Lower Levels Of Income Inequality Research Articles

Income Inequality Analysis in Sumatra (Case Study of South Sumatera, North Sumatera, West Sumatera Province)

One indicator of an area of high economic growth is a low level of income inequality. This study aims to determine the development of income inequality that occurs in the provinces of South Sumatra, West Sumatra and North Sumatra, as well as classify and analyze the province based on economic growth and income inequality. The Data used in this study is time series and cross section data with a six-year observation period of 2018-2023 with 3 provinces in Sumatra yajni South Sumatra, West Sumatra and North Sumatra. The methods of analysis used in this study are Wiliamson index analysis, Theil Entropy index analysis, and Klassen typology analysis. With the results of the study, the average level of income inequality in 2018-2023 is in the range of 0.30 to 0.59. The highest income inequality is in the province of South Sumatra 0.59 and North Sumatra 0.45. Inequality in West Sumatra province is at 0.30 then it is categorized as moderate inequality. From Klassen's typological analysis, using the average Wiliamson index in 2018 to 2023, South Sumatra is in Quadrant II which is a fast-growing region, West Sumatra and North Sumatra are in Quadrant IV of the relatively underdeveloped region. From the results of Klassen typology analysis in 2018-2023 regencies or cities in West Sumatra province are in Quadrant II and Quadrant IV, regencies/cities in North Sumatra are in Quadrant I, quadrant II and quadrant IV. While the district / city in South Sumatra province located in Quadrant II and Quadrant IV.

What lies behind France's low level of income inequality?

What lies behind France's low level of income inequality?

INCOME INEQUALITY, ECONOMIC GROWTH, AND INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS AT THE EUROPEAN UNION (EU) LEVEL

The rising income inequality around the world and its persistence represent a social phenomenon raising concerns at all levels (global, regional and country) for governments and pose huge challenges to master it and to identify effective solutions. The aim of the paper is to provide a comparative insight at the European Union (EU) level involving 25 Member States regarding the interplay between income inequality, economic growth, and institutional quality. Gini Index sourced from World Income Inequality Database, GDP per capita series extracted from the World Bank database, and institutional indicators collected from the World Governance Indicators database represent the examined variables over the period 1990-2022. Their dynamic is comparatively analysed and discussed. The clustering method is applied to identify similarities and differences between European Union countries in terms of the interplay between income inequality, economic growth and institutional factors and to draw relevant conclusions for future effective policy measures meant to reduce inequality and to boost economic growth. The clustering analysis based on the average growth rate of income inequality and per capita GDP revealed that European Union countries are differently facing the challenge of income inequality rising. Six groups of countries with similar paths regarding the income inequality and economic growth were identified. High-income countries face low levels of income inequality but with an upward trend. Economic growth is accompanied with high levels and increasing levels of income inequality. The institutional quality level may strength the capacity of a country to address the problem of rising income inequality, but it remains unclear the interplay of institutional quality dynamic in reducing income inequality. The implications of the paper’s findings are framed in the context of the European policies.

Non-Linear Impact of Income Inequality on Mental Health: Evidence from Low and Middle-Income Countries

Abstract In this study, we examine the relationship between income inequality and mental health using a sample of low and middle-income countries over the period 1990–2019. Using a dynamic panel threshold model that allows for endogeneity in both the regressors and threshold variable, we find a non-linear relationship between income inequality and the prevalence of mental health disorders. Specifically, income inequality is associated with reduced prevalence of mental health disorders at low levels of income inequality but after it surpasses a threshold Gini coefficient (estimated between 39 and 49), it has an adverse effect on mental health. The impact is more pronounced in low income and lower middle-income countries. We also find evidence of heterogenous effects by age and gender. Our findings indicate the importance of modelling non-linearity in the income inequality-health relationship and highlight the importance of keeping income inequality within reasonable bounds.

Examining the impact of personal freedom on income inequality: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa and Western European regions.

