Levels Of Inequality Research Articles

Understanding the levels of digital inequality within the city: An analysis of a survey

This paper examines three levels of digital inequality, access, use, and outcomes, within a major U.S. city. The Resources and Appropriation (RA) Theory is used to explain the digital divide within a city. Using paper and electronic surveys in English and Spanish, the researchers conducted a city-wide survey to examine all three levels of digital inequality. The research methods were descriptive statistics and regression analysis. Findings include that the digital divide persists at all three levels, with older respondents. Furthermore, geographical residential location, income level, and educational attainment emerged as significant predictors of digital inequality. Findings not normally found in the digital divide literature are that geography and limited English proficiency significantly impacted internet use and outcomes. These findings contribute to our understanding of the digital divide within a large urban area and shed light on how inequalities manifest across different regions of the city. The study also highlights the persistent presence of digital inequality in various low-income communities within the city, underscoring the need for further research on the community level.

Climate change and income inequality in Asia: how does institutional quality matter?

Asia – the most vulnerable continent to climate change – problematizes policy makers with its dual challenges of high income inequality and low institutional quality. This paper sheds light on the impact of climate change and institutional quality on income inequality for a panel data set of 35 Asian countries and territories over the period of 1990–2021. Results from estimations of Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS) and two-step System Generalized Method of Moments (SGMM) demonstrate that the climate change – proxied by temperature and precipitation – exacerbates income inequality, while improvement in institutional quality not only reduces it, but also lessens the harmful impact of climate change on income equality. Findings are robust with various proxies of income inequality. These results strongly confirm the important role of institutional reform in the context of rising climate change and high level of income inequality in Asian countries.

Highlighting Opportunities (Versus Outcomes) Increases Support for Economic Redistribution

High levels of economic inequality are associated with numerous negative individual and societal consequences, and people prefer less of it. Opposition to redistributive policies designed to reduce inequality (e.g., taxing the rich to assist the poor), however, remains persistent. In this research, we propose a simple intervention to boost support for such policies. Specifically, we suggest that describing inequality between babies (in rich or poor homes) makes unequal opportunities more salient than describing inequality between adults. Because unequal opportunities are more difficult to rationalize than unequal outcomes, this results in a shift away from individualistic attributions and toward structural attributions for inequality. Critically, structural problems require structural solutions (e.g., redistributive efforts). We test this account across five preregistered studies ( N = 5,800), spanning various presentation modalities (e.g., visual depictions, written descriptions), demographics (e.g., race, gender), inequality-reducing policies (e.g., taxation, food stamps), and a consequential choice underscoring implications for donation behavior.

The problem of social inequality in the USA

The article explores the problem of social inequality in modern American society. The author draws attention to various aspects of this phenomenon, including economic inequality in terms of income, wealth, access to education and health care, age, racial-ethnic and gender aspects. In the USA the social in-equality level is one of the highest in the world. The article cites statistics and scientific papers that demonstrate the growing gulf between the rich and the poor. It also emphasizes how racial and gender discrimination affects social inequality, preventing individuals from realizing their full potential. The problem of social stratification has been shown. The article also focuses on the poverty rate and the phenomenon of the working poor. The author gives an illustration of social inequality by cities and states. Social inequality in the USA has a long history and an increasing trend, i.e. it is a chronic social inequality. General scientific methods, systemic and complex approaches were used. The article presents an overview of social inequality problem in the USA and suggests ways of its solution. It emphasizes the need for an integrated approach and cooperation between different population groups to achieve a more just and equitable society.

The Dynamics of Inequality and Poverty Among Children in Colombia During the COVID-19 Recession

This study examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the income, inequality, and poverty levels among Colombian children between 2019 and 2020, using data from the Luxembourg Income Study Database. The income distribution and changes among Colombian children are analyzed using the probability density function and growth incidence curve. The paper utilizes the Foster–Greer–Thorbecke methodology to measure child poverty in Colombia, decomposes the contributions of different subgroups to child poverty and its changes, and conducts a growth-distribution decomposition of changes in child poverty. The study also employs income-source decomposition to examine the contributions of different income sources to child inequality and its changes. The results show that Colombian children experienced a decline in income, an increase in inequality, and higher levels of poverty during the COVID-19 pandemic. Children from households with higher dependency ratios and those living in rural areas were more likely to experience poverty. The main driver of increased poverty among Colombian children was decreased income, and there was a significant worsening of inequality for ultra-poor children. Labor income emerged as the primary source of inequality and its changes, whereas capital income and private transfers played a role in reducing poverty. However, public social benefits slightly increased inequality levels. Overall, the recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is antipoor but pro-ultra-poor. To address similar recessions in the future, the government should expand public transfer payments especially programs targeting children to reduce income inequality and alleviate poverty among children, and bolster the provision of public services essential for children’s development.

