Resource Inequality Research Articles

Peace in an unequal world? Experimental evidence on the relationship between inequality and conflict in a guns-vs-butter setting

This study addresses the emergence of (unarmed) peace and investments in arms within a guns-vs-butter conflict setting. We introduce a novel feature within the conflict game and separate the decision to start a conflict and the investment in arms, following the theoretical framework of Garfinkel and Syropoulos (2021). Based on this model we experimentally examine the emergence of peace while varying resource inequality among conflicting parties. We find that inequality leads to more conflicts and higher investments in arms. Despite these trends, achieving a state of unarmed peace is rarely observed in both treatments. Our results highlight the critical role of trust in attaining peaceful outcomes and show that armed peace, although not an optimal strategy in either treatment, is one of the most frequently chosen decisions.

Tensions undermining equitable school funding: insights from Australia

ABSTRACT School funding policy in Australia not only promotes educational equity in some ways but also creates substantial between-school resource inequalities due to its embrace of market ideologies. School funding policies are designed to promote school choice and competition, based on the assumption that they are both a right and an effective lever for improving educational outcomes. School funding is used to create an educational marketplace with varying ‘price points’, leading to the acceptance of a two-tiered system of basic provision via the public sector and enhanced provision for those willing to pay via the private sector. Political commitment to making school funding more equitable has been largely absent. Marketisation is the mechanism by which schooling maintains its capacity to reproduce social inequality without evoking class-based discourse or anxiety.

Automatic delineation of rational service areas and health professional shortage areas in GIS based on human movements and health resources

AbstractHow people travel to receive health services is essential for understanding healthcare shortages. The rational service areas (RSAs) are defined to represent local healthcare markets and used as the basic units to evaluate whether people have access to health resources. Therefore, finding an appropriate way to develop RSAs is important for understanding the utilization of health resources and supporting accurate resource allocation to the health professional shortage areas (HPSAs). Existing RSAs are usually developed based on the local knowledge of public health needs and are created through time‐intensive manual work by health service officials. In this research, a travel data‐driven and spatially constrained community detection method based on human mobility flow is proposed to automate the process of establishing the statewide RSAs and further identifying HPSAs based on healthcare criteria in a geographic information system (GIS) software. The proposed method considers the difference between rural and urban populations by assigning different parameters and delineates RSAs with the goal of reducing health resource inequalities faced by rural areas. Using the data in the State of Wisconsin, our experiment shows that the proposed RSA delineation method outperforms other baselines including the traditional Dartmouth method in the aspects of RSA compactness, region size balances, and health shortage scores. Furthermore, the whole process of delineating RSAs and identifying HPSAs is automated using Python toolboxes in ArcGIS to support future analyses and practices in a timely and repeatable manner.

Types of capital in the field of “silver volunteering”

The article examines the features of the social capital of elderly volunteers through the prism of the Bourdieusian approach: the inequality of resources is shown and ways of converting various types of capital into the field of volunteering are presented. The temporal aspects of the formation of a volunteer’s habitus are revealed. The research makes it possible to see the problem of capital formation by the senior age volunteers through their dynamic interactions, painstaking and difficult work to create solidarity and redefine themselves. Being at the forefront of the policy of active longevity and in the field of view of the third sector, the movement of ‘silver’ volunteers contributes to the implementation of the neoliberal project of a healthy lifestyle of the elderly. An idea of silver volunteering is inclusive because people in the senior age as a socially vulnerable group get an opportunity to participate in public life, develop, and feel their need. The real practices of implementing this idea are rich in examples of human potential disclosure, the creation of cohesive communities, the embodiment of bright and important ideas not only of direct social assistance, but also of social change. At the same time, the experience of volunteering becomes a tool for distinguishing and increasing competitiveness in a field with an unequal distribution of resources.

Novel credibility approaches for Lorenz curve and Gini coefficient estimation

The Lorenz curve and Gini coefficient are prominent statistical tools used in various fields to measure income inequality, wealth distribution, and other distributions of resources within a population. However, traditional estimations of Lorenz curve and Gini coefficient often overlook the utilization of prior information, relying solely on sample data. This paper adopts credibility theory principles to propose a novel approach, combining empirical and collective Lorenz curves through weighted estimation. By optimizing these weights under the integral square loss function, the study derives two credibility estimations for the Lorenz curve and Gini coefficient. Asymptotic properties of these estimations are established, and numerical simulations validate the comparison of their small-sample properties with traditional methods.

