Income Profiles Research Articles

Inequality in financial risk protection in health among displaced populations: The case of Venezuelan women in Brazil

ObjectiveWorsening economic and social conditions in Venezuela have forced many to migrate. Women and girls are particularly at risk of health vulnerability in this context. This study examines healthcare expenditure and financial risk protection inequalities among Venezuelan migrant women in Brazil. MethodsWe conducted a survey of 2012 Venezuelan women aged 15–49 who migrated to Brazil between 2018 and 2021. We estimated and decomposed concentration indices to analyse inequalities in out-of-pocket healthcare expenditures (OOPHE) and catastrophic health expenditures (CHE) across the entire socioeconomic distribution. We applied Blinder-Oaxaca decompositions to explain differences in healthcare spending between migrant and Brazilian women. ResultsVenezuelan migrant women displayed noticeable disparities in OOPHE and incidence of CHE. Approximately half of our sample of migrants reported no income, no expenditures, and hence no CHE. OOPHE and CHE incidence were concentrated among less poor migrant women, whilst for Brazilian women, CHE was concentrated among the poorer. Location, time since arrival to Brazil, higher education, and income were key contributors to socioeconomic inequality in OOPHE and CHE for migrants. The main explanatory factor for differences in OOPHE between migrants and non-migrants was differences in income profiles. ConclusionsAddressing financial risk protection in health is crucial for displaced populations, especially women and girls. While the public health system in Brazil offers universal healthcare coverage in principle, our results suggest that there is still a significant risk of lack of access to healthcare for Venezuelan migrant women, which may be driven by insufficient financial means.

Assessing Malaysia’s Effectiveness in Alleviating Home Buying Challenges for Young Malaysians

This study analyses the current status of home ownership among young Malaysians and assesses the effectiveness of the scheme in improving housing affordability among young Malaysians. The study examines the target population, income profile, and loan interest rates to provide a comprehensive overview of the current status of home ownership among young Malaysians. The findings show that housing market conditions, especially among the B40 income group, have been deteriorating since 2016, with house prices growing faster than income growth. This has significantly reduced housing affordability, making it difficult for many to realize their dream of home ownership. The continued growth in money supply and volatility in the overnight policy rate have further exacerbated affordability. Although the MFHS has provided substantial support by offering loans with no down payment of up to 110%, rising house prices and interest rates have undermined its effectiveness. Policy recommendations include adopting a long-term housing policy framework that takes into account demographic and economic trends, establishing a strong monitoring and evaluation mechanism, and adopting flexible loan terms. It is also recommended to work with private sector stakeholders to improve housing accessibility and affordability through innovative financing solutions and increasing the supply of affordable housing.

Stakeholders’ Challenges in Implementing Printed Modular Instruction to Support Kindergarten Learners

This study determined the status and challenges of the printed modular instruction to Kindergarten learners of South District 7, Schools Division of Cebu City. There were 55 purposively selected respondents composed of school heads, teachers, and parents who expressed their perceptions on the challenges encountered in assisting the kindergarten learners enrolled during the pandemic and had of the printed modular instruction as an education delivery approach. The data gathered were organized, tallied, summarized, tabulated, and treated using descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings revealed that school heads often encountered difficulty in providing help in terms of instruction to the learners providing help in terms of instructing to the learners providing help in terms of instruction to the learners providing help to learners in terms of instruction. Teachers rarely encounter problems, and parents consider the unavailability of mobile phones to contact the teacher as the top challenge. There was no significant relationship between the profile and the profiles of the school head respondents. There was no significant relationship between the profile of the kindergarten teacher respondents. There was a significant relationship between the educational attainment and family income profile of the kindergarten parent respondents. These findings stress the necessity for a broad-based, inclusive educational approach rather than individual solutions. Modular instruction and equal access to quality education for all students require tailored support for varied family circumstances and collaboration with all educational stakeholders of the pupils and improve the delivery of educational services.

Inequality in an Equal Society

AbstractA society in which everybody of a given age has the same income will exhibit substantial income and wealth inequality. We use this idea to empirically quantify inter‐cohort inequality – the share of observed inequality attributable to life‐cycle profiles of income and wealth – using data on male earnings and household wealth. We document that recent increases in income and wealth inequality in the USA and other developed countries are larger than observed rates would suggest due to favourable demographics. That is, while demographic change played a substantial role in the dynamics of income and wealth inequality until 1990, the stark increase in inequality in the USA and elsewhere ever since is despite not because of demographic change. Moreover, we show that there is important variation across countries in the level and trends in the extent of inequality that is due to lifecycle effects, and that taking this into account gives a more nuanced view of cross‐country comparisons.