Burden of pancreatic cancer in older adults globally, regionally, and in 204 countries: 1990-2019 and projections to 2030

Global aging is increasing; however, the epidemiologic characteristics of pancreatic cancer in older adults have not been systematically studied. This study used data on pancreatic cancer in older adults from the Global Burden of Disease 2019 project. Temporal trends were measured using average annual percentage change and predicted using a Bayesian age-period-cohort model. In addition, the inequality slope index and the health concentration index scores were calculated to quantify the unequal distribution of the burden of pancreatic cancer in older adults. Between 1990 and 2019, the number of pancreatic cancer deaths in older adults, age-standardized death rate (ASDR), disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), and age-standardized DALY rate increased globally. In 2019, ASDR and age-standardized DALY rate for pancreatic cancer in older adults were the highest in Southern Latin America, whereas the burden has grown the fastest over the past 30 years in the Caribbean. The burden is predominantly distributed among those aged 65 to 74 years, with males having a higher burden than that of females. The global proportion of pancreatic cancer deaths in older adults attributed to smoking, high fasting plasma glucose, and high body mass index were 21.7%, 10.3%, and 5.8%, respectively. Both absolute and relative cross-national inequalities declined over the past 30 years but remained at medium-high levels of relative inequality. Deaths from pancreatic cancer among older adults are expected to continue to increase over the next 11 years. The global burden of pancreatic cancer among older adults has continued to rise over the past 30 years, and cross-national health inequalities remain high. Therefore, targeted measures must be taken to address this inequality.

Healthcare cost coverage inequality and its impact on hypertension and diabetes: A five-year follow-up study in a Malaysian rural community.

Inequality in health care access is a socioeconomic driver for non-communicable disease related risk factors. This study examined the inequality trend in healthcare cost coverage (HCC) compared to private health insurance (PHI) coverage, a subtype of HCC, over 5 years. The study will also determine the association between HCC (and PHI) and the status of hypertension and diabetes diagnosis. The rich-poor ratio, concentration curve and concentration index were derived to determine the level of inequality. Furthermore, logistic regression was done to determine the association between HCC and the status of hypertension and diabetes. The PHI group (rich-poor ratio: 1.4 [rich: 454, poor: 314] and 2.6 [rich: 375, poor: 142]; concentration index: 0.123 [95% confidence interval, CI: 0.093-0.153] and 0.144 [95% CI: 0.109-0.178] in 2013 and 2018, respectively) has relatively higher inequality compared with the HCC group (rich-poor ratio: 0.9 [rich: 307, poor: 337] and 1.1 [rich: 511, poor: 475]; concentration index: -0.027 [95% CI: -0.053 to -0.000] and -0.014 [95% CI: -0.033 to 0.006] in 2013 and 2018, receptively). Contrasting to the observation with the HCC group, PHI was associated with higher odds for hypertension (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 1.252, p = 0.01, 95% CI: 1.051-1.493) and diabetes (aOR = 1.287, p = 0.02, 95% CI: 1.041-1.590) in 2018. Over 5 years, the inequality in PHI coverage remained higher compared with HCC, which suggests that the rich enjoyed private healthcare more. Furthermore, those with PHI were more likely to report known hypertension and diabetes in 2018. It is reasonable to assume that those with PHI are more likely to have earlier diagnoses compared to others and are more likely to be aware of their condition. Policymakers need to identify strategies that can narrow the existing gap in quality and type of service between the private and public health sectors.

Muscular fitness profiles in relation to the response in body fat during school-based high-intensity intervention.