Cascade effects of global supply chains induced by regional conflicts increase global inequality

Regional conflicts have become prominent in triggering shocks on supply chains and cascade effects on resource management. Reliable assessments of the cascading pattern of production resources among sectors globally are missing. Here, we modeled global multisectoral production losses and the cascading pattern of a grain supply shock in the Russia–Ukraine regional conflict by utilizing a geographic input–output approach. We find that the most cascading losses emerged in the textile (17.04 % ± 0.72 %, 95 % confidence intervals) and food-processing sectors (16.85 % ± 0.5 %). The shock propagated in a “grain–processed food/livestock” direct chain and a “light manufacturing–heavy manufacturing/textile” indirect chain. Prolonged conflict and disrupted resource allocation decreased the efficiency of production recovery in low-income countries and amplified inequality of production resources. Our approach presents a quantitative framework for unexpected supply chain shocks. The findings support the case for production aid to low-income countries and circular supply chains for sustainable development.

Realist Approach to Social Policies (RASP) study to reduce socioeconomic health inequalities through systems change: protocol for a research project combining mixed-methods realist research with institutional action research

IntroductionHealth inequalities are rooted in inequality in vital resources for health, including financial resources, a supportive informal network, a stable living situation, work or daytime activities or education and literacy....

The Impact of Resource Inequality on Employment and Social Integration of People with Disabilities

In the current social context, resource inequality profoundly affects the social integration of people with disabilities. Due to physical or cognitive impairments, this demographic faces numerous challenges in education, employment, and socialization. Inequity in educational resources leads to lower educational levels among people with disabilities, while discriminatory employment opportunities hinder their integration into the workplace. Additionally, insufficient skills training and assistive technology resources exacerbate their difficulties. Furthermore, cultural differences, discrimination, and an imperfect social welfare and support system also limit their social participation and integration. To address these issues, it is imperative to develop solutions based on actual conditions, enhance educational equity, improve educational levels for people with disabilities, and ensure access to high-quality education. Moreover, promoting employment equity, eliminating job discrimination against people with disabilities, and providing more employment opportunities are crucial. Simultaneously, enhancing skills training and support for assistive devices will help improve their employability. Implementing these strategies will create a fairer, more inclusive social environment for people with disabilities, promoting their social integration and development and contributing to societal harmony and progress.

The Intervention Effect of Online Mindfulness Training in Alleviating Youths’ Test Anxiety

With rapid development and modernization of today’s society, the resource inequality between rural and urban areas has enlarged, especially regarding adolescents’ mental health education. In order to provide alternative to adolescents with limited resources, this study targets test anxiety as example, aiming to explore the effectiveness of online mindfulness training in alleviating students’ test anxiety through a quasi-experiment. This study recruited youths from 12 to 18 years old and used their pre-test/post-test data on 186 trained participants ( Mage = 14.85, 57.5% male) and 217 propensity-score matched controls ( Mage = 15.35, 53% male). After careful analysis, the results proved the effectiveness of online mindfulness training in reducing test anxiety and showed that the online training was more beneficial for students with serious interpersonal problems. This study further provided implications for the use of technology in mental health education, promoting the care of psychological well-being in rural areas.

One index, two publishers and the global research economy

ABSTRACT The emergence of a global science system after the second world war was spurred by transformations in academic publishing and information science. Amidst Russian-American technological rivalries, funding for science expanded rapidly. Elsevier and Pergamon internationalised journal publishing, whilst tools such as the Science Citation Index changed the way research was measured and valued. This paper traces the connections between the post-war expansion of academic research, new commercial publishing models, the management of research information and Cold War geopolitics. Today, the analysis and use of research metadata continues to revolutionise science communication. The monetisation of citation data has led to the creation of rival publishing platforms and citation infrastructures. The value of this data is amplified by digitisation, computing power and financial investment. Corporate ownership and commercial competition reinforce geographical and resource inequalities in a global research economy, marginalising non-Anglophone knowledge ecosystems as well as long-established scholar-led serials and institutional journals. The immediate future for academic publishing will be shaped by a growing divide between commercial and ‘community-owned’ open science infrastructures.

Examining How School Resources Contribute to Income Achievement Disparities Across Race and Ethnicity

Extending work documenting historical resource inequities across U.S. schools, we examined how school financial and social resources mediate the relationship between family income and student achievement, and tested how these associations varied by race and ethnicity. Merging administrative school data sources to a nationally representative sample of U.S. elementary students, and employing structural equation modeling, we found that family income selected all children into more highly socially resourced schools, with significantly stronger effects for White children relative to students of color. Contrary to expectations, school financial and social resources were not significantly associated overall with achievement.

Beyond Birth Work: Addressing Social Determinants of Health With Community Perinatal Support Doulas.