Using unsupervised clustering approaches to identify common mental health profiles and associated mental health-care service-use patterns in Ontario, Canada.

Mental health is a complex, multidimensional concept that goes beyond clinical diagnoses, including psychological distress, life stress, and well-being. In this study, we aimed to use unsupervised clustering approaches to identify multidimensional mental health profiles that exist in the population, and their associated service-use patterns. The data source was the 2012 Canadian Community Health Survey-Mental Health, linked to administrative health-care data; all Ontario, Canada, adult respondents were included. We used a partitioning around medoids clustering algorithm with Gower's proximity to identify groups with distinct combinations of mental health indicators and described them according to their sociodemographic and service-use characteristics. We identified 4 groups with distinct mental health profiles, including 1 group that met the clinical threshold for a depressive diagnosis, with the remaining 3 groups expressing differences in positive mental health, life stress, and self-rated mental health. The 4 groups had different age, employment, and income profiles and exhibited differential access to mental health-care services. This study represents the first step in identifying complex profiles of mental health at the population level in Ontario. Further research is required to better understand the potential causes and consequences of belonging to each of the mental health profiles identified. This article is part of a Special Collection on Mental Health.

Inequality in Russia over time and over the life cycle

AbstractUsing Russian longitudinal data for 1994–2018, we document a secular decline in consumption and income inequality. Although within‐cohort inequality is also declining, the life‐cycle inequality profiles of income and consumption are surprisingly flat. A calibrated life‐cycle model with incomplete markets, high initial variance of the persistent income component, and moderately persistent income shocks is consistent with nearly flat life‐cycle inequality profiles and the puzzlingly large insurance role of assets found in the Russian data. This is in contrast to the standard calibrations that fail to match the life‐cycle inequality profiles and the panel‐data evidence on consumption insurance.

Projection, representation and rationality: analysis of the reception of low-income consumers to advertisements using characters and real people

This article investigates the reception and acceptance of advertising messages that use "characters" (animated and human) and "real people" to reach low-income consumers. To do this, we conducted a reception study through three focus groups in the Northeast, Midwest, and South regions of Brazil, with men and women enrolled in the "Cadastro Único" of the Federal Government, a system that groups families characterized by this income profile. The research was grounded in the sociocultural perspective, in which communication is conceived as a complex cultural process, and the audience is recognized as a meaning producer. The results point to the levels of effectiveness of the formats to persuade and engage this specific target, as well as lessons that can guide the future application of similar formats.

Economic Assimilation of Asian American Immigrants by Nationality: Aging and Cohort Effects, and the Model Minority Myth

This paper examines the income profiles of Asian American immigrants from six major Asian countries of origin, disaggregated, relative to U.S. natives between 1970 and 2020. We observe more recent cohorts to experience either higher or similar levels of relative entry wages compared to older cohorts for all six Asian countries. Further, while the “model minority” stereotype often suggests that Asians collectively work tirelessly to achieve success, leading to smoother economic assimilation into American society compared to immigrants from other backgrounds, our findings challenge this notion. We discover that economic assimilation among immigrants from these six Asian countries of origin follows distinct patterns, and there is no overarching narrative that supports the idea of a collective “model minority” among them.

Homeownership rates, housing policies, and co-residence decisions

Abstract Homeownership rates differ widely across European countries. We document that part of this variation is driven by differences in the fraction of adults co-residing with their parents. Comparing Germany and Italy, we show that in contrast to homeownership rates per household, homeownership rates per individual are very similar during the first part of the life cycle. To understand these patterns, we build an overlapping-generations model where individuals face uninsurable income risk and make consumption-saving and housing tenure decisions. We embed an explicit intergenerational link between children and parents to capture the three-way trade-off between owning, renting, and co-residing. Calibrating the model to Germany we explore the role of income profiles, housing policies, and the taste for independence and show that a combination of these factors goes a long way in explaining the differential life-cycle patterns of living arrangements between the two countries.