We aimed to assess the equivalence of the muscular fitness (MF) between body fat percentage (BFP) responders (Rs<inf>BFP</inf>) and non-responders (NRs<inf>BFP</inf>) to school-based high-intensity interval training (HIIT). Adolescents aged 16 (N.=73, 42.5% of males) were identified as Rs<inf>BFP</inf> (N.=45) or NRs<inf>BFP</inf> (N.=28). MF was assessed based on hand strength (HS), abdominal muscle strength (ABS), and leg power (VJ). Profile analysis showed distinct patterns of MF changes in both response categories. Despite the presence of parallelism (Wilks' Λ=0.979, Pillai's V=0.212, P=0.473), a gradient of increasing changes (HS-ABS-VJ) was found in the Rs<inf>BFP</inf>, while a gradient of decreasing changes was shown in the NRs<inf>BFP</inf>, and a significant level of inequality (F<inf>(1,71)</inf>=7.823, P=0.047, partial eta-squared [η2<inf>p</inf>] 0.041). One-way analysis showed a significant and moderate effect on VJ (F<inf>(1,71)</inf>=7.080, P=0.010, η2<inf>P</inf>=0.091), a close to significant effect on ABS (F<inf>(1,71)</inf>=3.300, P=0.074, η2<inf>P</inf>=0.044) and lack of an effect on HS (F<inf>(1,71)</inf>=0.699, P=0.406, η2<inf>P</inf>=0.010). The test of equal means across the condition categories (separately for Rs<inf>BFP</inf> and NRs<inf>BFP</inf>) indicated that there was no multivariate statistically significant within-group effect (F<inf>(2, 70)</inf>=0.517, P=0.599). The findings may help teachers assess the potential and indirect changes in muscle performance after employing a body weight intervention (based on the HIIT program). A more targeted approach to treating adolescents with excessive BF, in parallel with improving MF, can be individually tailored.

Individual values predict desiring more economic inequality: The moderator role of social mobility.

Attitudes towards economic inequality are crucial to uphold structural economic inequality in democratic societies. Previous research has shown that socioeconomic status, political ideology, and the objective level of economic inequality associated with individuals' attitudes towards economic inequality. However, some have suggested that people are aware of the individual and social features that are more functional according to the level of economic inequality. Therefore, individual predispositions such as cultural values could also predict these attitudes. In the current research, we expand previous results testing whether cultural variables at the individual level predict attitudes towards economic inequality. After analysing survey data including samples from 52 countries (N = 89,565), we found that self-enhancement values predict positively, and self-transcendence negatively, attitudes towards economic inequality as the ideal economic inequality measures. This result remained significant even after controlling by socioeconomic status, political ideology, and objective economic inequality. However, this effect is only true in high and middle social mobility countries, but not in countries with low social mobility. The present research highlights how cultural values and country social mobility are crucial factors to addressing attitudes towards economic inequality.

Examining Critical Success Factors for Africa’s Sustainable Industrial Development with Special Reference to Zambian Manufacturing Sector – Challenges, Prospects &amp; Opportunities

