Role Of Inequality Research Articles

The role of inequalities in managing symptoms of menstruation: harnessing shopping data to innovate female reproductive health research

Introduction & BackgroundMenstruation affects half the population, yet its patterns and management are greatly under-researched. A regular and functioning menstrual cycle is considered an important vital sign and menstrual-related issues can be strong indicators of both reproductive and wider health issues. This project explores a novel health data source - shopping data history - to study how individuals manage menstrual symptoms such as pain, intensity of flow, mental health, and other issues, and explore potential social inequalities in these management strategies. Objectives & ApproachWe present a conceptual framework of studying management of menstruation symptoms using shopping data. The core objectives of this research are to enhance our understanding of menstrual management strategies and potential inequalities in these whilst evaluating the utility and acceptability of shopping data for future female reproductive health research. Our research will focus on harnessing loyalty card data from UK supermarkets and pharmaceutical retailers to provide insights into the management of menstrual symptoms at a national level. We will study retail data to identify products and patterns of purchasing which may be relevant to menstrual management and conduct surveys for linkage with shopping data. The public will be consulted to investigate attitudes towards shopping data for health research and inform interpretations of patterns in the data. Relevance to Digital FootprintsThis project contributes to advancing of understanding of using digital data for health research on an important societal challenge. We investigate the practical applications for menstrual health and other female reproductive health issues, with scope to enact meaningful change. Conclusions & ImplicationsBy analysing shopping behaviour, combined with survey data and area-level socioeconomic data, we aim to identify regions of the UK and individual characteristics which influence the risk of experiencing menstrual symptoms and ability to manage these within a high-income context. Our research will contribute to understanding of menstrual management strategies for women and people who menstruate, and associated inequalities.

The Effectiveness of Early Rehabilitation in Limiting the Progression of Idiopathic Scoliosis.

Background: The purpose of this study was to assess specific rehabilitation methods' effectiveness in early idiopathic scoliosis (IS) development, focusing on lower limb functional inequality's role in scoliosis progression. Materials and Methods: This study comprised 812 patients aged 6-16 years at risk of developing idiopathic scoliosis (IS). The mean (SD) age was 10.66 (3.16) years. Patients were categorized into high- and medium-risk groups based on the angle of trunk rotation (ATR) size. Specific scoliosis physiotherapy was used, and the average follow-up period was 28.1 ± 14.5 months. Changes in ATR, Cobb angle, and functional length of the lower limbs pre- and post-treatment were statistically analyzed across three age groups (6-9, 10-12, and 13-16 years) and three scoliosis locations. Results: Significant effectiveness of early rehabilitation was observed in the high-risk group of children aged 6-9 years. In the medium-risk group, significant reductions in ATR were observed in both the 6-9 and 10-12 age groups across all three scoliosis locations. Additionally, there was a significant decrease in the Cobb angle in the thoracolumbar region and a significant reduction in lower limb inequality across all age groups and scoliosis locations. Conclusions: The early implementation of specific physiotherapy may enhance the efficacy of idiopathic scoliosis treatment by attenuating factors contributing to its progression.

Heterogeneity in household consumption behavior: The role of inequality and financial instability

We analyze, using the micro data of the Household Financial Survey (HFS) of the Bank of Spain, the consumption consequences of the household balance sheets and debt accumulation during the real estate bubble of 2002–2005, the Great Recession (2008–2011) and the subsequent economic recovery phase (2014–2017). Using quantile regression models, we find heterogeneity in household consumption behavior with respect to income and net worth levels, and in response to changes in household net worth in the last two periods. During the considered real estate bubble period, this heterogeneity in behavior is diminished, and only occurs in relation to the level of net wealth, in line with Hyman Minsky’s Paradox of Tranquility. These findings favor the post-Keynesian theory on consumption. The greater inequality leads to a higher propensity of certain households to consume in response to changes in housing and financial net worth. This is compatible with the relative income hypothesis extended in expenditure cascades models. Otherwise, households will be willing to take on more risk during economic boom periods associated with a real estate bubble, which translates into debt-financed consumption that virtually makes such heterogeneity practically disappear.

Health inequalities in Brazilian adolescents: Measuring and mapping gaps in a cross-sectional school-based survey.