Rising income inequality has recently garnered intensive attention owing to its significance in theory and practice. This has rendered the mechanism through which inequality can be understood, even from a microscopic perspective, to institute proper policies that curtail it important. We contribute to the literature by examining the effect of freedom on income inequality using data from 34 least-free and 18 most-free countries from 2000 to 2020 in Sub-Saharan Africa and Western Europe, respectively. A novel fixed-effects panel quantile regression econometric estimator was employed, and the findings showed a non-linear relationship between personal freedom and income inequality for both regions. Again, both regions reported an inverse relationship between personal freedom and income inequality within the medium-run quantiles. However, a positive relationship was reported in the short-run and long-run quantiles of Sub-Saharan Africa and Western Europe, respectively, whereas the inverse was the same. Finally, the significant adverse relationship was more dominant in Western Europe, implying that high levels of personal freedom in the region explain the low levels of income inequality compared to Sub-Saharan Africa, which has lower levels of personal freedom and higher income inequality. Concerning the findings, it is recommended that policymakers and governments of least- and most-free regions institutionalise personal liberties that support human capital development and establish mechanisms to implement enacted freedoms.

Three types of income inequality: a comparison of left behind places and more developed regions in the EU

Abstract Despite the growing interest in subjective inequality, little is known about the relation between this and more objective measures of inequality, especially in the light of regional disparities. This study focuses on the patterns of actual income inequality and two subjective measures in NUTS 2 EU regions. By accounting for multiple indicators of economic (under)performance, we show that actual inequality is positively related to people’s perceptions in left behind places, but not in more developed regions. Furthermore, both residents of less developed or—‘left behind’—regions and those of more developed regions exhibit a preference for lower levels of income inequality.

Impact of agricultural infrastructure development on inequality and optimization equality of farmers’ income in Indonesia-Timor Leste Border Area

This research aims to analyze income inequality and the factors determining inequality, as well as the allocation of land resources that optimize income distribution. The research is a continuation of previous research that found production and income growth as a result of the construction of the Roticlot Dam in the border area of Indonesia and TimorLeste. The research used survey methods in Fatuketi Village, the location of agricultural infrastructure (Rotiklot Dam) in the Indonesia and Timor Leste Border Area. Data analysis uses Gini, Tobit ratios, and linear programming. The results of the Gini ratio analysis show that there has been a decrease in income inequality from medium (Gini Ratio = 0.44) to low (Gini Ratio = 0.26); and the results of the Tobit analysis state that the factor that has a significant positive effect on income inequality is land area, while farmer independence, the number of family dependents, and business capital have a significant negative effect. Furthermore, land resource factors that have a positive influence on income distribution are allocated appropriately and fairly so that income equality is achieved, namely IDR 3,732,692.81 (Gini Ratio = 0.00, which is a very low level of income inequality). It is recommended that agrarian reform through the distribution of additional land be adjusted to the existing conditions of land area, income, availability of water resources, and socio-economic factors.

The distributional impact of local banking. Evidence from the financial and sovereign-debt crises

This paper investigates whether local cooperative banks played a role in mitigating income inequality within Italian municipalities following the main crises that marked the European landscape from 2008 to 2015, namely the financial and sovereign-debt crises. Our empirical findings indicate that, despite the overall rise in income inequality during the post-crisis periods, municipalities hosting at least one cooperative bank branch experienced a comparatively smaller increase. This mitigating effect on income inequality is not observed in the case of non-cooperative banks. Furthermore, the size of the cooperative banking sector emerged as a significant factor in shaping income distribution: municipalities characterized by larger amounts of cooperative banks loans and deposits displayed lower levels of income inequality. The distributional impact of cooperative banks following the two crises was particularly pronounced in smaller municipalities, and where the degree of financial and industrial development was higher.

INCOME INEQUALITY, CLIENTELISM AND GOVERNANCE: IMPLICATIONS FOR SOCIOECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN WEST AFRICA.