This study was intended to examine critical success factors for Africa’s industrial development with special reference to the Zambian manufacturing sector - challenges, prospects &amp; opportunities. The study had three (3) research questions; what are critical success factors for Zambia’s industrial development? How efficacious are the existing policy frameworks and /or governmental undertakings to guarantee Zambia’s achievement of SDG # 9 by the year 2030? What are socio-economically viable and actionable policy imperatives to industrialize the country by the targeted year? The study used a qualitative interpretive paradigm in targeting middle and top management key informant policy makers in line government parastatals and association [(Zambia Development Agency (ZDA), the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), the Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission (CEEC), the Lusaka South Multi-facility Zone (LSMZ), and the Zambia Association of Manufacturers (ZAM)] within the manufacturing sector in which 25 were interviewed comprehensively through convenient and purposive sampling techniques. Content analysis was used to analyse the data. The study established that technology, innovation, infrastructure, skills development, financing, R&amp;D, and actualized favourable manufacturing policies were critical success factors to Zambia’s industrial development. These parametric variables and policies must be anchored on a well guided and pragmatic political will from the politicians with required technical know-how. Besides, the study found out that although the country has close to enough policy instruments and frameworks to guarantee meeting its SDG # 9 if implemented coherently, consistently, and timely, there is no coherent systematization, co-ordination, and prioritization in attending to critically important productive sector policies for achievement of intended industrial development outcomes as the said factors (variables) fall across sectors / ministries thereby creating disjoints, discord and fragmentation in development actions. On the other hand, the study discovered with concern that there were no properly streamlined and sectoral delineation policies for foreign investors’ investments as some of them were found to be investing in mundane activities such as running retail grocery shops, auto shops, and hardware; mending motor vehicle tires; operating casinos; moulding bricks / blocks; rearing livestock like chickens, pigs, goats; roasting maize on city streets.which economic activities are too basic to be done by an investor at the expense of local people. The study concluded that the country needed to implement and actualize its industrial development policies and programmes as contained in its national policy documents, SDGs and the constitution with a further caveat that the social, cultural and economic rights be enshrined in the republican constitution as a matter of urgency in order not to rationalize and make optionless socio-economic development by politicians who always want to venture into rent-seeking activities at the expense of sustainable national development. The study assuredly noted that if these policies could be implemented in correctly identified productive manufacturing sectors / industries, the nation would in no time overcome its alarming poverty, unemployment, debt mountain, and inequality levels, which have dogged it for generations now as Zambia has necessary raw materials such as minerals, land, forestry, wildlife, water, energetic youthful population, sunshine, forestry, etc. for cutting edge industrial development. Raw commodity trade does not guarantee sustainable development but bleaks the nation’s and its generations’ future, hence the imperative to circumvent this bliss by sustainable industrialization and value addition to the country’s products and services for increased value.

Cautious or marginalized? Perceptions of the riskiness of engaging in corruption and gender differences in corruptness

AbstractPrevious studies suggest that women are often perceived as less corrupt and more risk averse, possibly due to longstanding asymmetries in power and marginalization that reproduce certain gender stereotypes. However, much remains unclear regarding the origins of these perceptions. Why are some individuals and societies more prone to perceive women as less corrupt than men? We present the first cross‐country examination of these questions utilizing data from the latest wave of the World Values Survey, covering a total of 49 countries. Our results suggest that both perceived riskiness of corruption and attitude toward gender equality, in addition to the overall level of gender inequality in society, matter in explaining a stronger belief in gender differences in corruptness. However, the positive association between a higher perceived riskiness and the perception that women are less corrupt is mostly limited to societies with high levels of corruption and gender inequality.Related ArticlesCaillier, James. 2010. “Citizen Trust, Political Corruption, and Voting Behavior: Connecting the Dots.” Politics &amp; Policy 38(5): 1015–35. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2010.00267.Malmberg, Fredrik G., and Henrik Serup Christensen. 2021. “Voting Women, Protesting Men: A Multilevel Analysis of Corruption, Gender, and Political Participation.” Politics &amp; Policy 49(1): 126–61. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12393.Tusalem, Rollin F. 2022. “Does Gendered Representation in National Legislatures Promote Substantive Representation and Human Development? Evidence from the Developing World.” Politics &amp; Policy 50(6): 1096–137. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12503.

Assessing the Impact of the MAS Regime in Bolivia

This study aims to analyse the impact of the Movement towards Socialism (MAS) regime on GDP, income inequality and corruption levels. The empirical findings show that GDP has increased and corruption decreased with the MAS party in power. Income inequality, however, has tended to increase, even though average values for the Gini index during the MAS years have been lower. The difference between counterfactual and actual observations (i.e. treatment effects) was regressed against three key shocks experienced by the Bolivian economy and the findings demonstrate that all these shocks are correlated with the three outcome variables.

