarantee of steadily progressive development and hence, security. The deficit of socio-cultural cohesion as a high degree of solidarity and cohesion between groups and members of these groups, which should be a fundamental prerequisite for building resilience, makes the state vulnerable to external threats and makes the national security system poorly managed. It is this context that challenges Ukraine with construction of socio-cultural cohesion as a guarantee of progressive security development and resilience. The study analyses approaches to the interpretation of social and cultural cohesion in the modern search for conflict-free forms of interaction, the dichotomy of social and cultural / social cohesion in the approaches of international governmental organizations to the assessment of political and social transformations. Recommendations are provided for building the social and cultural cohesion of Ukrainian society on the basis of indicators for assessing social and cultural integrity, taking into account the international political context and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

Socioeconomic Determinants of Income Inequality Among Smallholder Arable Crop Farmers in Nigeria

Income is one of the yardsticks for measuring standard of living, and the inequality in its distribution makes smallholder crop farmers more trapped in abject poverty. In this paper, we examined the influence of household income sources on the overall income inequality and the contributions of households' socioeconomic characteristics to income inequality. We sourced our data from the 2nd wave of LSMS-Integrated Surveys on Agriculture General Household Survey Panel 2012/2013 conducted by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the World Bank (WB). The survey used a two-stage sampling technique; the first stage involves the selection of Enumeration Areas (EAs), which represent the primary sampling unit, using probability proportional to size (PPS) of the EAs in each state and the FCT. A total number of 1888 smallholder crop farmers with complete information were considered for this study. The methods adopted in analyzing the data were: Gini-coefficient decomposition by income sources and regression-based factor decomposition of inequality. To better reflect households' welfare, we used per adult equivalent household income as an alternative to total income. The result showed that the total income was ₦249,874,122.90 ($1,588,418.6) with an average income per adult equivalent of ₦132,348.60 ($841.30). The Gini decomposition revealed that the overall Gini index is 0.713, which indicates high-income inequality among farming households. Among all the income sources considered, crop income, non-farm income, and transfer income decreased income inequality while livestock income increased income inequality. The regression-based decomposition shows that majority of the variables selected to represent the socioeconomic factors have an increasing effect on income inequality. In contrast, variables such as age, gender, marital status, farm size, education, and dependency ratio have a significant impact on the adult equivalent household income. This study recommends that a land redistribution policy that will increase the farm size of farmers to boost small-scale crop production is necessary to bridge the gap of income inequality, promotion of improved technologies that will enhance farm household productivity. Lastly, policymakers should lay more emphasis on the mobility of transfer income from within and outside the country to fight inequality, given its decreasing effects on the overall inequality.

Voices on Diversity: Combating Racial Inequality to Increase Diversity

As part of our commitment to amplifying the voices of underrepresented scientists, we are publishing the insights and experiences of a panel of underrepresented scientists in a series of questions and answers. Here, they discuss ways that the scientific community can combat racial inequality and increase diversity. These are the personal opinions of the authors and may not reflect the views of their institutions.

Inequality in Access to COVID-19 Vaccines: Evidence from the Household Heads and Household Helps from Dhaka City

Inequality in vaccination has been perceived as a research problem in the recent COVID-19 pandemic. So far, this type of inequality has been investigated in the particular context of race, ethnicity, gender, regions in different parts of the world, with no study conducted so far in the context of Bangladesh, an important South Asian country. We have conducted an online purposive random sampling of 311 household heads in April 2021 from Dhaka, Bangladesh, with their respective domestic or household helps to examine the vaccination status across socioeconomic status, age, income, access to the internet, cellphone, laptop, or other computer devices, national identity card. Using univariate descriptive statistics, bivariate contingency table analysis, and multivariate logistic regression estimation, we find that in Dhaka, the largest megacity and the capital of Bangladesh, domestic or household workers above 40 years of age have mostly not taken COVID-19 vaccination at 5% level of significance. At the same time, their associated household heads are mostly vaccinated with two doses if they are above 40. Being a household head, access to cell phones, internet, and computer facilities are significant determinants to online registration and consequent COVID-19 vaccination. The results have posed a question regarding the efficacy of the ongoing vaccination drive and the observed inequality or vaccine gap, primarily driven by class differences, whereas the government policy towards vaccination was intended to be universal across classes.

Alleviating COVID-19 Inequality

This paper detects and offers solutions to alleviate COVID-19 induced inequality. The COVID-19 external shock now clearly created economic disparity between nations, industries and societal groups. This paper discusses rising inequality trends in finance, healthcare and digitalization exacerbated during the global COVID pandemic. It then discusses the most novel and cutting-edge innovations in bridging the finance-world and real economy inequality gap, fostering digitalization advancements and common goods oriented access to affordable healthcare but also equality in connectivity and tech-skills development to overcome unforeseen inquality in the shadow of COVID-19.