Genuine redistribution of income is usually not commonplace in underdeveloped democracies. Instead, politicians in these democracies often target private, excludable and reversible benefits at the poor in exchange for electoral support. This electoral strategy often results in a situation where maintenance of political power or re-election becomes the focus of public policies instead of public welfare. This study investigated the main and interaction effects of income inequality and clientelism on government effectiveness in West African Countries from 1996 to 2020. The study objectives were achieved using pooled mean group (PMG) approach of the panel autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) estimation technique and the Dumitrescu Hurlin panel causality test. Findings from the study revealed that clientelism enhances government effectiveness at higher levels of income inequality but inhibits government effectiveness at lower levels income inequality. The study findings also revealed positive relationship and uni-directional causality between income inequality and clientelism. The study concluded that government effectiveness which thrives on lower levels of income inequality and clientelism is beneficial to socioeconomic development; and that socioeconomic development and government effectiveness is interdependent and mutually reinforcing.

Digital Economy, Industrial Structure and Income Inequality

As a distinctive feature of contemporary social development, digital economy will inevitably affect the typical fact of income inequality. This paper theoretically sorts out the influence mechanism between digital economy, industrial structure and income inequality, and conducts empirical research based on cross-border panel data from 49 countries from 2010 to 2020. The results show that the development of digital economy significantly alleviates income inequality. The digital economy indirectly narrows the income gap by promoting the advanced and rational industrial structure; The mitigating effect of the digital economy in countries with higher levels of income inequality is more pronounced than in countries with low levels of income inequality, but when the country's income distribution falls into extreme inequality, the positive effect of the digital economy in reducing income inequality is minimal.

Income Inequality and Political Trust: Do Fairness Perceptions Matter?

Political trust—in terms of trust in political institutions—is an important precondition for the functioning and stability of democracy. One widely studied determinant of political trust is income inequality. While the empirical finding that societies with lower levels of income inequality have higher levels of trust is well established, the exact ways in which income inequality affects political trust remain unclear. Past research has shown that individuals oftentimes have biased perceptions of inequality. Considering potentially biased inequality perceptions, I argue that individuals compare their perceptions of inequality to their preference for inequality. If they identify a gap between what they perceive and what they prefer (= fairness gap), they consider their attitudes towards inequality unrepresented. This, in turn, reduces trust in political institutions. Using three waves of the ESS and the ISSP in a cross-country perspective, I find that (1) perceiving a larger fairness gap is associated with lower levels of political trust; (2) the fairness gap mediates the link between actual inequality and political trust; and (3) disaggregating the fairness gap measure, political trust is more strongly linked to variation in inequality perceptions than to variation in inequality preferences. This indicates that inequality perceptions are an important factor shaping trust into political institutions.

International Trade and Inequality: A Comparative Study Between Czech Republic and Poland

Income inequality as one of the dimensions of economic inequality has been a serious social problem both in developed and developing countries. It also attracts attention both in popular and academic writing and in public debates. One of the arguments shows that trade liberalisation is linked to an increase in income inequality in high-income countries, and reduces inequality in low-income countries. The Czech Republic and Poland, as among the high-income countries, have not seen rising levels of income inequality during the financial crisis in 2008-2009 and are also among the lowest levels of income inequality. This research uses the theory of international trade and the concept of income inequality as an analytical tool. The objective of this research is to examine the reason for why both countries have not seen rising in their level of income inequality during the financial crisis in 2008-2009 and to further investigate the relations between international trade and level of income inequality by using comparative analysis and the quantitative methods of descriptive statistical analysis. This paper shows that besides a decrease in trade turnover that leads to a lower level of income inequality when it is measured by Gini Coefficient, the macroeconomic policies also play crucial part in low level of income inequality in the Czech Republic and Poland. Keywords: International Trade; Income Inequality; Poland; Czech Republic; Gini Coefficient