Determinants and impacts of rural crime victimization: Evidence from a case study in Southeast Asia

We use a panel dataset of around 3500 rural households from Southeast Asia and investigate evidence on crime victimization. More concretely, we ask (1) to what extent are rural people affected by crime? (2) What factors determine rural crime victimization? And (3) what are the impacts of crime victimization on welfare of rural households? We use the routine activity approach as the theoretical framework and apply different logit models to identify determinants of crime victimization. We find that 5.46% of the rural households have been victimized, mainly by theft, over the last 12 months, some of them even more than once. Living in a rural region with higher levels of inequality is positively correlated with the likelihood of theft victimization. Households with higher levels of crop commercialization are associated with a higher victimization risk, while households with more livestock and being more specialized in specific livestock species are associated with a lower risk. Moreover, past victimization and exposure to weather shocks are positively associated with the likelihood of being affected by crime. With respect to the impacts, we use the heteroscedasticity-based instrumental variable approach to account for endogeneity and find highly significant negative effects of agricultural theft victimization on food consumption and child health outcomes. We conclude that rural crime requires attention although overall incidence is low in rural Thailand and Vietnam. Guardianship should be promoted, especially in times of weather shocks. Finally, reducing inequality helps preventing theft.

Fiscal policy and dimensions of inequality in South Africa: A time‐varying coefficient approach

AbstractSouth Africa continues to face high inequality levels despite its progressive tax and extensive social protection systems. We compare the dynamic impact of fiscal policy on the distribution of incomes, wages and wealth in South Africa from 1993 to 2019. For this purpose, we use a time‐varying parameter vector autoregression to estimate the impact of direct tax revenue and total transfer spending on three distinct inequality datasets. The analysis of various dimensions of inequality is the main contribution of the paper as the literature typically focuses on income inequality. A second contribution lies in the incorporation of time‐varying effects, which enables the analysis of the changing relationship between fiscal policy and inequality. The results suggest that this relationship is indeed time‐varying and that the impact of direct taxes and transfers differs markedly across the inequality dimensions, both in terms of magnitude and sign. Overall, we find that both transfers and direct taxes have not significantly reduced income, wage or wealth inequality in South Africa.

Democracy and Regionalism: A Special Reference to the Study of Sambalpur District of Odisha

Growth is political and not managerial or administrative in the conceived technical sense (Leftwich 1984, 2000, 2004). That is the process of growth in human societies involves the organisation, mobilisation, combination, use and distribution of resources in new ways. That leads to inevitable disputes among individuals and groups or their combination on how such resources are to be used because of the calculation of gain and loss as a result of different configurations. It is appropriate in all the spheres from the grass-roots to national level in both developed and developing societies. However, the variation is that in a developed society changes come through institutionalised ways with more of a consensual mode of democratic politics. On the other hand, in embryonic societies with a high level of inequalities, a change threatens the interest of some directly which otherwise may be necessary for the promotion of development, like land reform. Therefore, both politics and state are central in the process of mobilisation, direction and development of resources in a new way that does not happen on its own. The research paper investigates the fusion of regional aspirations with democratic governance, elucidating how Sambalpur's cultural richness intertwines with demands for cultural preservation, political representation, and socio-economic progress. Beyond safeguarding cultural heritage, the study scrutinizes the district's needs for infrastructure development, equitable resource allocation, employment opportunities, and overall socio-economic advancement.

Methods and Practice of Assessing the Level of Inclusive Regional Development of Kazakhstan

In Kazakhstan, the inequality of economic, social, and innovative development of regions and the population has increased in recent years. The purpose of this work is to assess the level of differences between Kazakhstan’s regions in social, economic, innovative and infrastructural inclusivity and to offer recommendations for reducing regional inequality. The methods of comparative analysis, economic and statistical, generalizations, index, matrix, typology, absolute and relative indicators of inclusiveness are used. The author’s methodological approach is applied based on the index method and ranking. The study hypothesis is that the high level of economic inequality in the regions determines the high level of differences in the sphere of social inclusion, innovation and inclusion in the sphere of infrastructure. Calculations of private and integral indices showed that the differences in social inclusivity of the regions amounted to 3.37 times; economic inclusivity – 7.45; infrastructure – 2.96; innovation – 6.67. A matrix of regional inclusive development has been formed based on the gradation of assessments. The conclusion is made about the contradictory picture in the levels of inclusiveness of economic, social and innovative development of the regions of Kazakhstan. The proposed methodology can be expanded and optimized for regions, population groups, and specific tasks in the field of inclusive growth. Recommendations have been developed to improve Kazakhstan’s regional policy, reform the tax system, and increase the budget self-sufficiency of regions in the interests of inclusive development.