Adverse maternal and infant health outcomes among African Americans are increasingly recognized as indicators of a critical public health crisis in the United States. Research has found that stress is related to structural racism and the social determinants of health (SDOH) that cause avoidable, unfair inequities in resources, education, power, and opportunities across ethnic groups. This paper describes the SDOH needs and experiences of pregnant Black women from the perspective of doulas and Birthing Beautiful Communities (BBC) clients. The design was a qualitative description, using data collected over time (2017-2018, 2020-2021, and 2023). This study took place in Cleveland and Akron, Ohio and the sample included 58 clients, 26 doulas, and 2 resource intake specialist assistants (RISAs). Qualitative data included individual client interviews, three doula focus groups, and one interview with two BBC RISAs. Three coders used content analysis to deductively identify SDOHs and calculate the number of interviews that contained information about specific SDOHs. Although the sample reported issues with all SDOH, particular ones caused a cascade of SDOH effects. Transportation issues, for example, impeded women from being able to make it to work, doctor's appointments, and to purchase essential baby items (e.g., food, infant supplies). An inability to work-whether because of transportation challenges or pregnancy-related health complications-led to unstable housing and an inability to deal with transportation challenges. Many clients mentioned that housing was a major issue, with many clients experiencing housing instability. Implications include ensuring SDOH information is collected from a trusted source who can advocate and ensure access to a wide range of local resources, ensuring policies protect pregnant women from experiencing a cascade of SDOH that may contribute to continuing health disparate infant and maternal health outcomes in African American women.

A study of the impact of the new digital divide on the ICT competences of rural and urban secondary school teachers in China

Teachers' competence in information and communication technology (ICT) applications can lead to a deeper integration of technology into the curriculum and improve the quality of education. However, its application and distribution issues could result in resource inequality and social injustice. Based on the ICT competency framework for teachers, the study investigates the variables influencing teachers' ICT competency. A prediction model of teachers' ICT competency is built using empirical data from secondary school teachers in Hebei Province, China, both in urban and rural settings. The study results show that a new digital divide does exist between urban and rural teachers and that differences in digital environment and digital literacy reflecting the new digital divide have different degrees of impact on teachers' ICT competence. Age and subject also affect teachers' ICT competence. In the new era, we can start with knowledge acquisition, knowledge deepening and knowledge creation to improve teachers' ICT competence.

Policies for Equity in Access to Urban Green Space: A Spatial Perspective of the Chinese National Forest City Policy

The development of China’s high-density urbanisation process has made people aware of the widespread injustice in urban green space (UGS) as a means to improving residents’ well-being. The Chinese National Forest City (NFCC) policy is one of China’s construction models that aims to develop urban greening and reduce the inequality of residents’ well-being. This study used a combination of qualitative research and index quantification to explore the relationship between the spatial distribution of NFCCs and the factors affecting inequality in green space allocation and their impacts. The results of the study show that changes in indicators in NFCC policy reflect the national government’s decision-making orientation towards achieving environmental equity, and that the main factors affecting the unequal spatial distribution of NFCCs are highly correlated with inequality in UGS resources. This study analysed the NFCC policy from a new perspective and provides useful information for the development of national forest policy in order to ensure sufficient green space in China and the elimination of environmental inequity.

Resource Democratization: Is Compute the Binding Constraint on AI Research?

Access to compute is widely viewed as a primary barrier to AI research progress. Compute resource stratification between academic and industry researchers is therefore a source of concern. Yet the experiences of researchers who might encounter resource constraints in their work have received no direct study. We addressed this gap by conducting a large survey of AI researchers that posed questions about project inputs, outcomes, and challenges. Contrary to popular narratives, responses from more than 500 participants revealed more concern about talent and data limitations than compute access. There were few differences between academic and industry researchers in this regard. The exception were researchers who already use large amounts of compute, and expressed a need for more. These findings suggest that interventions to subsidize compute without addressing the limitations on talent and data availability reported by our respondents might cause or exacerbate commonly cited resource inequalities, with unknown impact on the future of equitable research.

Accessibility, availability and common practices regarding genetic testing for epilepsy across Europe: A survey of the European Reference Network EpiCARE.