Intelligence Inequality and Income Inequality

Abstract This article evaluates the relationship between inequality in cognitive test scores across countries and income inequality. By meta-analyzing the standard deviations in PISA results from 2000 to 2018, the authors construct a measure of intelligence inequalities across countries. They then test this measure to investigate if it has any association with income inequality as measured by the gini index. Across all models and subsamples, the authors do not find a positive association between intelligence inequality and income inequality. In models where the coefficient is statistically significant, the direction is unexpectedly negative, implying greater intelligence inequality is associated with lower income inequality. This is contrary to theoretical predictions of a positive association between these variables. Finally, the authors also find some evidence that greater mean intelligence is associated with lower levels of income inequality.

Impact of the Quality of the Institutional Structure of the Economy on Income Inequality of Households: Results of a Cross-National Study

Institutional quality and effectiveness of government institutions are important factors for sustainable and dynamic economic growth. These factors can have a significant impact on the dynamics of economic inequality and poverty in a country. The number of publications on this topic began to increase about 20–30 years ago. Scientists have been researching whether the government is able to influence the problem of economic inequality, which is growing since the 1980s, and on what factors it depends.This topic remainsrelevanttoday, as all the necessary answers have not been received yet.Thepurpose of this research article is to clarify the relationships between the institutional structure quality of an economy and the income inequality of households.The article uses suchmethodsas analysis and synthesis, systematization, classification, and categorization of information; classical correlation analysis, as well as the method of analysis of qualitative pairwise correlation. The study highlights that there is high dependence between the analyzed variables in some countries if we look at them in separately. This dependency can take on both negative and positive values. At the same time, analyzing the full sample of countries, as well as in quartile groups classified by the level of income inequality, we did not reveal any pattern or special sign by which the dependence between the studied variables becomes more pronounced and distant from zero. The study shows that the correlation value between the variables is just below zero over the Pearson correlation coefficient. More unambiguous results were obtained when the list of countries was filtered by the indicator of the inequality transparency index. When analyzing this particular portion of our sample of countries, we obtained results with moderately negative dependence between the study variables.Weconcludedthat for developed countries with an effective government and relatively low levels of income inequality, the decline in the quality of the institutional structure of the economy on average will be accompanied by an increase in income inequality and vice versa.

INCOME DISTRIBUTION OF CORPORATE FARMING MODEL IN CENTRAL JAVA

Corporate farming is an agricultural model carried out with the principle of expanding the planting area by eliminating land boundaries. The aim is to improve group production and productivity. This agricultural model is also a solution to the conversion of functions and increasingly massive land fragmentation. As a result, the income obtained by farmers is limited to subsistence land. This study aimed to determine the income distribution of corporate farming model farmers in Sukoharjo Regency, Central Java. Sukoharjo Regency was chosen as the research location with consideration as a national food barn that implements corporate farming. Sampling using a census of 51 farmers. The study results show that farmers' incomes have reached a prosperous degree according to the World Bank's criteria. The distribution of farmers' income is even with a low level of income inequality.

Ending tuberculosis: the cost of missing the World Health Organization target in a low-incidence country.

BackgroundEnding tuberculosis (TB) is a global priority and targets for doing so are outlined in the World Health Organization (WHO) End TB Strategy. For low-incidence countries, eliminating TB requires high levels of wealth, low levels of income inequality and effective TB programmes and services that can meet the needs of people who have not benefited from these and are still at risk of TB. In Ireland, numerous reports have noted a need for more funding for TB prevention and control.AimThe aim of this research was to estimate the cost of not meeting the WHO End TB target of a 90% reduction in TB incidence in Ireland between 2015 and 2035.MethodsThe cost of projected TB cases between 2022 and 2035 is estimated based on trends in surveillance data for the period 2015 to 2019 and outcomes reported in the literature.ResultsBetween 2022 and 2035, it is projected that a failure to meet the WHO End TB Strategy target will result in an additional 989 cases of TB, 577.3 disability-adjusted life years and 35 deaths with TB in Ireland. The cost of this is estimated to be €70.779 million.ConclusionGiven the estimated cost, Ireland’s current prospects of eliminating TB and the tendency towards programmatic funding internationally, greater investment in TB prevention and control in Ireland is justifiable. A national elimination strategy with actions at the levels of the social determinants of health, the health system and the TB programme should be funded.