Identify the effect of government regulations on the live streaming e-commerce

PurposeOn December 20, 2021, Viya, a social media influencer (SMI) with the largest number of followers in China, was exposed for having evaded RMB 643 million in taxes during 2019 and 2020. Consequently, she was fined a total of RMB 1.341 billion by the tax authorities. While the strict government regulations demonstrated in the Viya event may build confidence in the consumers for future purchases, the exposure of issues and problems through implementation of the stronger government regulations may warn consumers off. Thus, the main objective of this paper is to examine the effect of government regulations on consumers' usage intentions of live streaming e-commerce by taking the Viya event as an example.Design/methodology/approachThe authors consider both the positive effect of consumers' perceived benefits of the government regulations and the negative effect of their perceived risks of the Viya event on the usage intentions of live streaming e-commerce. After collecting 314 subjects with diverse gender, ages, education levels and income profiles, the data are processed by partial least squares-based structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and SmartPLS software.FindingsThe results demonstrate that strict government regulations can build trust in consumers of live streaming e-commerce by increasing the perceived benefits of restricting the behavior of SMIs. Among the potential perceived risks (social risk, safety risk and psychological risk), the safety risk is supported to have a negative effect on consumers' trust in live streaming e-commerce platforms. Besides, the authors have also identified different types of usage intentions in live streaming e-commerce, i.e. watching intention and purchase intention, and have empirical support for the positive relationships between the consumers' trust in live streaming e-commerce platforms and different usage intentions.Originality/valueThe authors' findings contribute to the application of commitment-trust theory, institutional theory and organizational control theory in the context of the live streaming e-commerce industry. Particularly, the authors use the Viya event as an example to quantitatively examine the effects of strict government regulations, which enriches the existing literature on this topic.

Multisystem inflammatory syndrome drug treatment in countries with different income profiles: a scoping review.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to map and describe the studies that have investigated therapeutic alternatives for the management of paediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) associated with COVID-19. Considering the origin of the studies performed (low-, middle- and high-income countries), a systematic scoping review was conducted with primary studies that reported the use of medications for the treatment of patients with MIS-C. Sources: The searches were performed in MEDLINE, Embase, Lilacs, Epistemonikos, CINAHL, and CENTRAL, in the grey literature (theses and dissertations from CAPES, ProQuest, and PROSPERO) and in clinical trial databases until May 2022. The selection and extraction of studies were performed independently by two reviewers. Summary of the findings: A total of 173 studies were included, most of which were published as case reports or series. No randomized controlled clinical trials (RCTs) were identified. The investigated drugs were immunoglobulins, glucocorticoids, monoclonal antibodies, anticoagulants, and antiplatelet agents. Conclusion: The dosages, when reported, were heterogeneous among the studies. The ethnicity and comorbidity of the participants were poorly reported. Monoclonal antibodies, drugs with higher costs, were mostly described in studies of high-income countries.

Capturing spatial inequalities: an analysis of walkable access to open spaces in Lima

ABSTRACT Social inequity is a global problem that often acutely materialises in cities, where people with lower incomes have reduced access to open spaces. This article examines how walkable access to open spaces mediated by urban morphology and topography differs for people with contrasting income profiles. Taking Lima as a case study, the spatial analysis adapted GIS tools to consider the steep slopes of informal settlements. The combined mapping and measuring of open space catchments and urban fabric permeabilities shows significant spatial inequities between low- and high-income residents that could not have been captured through traditional spatial analytical methods.

Iron Deficiency Anemia in Children From Low Income Profiles

Iron Deficiency Anemia in Children From Low Income Profiles

Optimal Long-Term Health Insurance Contracts: Characterization, Computation, and Welfare Effects

Abstract Reclassification risk is a major concern in health insurance where contracts are typically 1 year in length but health shocks often persist for much longer. While most health systems with private insurers pair short-run contracts with substantial pricing regulations to reduce reclassification risk, long-term contracts with one-sided insurer commitment have significant potential to reduce reclassification risk without the negative side effects of price regulation, such as adverse selection. We theoretically characterize optimal long-term insurance contracts with one-sided commitment, extending the literature in directions necessary for studying health insurance markets. We leverage this characterization to provide a simple algorithm for computing optimal contracts from primitives. We estimate key market fundamentals using data on all under-65 privately insured consumers in Utah. We find that dynamic contracts are very effective at reducing reclassification risk for consumers who arrive at the market in good health, but they are ineffective for consumers who come to the market in bad health, demonstrating that there is a role for the government insurance of pre-market health risks. Individuals with steeply rising income profiles find front-loading costly, and thus relatively prefer ACA-type exchanges. Switching costs enhance, while myopia moderately compromises, the performance of dynamic contracts.