Social Conflict and the Evolution of Unequal Conventions

Abstract We propose a theory of social norms (or conventions) that implement substantial levels of inequality between men and women, ethnic groups, and classes and that persist over long periods of time despite being inefficient and not supported by formal institutions. Consistent with historical cases, we extend the standard asymmetric stochastic evolutionary game model to allow subpopulation sizes to differ and idiosyncratic rejection of a status quo convention to be intentional to some degree (rather than purely random as in the standard evolutionary models). In this setting, if idiosyncratic play is sufficiently intentional and the subordinate class is sufficiently large relative to the elite, then risk-dominated conventions that are both more unequal and inefficient relative to alternative conventions will be stochastically stable and may persist for long periods. We show that the same is true in a general bipartite network of the population if most of the subordinate groups interactions are local, while the elite is more “cosmopolitan”. We apply the model to the evolution of wage conventions on the bipartite network of workers and employers, and find that an unequal monopsonistic wage convention is robust to the idiosyncratic play of workers that otherwise might displace it.

Social-class parenting practices and their influence on educational outcomes in the United States and Scotland

Drawing upon Lareau's (2011) work on social class and family life, this study explored social-class differences in children's cognitive outcomes from the United States and Scotland—two nations that share a policy emphasis on parental engagement to reduce the achievement gap. At the same time, the two countries differ in the extent to which such policy orientations are enforced, in the overall levels of socioeconomic inequality, and in the form and extent of welfare support for families and children. We find that parental endeavors are not unequivocally associated with children's outcomes. Findings from our decomposition analyses indicate that some practices of concerted cultivation are positively associated with children's outcomes but that the strength and direction of the relation often depend on children's social background. Moreover, social-class differences in parenting practices are more pronounced and more often statistically significant in the United States than in Scotland.

Gini-stable Lorenz curves and their relation to the generalised Pareto distribution

We introduce an iterative discrete information production process where we can extend ordered normalised vectors by new elements based on a simple affine transformation, while preserving the predefined level of inequality, G, as measured by the Gini index.Then, we derive the family of empirical Lorenz curves of the corresponding vectors and prove that it is stochastically ordered with respect to both the sample size and G which plays the role of the uncertainty parameter. We prove that asymptotically, we obtain all, and only, Lorenz curves generated by a new, intuitive parametrisation of the finite-mean Pickands' Generalised Pareto Distribution (GPD) that unifies three other families, namely: the Pareto Type II, exponential, and scaled beta distributions. The family is not only totally ordered with respect to the parameter G, but also, thanks to our derivations, has a nice underlying interpretation. Our result may thus shed a new light on the genesis of this family of distributions.Our model fits bibliometric, informetric, socioeconomic, and environmental data reasonably well. It is quite user-friendly for it only depends on the sample size and its Gini index.

Are community health agents the link to integrating care? Lesson from Brazil

Purpose This viewpoint piece will highlight the contribution of trained lay community health workers to the integrated workforce in rural, remote and island settings, drawing on experience from a system strengthening project involving community health agents (CHAs) in four municipalities in Litoral Norte, a remote coastal and island region in the state of São Paulo, Brazil.Design/methodology/approach This viewpoint reflects on experiential learning from a unique north–south collaboration that spanned the period of a global pandemic. It adds to the international literature on the value of community health workers in public health and chronic disease management and highlights their potential pivotal role as integrators at point of care.Findings CHAs took forward actions that touched the lives of thousands of vulnerable families with low income and complex needs in communities with high levels of social and health inequalities. They acted as a bridge between patients and families at home, primary healthcare professionals and wider community partners and services. Their valuable insight into the healthcare issues and social challenges experienced by the community informed and supported family centred practice and population health goals. The CHAs rapidly pivoted to became an essential public health workforce during the Covid-19 pandemic.Practical implications As the authors establish integrated care systems and embrace proactive care and population health, the conditions are favourable for introducing a similar role in the UK. For psychological safety and avoidance of burnout people in such new roles will require training, supervision and full integration within community teams.Originality/value This viewpoint reflects experiential learning from a unique north–south collaboration that spanned the period of a global pandemic. It adds to the international literature on the value of community health workers in public health and chronic disease management and highlights their potential pivotal role as integrators at point of care.