How does export diversification affect income inequality? International evidence

This research explores the non-linear relationship between income inequality and export diversification by a panel quantile regression approach, employing panel data from 90 countries during the period 2002–2014. First, we find that export diversification exacerbates income inequality for countries with low and medium levels of such inequality. Second, using political risk as the interactive item to study the link between income inequality and export diversification, we note for those with middle and low levels of income inequality that higher political risk leads to more favorable export diversification, which helps reduce the income inequality. Moreover, this paper shows that the intervention of the political risk variable makes export diversification reduce income inequality levels at the middle quintile distribution of income inequality in both high- and low-income countries. Lastly, we present that the influences of export diversification and political risk are more pronounced in countries with a high export diversification index. Our results provide policy implications to governments and future researchers.

Income inequality in authoritarian regimes: the role of political institutions and state capacity

AbstractIn recent decades, there has been an institutional shift in the literature on authoritarian regimes, with scholars investigating the role of political institutions, such as elections and political parties, in shaping regime stability and economic performance. However, scant attention has been devoted to the effect of political institutions on policy outcomes, and more specifically, on income inequality. This paper adds to this debate and sheds light on the role of formal and informal institutions, on the one hand, and state capacity, on the other, in influencing levels of income inequality in autocracies. We argue that, while the presence of elections and multiparty competition creates more favourable conditions for the adoption of redistributive policies, state capacity increases the likelihood of successfully implemented policy decisions aimed at reducing the level of inequality. Our empirical analysis rests on a time-series cross-sectional dataset, which includes around 100 countries from 1972 to 2014. The findings indicate that both political institutions and a higher level of state capacity lead to lower levels of income inequality in authoritarian contexts.

Economic complexity and poverty in developing countries

AbstractThis article examines the effect of economic complexity on poverty in developing countries. It shows that greater economic complexity results in lower poverty headcount rates. This is particularly the case for countries that enjoy higher economic growth rates, lower levels of income inequality and lower degrees of economic growth volatility, including volatility due to smaller export demand and financial flows shocks. These findings have important policy implications for those developing countries that are exploring ways and means to recover from the current COVID‐19 pandemic crisis and to prepare for future crises.

The Relationship between Income Inequalities and Economic Growth: New Evidence

Purpose: The study aims to analyze the relationship between the pace of economic development expressed by the GDP index and the level of income inequalities measured by the Gini coefficient. Design/Methodology/Approach: The research hypothesis assumes that the level of income inequalities influences GDP growth. I hypothesize that this relationship is negative – a lower level of income inequalities favor the economic growth. I use the GDP per capita (per adult) year-to-year index to measure the pace of economic development. GDP index is a dependent variable in all estimated models. The explanatory variables are, GINI index, net national saving, public goods spending, country's dummy variables, year dummy variables. Findings: Using data from 43 countries covering the years 1990-2017, I prove that (1) higher income inequality is related to higher economic growth (but only on the level of the sample); (2) a level of savings affects the economic growth positively; (3) a higher level of spending on public goods affects GDP positively (on the level of the whole sample and in the group of more improve rished countries). Practical Implications The analysis confirms the positive relationship between income inequalities and the pace of economic development, but only at the whole sample level. Higher public spending positively affects economic growth. Savings accumulated by the citizens significantly affect economic growth, as a higher level of savings creates greater investment opportunities. Originality/Value: Inequalities are an inherent part of society and the economy. It is often presumed that if the level of income inequality is too high, it negatively affects the economy by lowering the development pace. Although the previous findings are somewhat mixed, I pose the research hypothesis assuming a low level of income inequality is linked to higher GDP growth.