Wind turbine wake: bridging the gap between large eddy simulations and wind tunnel experiments

The wind industry has experienced rapid growth over the past two decades and wind energy is expected to continue leading the way in the global energy transition. Additional wind farms are expected to be installed in the coming years, both offshore and onshore. In view of exploiting any suitable terrain, an increased number of turbines are installed in close proximity to existing structures, thus exposing these to the wake turbulence. For instance, electrical cables are regularly exposed to those higher levels of turbulence compared to design loads, potentially leading to premature failure of the power line. It is hence essential to have a good understanding of these phenomena to be able to mitigate their effects. Scale-resolving investigations using Large Eddy Simulation (LES) can provide insight into site-specific loading conditions when combined with an Actuator Line Model (ALM), which reproduces the reaction force of each blade on the flow while still using a relatively coarse grid. The ALM used in this framework was newly-implemented in the spectral element code Nek5000, a highly efficient code with reduced cost per degree of freedom and exponentially fast convergence. The present work aims to bridge the gap between LES and a well controlled wind tunnel test of a scaled wind turbine, for validation purposes.First, a small scale wind turbine of diameter 80 cm is designed and tested in a well controlled wind tunnel environment. Experimental data are gathered ahead of it and in its wake, and the mean velocity and turbulence intensity profiles are presented.Although blockage effects are kept to a minimum, they will be accounted for in the simulations to ensure a better comparison with the measurements. In this work, we focus on a single inflow velocity field and on a fixed rotation speed.Simulating the produced wake using LES combined with ALM remains challenging as the results are very sensitive to the turbulent inflow conditions and also to the airfoil aerodynamics used in the ALM. In the experiment, the incoming profile is also that of a developing flow and accurately reproducing its main characteristics is required for proper inflow to the LES. A “Recycle and Rescale Method” (R2M) will be hence be used as it is well suited for such case. The method will allow for the relevant turbulent boundary layer structures to be properly reproduced numerically, hence ensuring that the wind turbine is exposed to similar inflow conditions than in the experiment.With the developed framework, the comparison between the wake produced in the experiment and that obtained using LES with ALM will provide the necessary data to further adjust the parameter and grid size used for the LES and the polar model used in the ALM.

Transit Behaviour and Sociodemographic Interrelation: Enhancing Urban Public-Transport Solutions

Recent years have seen a considerable shift in the focus of public investment agencies from extensive roadway networks to a more planned approach that meets environmental, cost, and social dimensions more aptly. Past research has mainly explored the engineering aspect and cost parameters, while the human or social component is often neglected. This study aims to identify the trip-making behaviour of residents in an urban area towards bus transport network enhancement. Abu Dhabi, the location of study, is heavily dependent upon car travel, creating much congestion, which the local government seeks to address by enhanced public transport. This work examined eight public-transport routes in two zones, with data collected on both weekdays (n = 751) and weekends (n = 769). Multinomial logistic regression models showed that respondents highlighted overcrowded buses and traffic congestion as two of the main hurdles pertinent to urban routes in the bus network influencing their mode choice. Proposals pertinent to the local authority for further consideration need to factor in current low satisfaction with bus transit network coverage, low satisfaction with the quality of bus rides, inhibiting a mode shift from cars/taxis towards buses, cumulative income profiles of public-transport users, with findings that the low-income bracket is already at saturation, and that reducing congestion needs innovative (sociodynamic rather than technical road network) public-transport solutions.

Aptitude level, values and school performance in University students

The presente investigation was carried out at the Autonomous University of Zacatecas, with young people from the 2014-2019 generation of the psychology career (Campus Zacatecas), the objective of this study is to identify if there is a correlation between the level of aptitude, of the values (social, theoretical, aesthetic, economic, political and religious), the income profile and high academic performance at the end of the degree, in university estudents. It was carried out under a quiantitative approach, with a correlational scope. The type of design is non-experiemental-transactional, since the was no manipulation of the variables and the information was collected in a single moment. The sample was no problabilistic, for convenience, it consisted of 89 women and 17 men. The analysis was performed through the statistical package SPSS, obtaining the parametric test (chi2). Regarding the findings found, it was identified that the values variable, especially in the theoretical and social values, considered in the income profile of said generation, is not a predictor of high school performance at the end of the psychology degree, as well as at the education level, fitnees no significant correlation was found.