Bridging the Inequality Gap Among Marginalized Populations in Africa Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Call for Responsible Cooperation

Bridging the Inequality Gap Among Marginalized Populations in Africa Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Call for Responsible Cooperation

Bridging Africa’s Income Inequality Gap: How Relevant Is China’s Outward FDI to Africa?

Bridging Africa’s Income Inequality Gap: How Relevant Is China’s Outward FDI to Africa?

Analysing poverty-growth-inequality linkage in lower and lower-middle income countries in Africa

This research's primary purpose was to examine the poverty-growth-inequality linkage to ascertain the existence and direction of causality using data from lower and lower-middle-income countries in Africa. The result shows that while inequality is positively related to poverty, the effect of growth is negative. The short-run analysis also shows that growth had an insignificant negative relationship with poverty, while inequality had a significant positive relationship. The result also shows a long-run causality in growth and inequality given the significance of the error term while there is no long-run causality in poverty. The result shows that while growth is widening inequality, the inequality gaps created also help increase growth. The findings imply that policies towards reducing inequality in lower and lower-income countries are imperative for poverty reduction.

The Effects of Competition Law on Inequality – Incidental By-Product or a Path for Societal Change?

Rising economic inequality presents society with unprecedented challenges. Direct instruments designed to address these worrying trends have often under performed. As a result, we find ourselves on a potentially dangerous and unsustainable path. In this paper we explore whether, in parallel to other efforts to mitigate the rise of inequality, there can be a role for competition law to play in the quest to reduce the widening inequality gap. We begin by outlining the possible relationship between competition law enforcement, market power, and economic inequality. We supplement the theoretical discussion with a review of our empirical analysis of these linkages. We look at macro and micro data and emphasize the role of labor compensation as a key mechanism which links competition law enforcement, competition dynamics and economic inequality. With this in mind, we then reflect on the policy implications and possible means to utilize competition enforcement in a manner that would reduce economic inequality.

Disrupting Inequality: Might Philanthropic Innovation Be a Key to Narrowing Economic Inequality Gaps?

Disrupting Inequality: Might Philanthropic Innovation Be a Key to Narrowing Economic Inequality Gaps?

Effects of free maternal policies on quality and cost of care and outcomes: an integrative review.

We conducted an integrative review of the global-free maternity (FM) policies and evaluated the quality of care (QoC) and cost and cost implications to provide lessons for universal health coverage (UHC). Using integrative review methods proposed by Whittemore and Knafl (2005), we searched through EBSCO Host, ArticleFirst, Cochrane Central Registry of Controlled Trials, Emerald Insight, JSTOR, PubMed, Springer Link, Electronic collections online, and Google Scholar databases guided by the preferred reporting item for systematic review and meta-analysis protocol (PRISMA) guideline. Only empirical studies that described FM policies with components of quality and cost were included. There were 43 papers included, and the data were analysed thematically. Forty-three studies that met the criteria were all from developing countries and had implemented different approaches of FM policy. Review findings demonstrated that some of the quality issues hindering the policies were poor management of complications, worsened referral systems, overburdening of staff because of increased utilisation, lack of transport, and low supply of stock. There were some quality improvements on monitoring vital signs by nurses and some procedures met the recommended standards. Equally, mothers still bear the burden of some costs such as the purchase of drugs, transport, informal payments despite policies being 'free'. FM policies can reduce the financial burden on the households if well implemented and sustainably funded. Besides, they may also contribute to a decline in inequity between the rich and poor though not independently. In order to achieve the SDG goal of UHC by 2030, there is a need to promote awareness of the policy to the poor and disadvantaged women in rural areas to help narrow the inequality gap on utilisation and provide a sustainable form of transport through collaboration with partners to help reduce impoverishment of households. Also, there is a need to address elements such as cultural barriers and the role of traditional birth attendants which hinder women from seeking skilled care even when they are freely available.

Inequity in Education: Three-factor and Longitudinal Analysis

This study was conducted to find a more equitable education system for all students regardless of ethnicity, social status, gender, or even problems arising as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The effects of major factors that played a critical role on indicators of equity in education were analyzed. A data set from World Inequity Database on Education (WIDE) was used to gather information to estimate the inequity gap for different indicators and countries. The upper secondary completion rate was selected within this database to explore inequity in worldwide education and several stacked bar plots were drawn to describe the differences among demographics and incomes of countries. The learning achievement in reading(upper secondary) was chosen to explore inequity in education in Canada. A three-factor analysis model was built to study the effects of gender, location, wealth, and their interaction on learning achievement in reading. After model selection and model diagnosis, an additive model was chosen as the final model and it proved that there resided significant main effects. Also, a longitudinal model was built to explore whether observations of learning achievement in reading varied among the different years with four different levels as covariate variables. Three models related to repeated measures design were built, and the final model was chosen based on the AIC value. As a result, it provided a clear indication that the government should take responsibility and well-needed actions to eliminate inequity in education for many disparities that exist within comparisons between groups. Examples are: gender, rural or urban areas, and the social status of families.