The increasingly rapid pace of advancement in genetic testing may lead to inequalities in technical and human resources with a negative impact on optimal epilepsy clinical practice. In this view, the European Reference Network (ERN) for Rare and Complex Epilepsies EpiCARE conducted a survey addressing several aspects of accessibility, availability, costs, and standard practices on genetic testing across ERN EpiCARE centers. An online Google form was sent to 70 representatives of ERN EpiCARE centers. Descriptive statistics and qualitative analysis were used for data presentation. We received 45 responses (1/center) representing 23 European countries with a better representation of Western Europe. Forty-five percent of the centers did not have access to all available types of genetic testing, mainly reflecting the limited availability of whole-genome sequencing (WGS). Thirty-five percent of centers report cost coverage only for some of the available tests, while costs per test varied significantly (interquartile range IQR ranging from 150 to 1173 euros per test across centers). Urgent genetic testing is available in 71.7% of countries (time-to-urgent result: 2 day to 2 months). The average time-to-result of specific tests in case of non-urgent prescription has a significant variance across centers, with the biggest range observed for whole-exome sequencing (6-128 weeks, IQR: 27 weeks). The percentage of agreement among the experts regarding the choice of genetic test at first intention in specific clinical situations was in all cases less than 50 percent (34.9% to 47% according to the proposed scenarios). Costs, time to deliver the results to the clinician, and type of first-line genetic testing vary widely across Europe, even in countries where ERN EpiCARE centers are present. Increased availability of genetic tests and guidance for optimal test choices in epilepsy remains essential to avoid diagnostic delays and excess health costs. The survey of the ERN EpiCARE highlights disparities in genetic testing for epilepsy across 45 ERN EpiCARE centers in 23 European countries. The findings reveal variable access to certain genetic tests, with lowest access to WGS. Costs and time-to-results vary widely. Urgent genetic testing is available in 71.7% of countries. Agreement among experts on first-line genetic tests for specific patient scenarios is below 50%. The study emphasizes the need for improved test availability and guidance to avoid diagnostic delays and unnecessary costs. EpiCARE has the mission to contribute in homogenizing best practices across Europe.

The Relationship between Regional Educational Resource Inequality and Income Inequality: The Case of China

The relationship between intra-regional inequality in educational resources and income inequality has always been the focus of social development and equity issues. Using the education Gini coefficient as the main indicator for portraying educational inequality, this paper selects relevant provincial panel data to study the relationship between inter-regional educational inequality and the widening of the income distribution gap in China, and finds that: 1) China's inter-regional educational inequality is positively correlated with the income distribution gap; 2) Over time, the effects of unequal access to education and widening economic disparities are becoming more pronounced. In order to stop the income gap from expanding due to educational inequality, the government should invest more in education, boost the rate at which educational resources are used, and support the coordinated growth of interregional education. This article fills the research gap on the relationship between educational resources and income in the last decade and contributes to the national education field.

Progress towards health equity in Vietnam: evidence from nationwide official health statistics, 2010-2020

IntroductionOne of the ultimate goals of strengthening the health system is to achieve health equity. Vietnam is considered one of the ‘fast-track countries’ to achieve the health-related Millennium Development Goals,...

Standard Deviation vs. Gini Coefficient: Effects of Different Indicators of Classroom Status Hierarchy on Bullying Behavior

Classroom status hierarchy (the degree to which popularity is unequally distributed in a classroom) has often been examined as a predictor of bullying. Although most research has relied on an operationalization of status hierarchy as the classroom standard deviation (SD) of popularity, other fields (e.g., sociology, economics) have typically measured resource inequality using the Gini coefficient. This multilevel study examines the concurrent and prospective associations of both status hierarchy indicators (referred to as SD-hierarchy and Gini-hierarchy) with peer-reported bullying, controlling for key variables (i.e., the structure of the classroom status hierarchy, average classroom level of popularity). The final sample included 3017 students (45.3% self-identified as a boy; T1 Mage = 13.04, SD = 1.73, approximately 93% born in Finland) from 209 classrooms. Concurrently, classroom SD-hierarchy was positively, linearly associated with bullying, whereas there was a curvilinear (inverted U) association between Gini-hierarchy and bullying. No significant longitudinal associations were found. The findings suggest that Gini-hierarchy provides unique information beyond the SD-hierarchy.

A greening theory of change: How neighborhood greening impacts adolescent health disparities.

Neighborhoods are one of the key determinants of health disparities among young people in the United States. While neighborhood deprivation can exacerbate health disparities, amenities such as quality parks and greenspace can support adolescent health. Existing conceptual frameworks of greening-health largely focus on greenspace exposures, rather than greening interventions. In this paper, we develop and propose a Greening Theory of Change that explains how greening initiatives might affect adolescent health in deprived neighborhoods. The theory situates greening activities and possible mechanisms of change in the context of their ability to modify distal social determinants of health factors, stemming from macrostructural and historical processes that lead to resource inequalities, affecting both the social and built environment in which adolescents live and develop. The framework illustrates both short- and long-term health, economic, and security effects of greening. We also describe how the theory informed the development of Project VITAL (Vacant lot Improvement to Transform Adolescent Lives) in Baltimore, MD, which aims to (1) build a citywide sharable database on vacant lot restoration activities, (2) evaluate the impact of greening initiatives on adolescent health outcomes, (3) conduct cost-effectiveness analyses, and (4) develop best practices for greening programs for improved adolescent health.