COVID-19 and income profile: How communities in the United States responded to mobility restrictions in the pandemic's early stages.

Mobility interventions in communities play a critical role in containing a pandemic at an early stage. The real-world practice of social distancing can enlighten policymakers and help them implement more efficient and effective control measures. A lack of such research using real-world observations initiates this article. We analyzed the social distancing performance of 66,149 census tracts from 3,142 counties in the United States with a specific focus on income profile. Six daily mobility metrics, including a social distancing index, stay-at-home percentage, miles traveled per person, trip rate, work trip rate, and non-work trip rate, were produced for each census tract using the location data from over 100 million anonymous devices on a monthly basis. Each mobility metric was further tabulated by three perspectives of social distancing performance: "best performance," "effort," and "consistency." We found that for all 18 indicators, high-income communities demonstrated better social distancing performance. Such disparities between communities of different income levels are presented in detail in this article. The comparisons across scenarios also raise other concerns for low-income communities, such as employment status, working conditions, and accessibility to basic needs. This article lays out a series of facts extracted from real-world data and offers compelling perspectives for future discussions.

Aggregated Transfer Accounts in Regional Macroanalysis

Building upon the author’s prior publications in the journal Voprosy Statistiki (Issues No.4 and No.11 of 2019, Issue No.5 of 2020, and Issue No.3 of 2021), this new article deals with the problems of macroanalysis methodology, with particular reference to aggregated National Transfer Accounts (NTA) as applied to various regions of the Russian Federation with a view to expand the analytical capabilities of statistics.The introductory section unveils the concept and general principle of constructing the system of aggregated transfer accounts for the readership, summarizing analytical capabilities of the accounts’ usage. It includes infographics for balancing joint estimates of Russia’s economic lifecycle performed by the HSE University for the economy as a whole and across various age cohorts. It also underpins the practicability of developing economic lifecycle account on a regional level.The main section focuses on the capabilities and limitations of the Russian databases in view of constructing the first account of the NTA system, namely an aggregated economic lifecycle account, based upon the international NTA methodology adapted to the Russian statistics. The paper suggests a methodological approach – encompassing calculation assumptions and employed statistical methods – to constructing regional consumption and labor income profiles. Early results of the empirical calculations, performed across all of Russia’s regions for the year of 2018, demonstrate a wide scattering of resulting economic lifecycle estimates (as a percentage of GRP) ranging from a sizeable surplus to a deficit comparable with the gross regional product, and even surpassing it in a number of cases, and thereby confirming the sharp contrasts between the regions in terms of quality of life. The concluding section of the article shows that the «financial appeal» of Russia’s regions, as measured by the resulting economic lifecycle account, resonates with the distribution of domestic labour migrants in terms of their work locations. Therefore, the author has verified the hypothesis that the criteria – which impact the resulting economic lifecycle of a certain region and the degree of interregional differences – lie within the geographical structure of production (i.e. key sectors of the region in question) and within the region-specific relationships with the central government.

The Impact Analysis of Psychological Issues and Pandemic-Related Variables on Ecuadorian University Students during COVID-19

The study aims to find the impact of some life circumstances on psychological and pan-demic-related problems during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using the European student’s union survey of 2020, the research has negative emotions as the primary variable of interest. Other analyzed variables are pandemic-related behaviors and home infrastructure. A total of 1100 Ecuadorian university students let us conclude that those with moderate levels of emotional issues and high family income profiles suffered less during the lockdown. Negative emotions and home infrastructure sometimes depend on demographic factors like gender or family income. The multiple regression analysis shows that pandemic-related behaviors are positively correlated with negative feelings, which is the opposite of home infrastructure, which is negatively related to negative emotions—the CFA and SEM help to confirm the validity and reliability test of the questionnaire. The results let us understand the current university students’ situation and the public-related policies to enhance by filling the research gap and facing the scarce related literature in Ecuador.