This study aims to describe inequalities in health indicators according to gender, area of residence, and socioeconomic position among Brazilian adolescents. Cross-sectional study using data from a school-based survey carried out in Brazil in 2019. Twelve health outcomes were evaluated. Dimensions of inequality assessed were gender, area of residence, wealth and subnational region. This study comprises a sample of 124,898 adolescents. The most prevalent outcome was physical inactivity (71.9%) followed by thinking life is worthless (52.6%) and bullying (51.8%). Gender inequalities were more marked for physical inactivity and thinking life is worthless with girls presenting a prevalence more than 20 p.p. higher than boys. In zero-dose HPV, however, the prevalence in girls was 17.7 p.p. lower than in boys. Area of residence and wealth inequalities were smaller than gender disparities. Context presented a relevant role in inequality with analysis stratified by states of the country, revealing high variability in estimates. We highlight the need for attention to disparities between subgroups of the adolescent population, especially for gender inequalities that were the most marked for this age group.

The global distribution of gains from globalization

Global interpersonal inequality is increasingly driven by inequalities within countries while the role of inequality between countries diminishes. Is this due to globalization? To answer this question, we use comprehensive global panel data at the country-decile-group level for the past half century and exploit the geographic diffusion of liberalization policies to identify the effect of globalization. Across countries, we find that income gains are substantial for countries at early stages of the globalization process, but the ‘marginal returns to globalization’ diminish as globalization rises, eventually becoming insignificant for the most globalized countries. Within countries, gains from globalization are largest for the richest ten percent of national income distributions, resulting in substantial increases in national income inequalities. A simple quantitative model is consistent with these empirical results. Over the past half century, globalization has promoted a dual trend of income convergence across countries and income divergence within countries.

Inequality of opportunity in selection procedures limits diversity in higher education: An intersectional study of Dutch selective higher education programs.

Selection for higher education (HE) programs may hinder equal opportunities for applicants and thereby reduce student diversity and representativeness. However, variables which could play a role in inequality of opportunity are often studied separately from each other. Therefore, this retrospective cohort study conducts an innovative intersectional analysis of the inequality of opportunity in admissions to selective HE programs. Using a combination of multivariable logistic regression analyses and descriptive statistics, we aimed to investigate 1) the representativeness of student populations of selective HE programs, as compared to both the applicant pool and the demographics of the age cohort; 2) the demographic background variables which are associated with an applicant's odds of admission; and 3) the intersectional acceptance rates of applicants with all, some or none of the background characteristics positively associated with odds of admission. The study focused on all selective HE programs (n = 96) in The Netherlands in 2019 and 2020, using Studielink applicant data (N = 85,839) and Statistics Netherlands microdata of ten background characteristics. The results show that student diversity in selective HE programs is limited, partly due to the widespread inequality of opportunity in the selection procedures, and partly due to self-selection. Out of all ten variables, migration background was most often (negatively) associated with the odds of receiving an offer of admission. The intersectional analyses provide detailed insight into how (dis)advantage has different effects for different groups. We therefore recommend the implementation of equitable admissions procedures which take intersectionality into account.

Analysis of the Healthcare System in Romania: A Brief Review.

This manuscript provides a brief review and analysis of the healthcare system in Romania. This study aims to comprehensively analyse the healthcare system in Romania, evaluating its strengths, weaknesses, and impact on the population's access to quality healthcare services. Within the framework of the Romanian healthcare system, a multitude of pressing challenges endure. These encompass insufficient funding, shortages of medical personnel, and ineffectiveness in the provisioning of services. These impediments substantially hinder the accessibility of healthcare services, particularly in outlying and pastoral regions, thereby rendering the system susceptible and underserving certain demographics. Our investigation presents three hypotheses. The opening conjecture proposes that inadequate funding has a negative impact on the availability and standard of healthcare facilities in Romania. In addition, another hypothesis assumes that insufficient medical staff plays a considerable role in inequalities in access to and delivery of healthcare. Moreover, the existence of inadequacies in service provision serves as a significant barrier, obstructing the timely and efficient delivery of healthcare to those who need it. Our research encompasses a comprehensive analysis of key aspects of the Romanian healthcare system, ranging from healthcare infrastructure and financing mechanisms to service delivery and healthcare outcomes. Through a blend of qualitative and quantitative data sources, including government reports, academic studies, and statistical data, we have endeavoured to provide an in-depth evaluation. The analysis encompasses various aspects, including healthcare infrastructure, financing mechanisms, service delivery, and healthcare outcomes. Romania has a mixed healthcare system with both public and private providers. The primary level of care is delivered by family doctors, while hospitals and specialised medical centres provide secondary and tertiary care services. This research underlines the criticality of significant alterations being implemented in the healthcare system of Romania to address the issues arising from insufficient funding, a shortage of medical personnel, and shortcomings in service delivery. It is vital to tackle the obstacles presented by insufficient funding, the dearth of healthcare staff, and inadequacies in service delivery to attain impartial and reachable healthcare. By implementing these essential transformations, Romania can pave the way towards a healthcare system that efficaciously caters to the diverse requirements of its populace and guarantees the provision of prompt and superior healthcare services.