Instilling Entrepreneurial Mind-Set through Entrepreneurship Education: A Systematic Review of Literature

Entrepreneurship has never been more significant than at the present moment, when economies across the world encounter the challenges of economic growth, connecting the inequality gap and solving social problems. Society necessitates individuals equipped with entrepreneurial and innovative skills, attitudes and behavior. Education is one way the government can grasp to create an environment for entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship education has generated considerable interest in recent decades. More so, entrepreneurship education fosters entrepreneurial mind-sets, behaviors and capabilities in young people enabling them to create and lead new organizations and entrepreneurship educators are hence looking for pedagogies that enable students to be exposed to multiple experiences in entrepreneurial decision-making. However, the argument on the pedagogy of entrepreneurship education still remains agnostic. The finest outcomes in entrepreneurship education are achieved when students are exposed to action-oriented experiential learning that encourages problem-solving, creativity and peer evaluation. Building upon insights from existing literature, the findings suggest that, by embracing game-based learning model for entrepreneurship education, and design thinking approach in entrepreneurship education can foster entrepreneurial mind-set. Notably, business simulation games can play in the development of entrepreneurial capabilities in undergraduate students.

Worlds Apart: Social Attitudes to Restitution in South Africa

Given the urgency of redressing South Africa’s unjust legacies of the past, we interrogate the nature of support and opposition to restitution in South Africa. Informed by responses to the nationally representative South African Social Attitudes Survey (SASAS), we contend that South Africa remains deeply polarised when it comes to addressing these unjust legacies, with race being the major fault line. When it comes to restitution, South Africans are worlds apart on three levels. We are worlds apart across racial groups; we are worlds apart within racial groups, and we are worlds apart in the kind of language we wish to use in framing our pursuit of equality. In the final analysis, while South Africans may be unified in the acknowledgement that the inequality gap is too high, and perhaps even unified in a desire for change, there is a fundamental disagreement about the desirable vehicles we hope to employ.

¿Senderos divergentes y resultados convergentes? La desigualdad económica en Europa y América Latina en las primeras décadas del siglo XXI

El artículo analiza los cambios en la desigualdad económica intra e interregional en América Latina y Europa. Sobre una muestra de 44 países, se examina el grado en que los factores económico-productivos junto con las políticas de bienestar configuran diferencias estructurales en materia de desigualdad entre regiones y en el interior de éstas en el periodo 2000-2017. Los resultados revelan que se redujo la brecha de desigualdad interregional como resultado de dinámicas intrarregionales diferentes: la desigualdad disminuyó en la mayor parte de los países latinoamericanos y creció en los europeos. El análisis de las trayectorias nacionales muestra que ello se debió a cambios simultáneos en el estilo de crecimiento y en la eficiencia redistributiva del gasto social.

Fair and Sustainable Taxation—From a European Horizon

Sustainability has become the key principle for our future, and, in tax policy, sustainability has long been equal to the dominant concept of “taxing for economic growth.” However, the concept lacks an idea on justice, tax justice as well as social justice, which inevitably leads to economic inequality gaps. New literature and empirical studies have contributed to a new awareness on how increasing inequalities can undermine economic growth. Based on the European situation, this Article argues for new perspectives on fair and sustainable taxation. Gender equality is one of these new perspectives. Why is explained in this Article.

Gender perspective in leprosy programs: A critical literature review

Objective: To analyze the gender perspective in articles on community participation programs carried out with people affected by leprosy. Methodology: A critical literature review was carried out with an ad-hoc guide based on three documents related to the analysis of the gender perspective in scientific publications. Different variables related to the theoretical framework, methodology, results and discussion were analyzed in addition to two transversal variables related to gender biases and the use of terms related to sex/gender. Results: Thirty articles related to community intervention programs and leprosy were analyzed, identified in a prior scoping review. The results showed that, in general, a gender perspective was not taken into account in the majority of the sections analyzed. Although there was a tendency to disaggregate data based on sex, subgroups of men and women were not analyzed, nor was there discussion of the differences between the two. In all of the articles, there was evidence of the presence of gender biases, and in the majority there was a proper use of the terms sex and gender. Conclusions: Results show that in the case of the studies we analyzed, a gender perspective was not taken into account in the approach to community intervention programs related to leprosy. It is necessary to develop strategies to incorporate a gender approach in research related to leprosy in order to address the gap in inequalities between men and women affected by the disease.