Inequality in Chile's Philanthropic Ecosystem: Evidence and Implications.

Philanthropy seeks to address deep-rooted social issues and assume responsibility for the creation of public goods not provided by the public sector-and in this way help reduce inequality. Yet philanthropy has also been criticized for bypassing democratic mechanisms for the public determination of how to invest in society-and thus may perpetuate other inequities. In both cases, inequality, defined as asymmetries of resources and power, plays a critical role in public goods creation and in the legitimacy of a country's philanthropic ecosystem. However, little empirical research examines the existence and role of inequality in country-level donation systems. To fill this gap, this study provides evidence of growing donation concentration in Chile's philanthropic ecosystem, with a focus on the culture sector, characterizes it by mapping systematic differences in ecosystem perceptions by actor type, and identifies and tests statistically structural and organizational factors associated with these perceptions. Inequality in Chile's donation system operates at multiple geographical, legal, and organizational levels, all of which are reflected in objective donation amounts and subjective ecosystem perceptions. We conclude that in Chile resource asymmetries and power imbalances hinder the fulfillment of philanthropy's promise and call for further research to identify policies that address inequities in emerging philanthropic ecosystems in Chile, Latin America, and beyond.

School as an oppressed site: how broader sociopolitical context informs educational processes in Turkish school with Kurdish school mix

ABSTRACT Reproduction theories reveal schools’ critical role in inequalities and instil a sense of pessimism regarding schools’ potential to create a fair society. School effectiveness research (SER) has responded to this pessimism by studying associations between school factors and educational performance to show that schools can make a difference. Despite its optimistic approach, SER fails to analyse the effects of broader social structures on educational processes. This article uses the institutional habitus concept to understand how the Turkish state’s assimilative educational agenda and Kurdish communities’ past experiences inform educational interactions in a public middle school in Istanbul’s inner-city area. The paper argues that institutional habitus provides a more robust framework than SER in explaining schools’ role in academic achievement within the broader sociopolitical context.

Carbon Emission Performance and Regime Type: The Role of Inequality

Abstract Existing results about the impact of regime type on states’ environmental performance are inconclusive. This could stem from failure to allow for economic inequality—a largely overlooked factor. More equal democratic societies, we contend, are likely to make greater progress in dealing with environmental problems. However, inequality undermines those processes and characteristics of democratic polities that are supposed to further environmental protection. In contrast, inequality is unlikely to be of much importance in authoritarian states. Using data on carbon emission performance for the post-1970 period, we find strong and robust evidence that inequality moderates the influence of democracy. Our research adds to the debate about regime type and environmental politics.

Modelling transitions between egalitarian, dynamic leader and absolutist power structures.

Human groups show a variety of leadership dynamics ranging from egalitarian groups with no leader, to groups with changing leaders, to absolutist groups with a single long-term leader. Here, we model transitions between these different phases of leadership dynamics, investigating the role of inequalities in relationships between individuals. Our results demonstrate a novel riches-to-rags class of leadership dynamics where a leader can be replaced by a new individual. We note that the transition between the three different phases of leadership dynamics resembles transitions in leadership dynamics during the Neolithic period of human history. We argue how technological developments, such as food storage and/or weapons which allow one individual to control large quantities of resources, would mean that relationships became more unequal. In general terms, we provide a model of how individual relationships can affect leadership dynamics and structures.

Within-firm inequality in workdays and labor productivity: evidence from linked employer–employee Italian data

Abstract Using a longitudinal dataset built merging survey and administrative datasets on Italian firms, we investigate the association between productivity growth and labor flexibility focusing on the role of inequality of yearly workdays within firms. In addition to a negative association between productivity growth and the share of fixed-term employment, we find a further negative association between this type of within-firm inequality and labor productivity growth. This finding suggests that higher inequality in workdays may weaken cooperation among workers, affecting productivity.

Access to Banking and the Role of Inequality and the Financial Crisis

AbstractWe study access to banking and how it is related to banks’ rate of return on investments and the distribution of income. We develop our empirical framework through a theoretical supply-side model of bank deposit services with a consumer population heterogeneous in income. We use this model to show how decreases in the interest rate margin and higher income disparities lead to an increase in the proportion of unbanked. Using localized US household data from 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2015 we find strong empirical evidence for the predictions of the model. We then structurally estimate our model to estimate the value of having a checking account relative to alternative financial services and to quantify the effects of actual changes in the interest rate margin and the distribution of income that occurred in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.

Energy, Data, and Decision-Making: a Scoping Review-the 3D Commission.

Access to energy is an important social determinant of health, and expanding the availability of affordable, clean energy is one of the Sustainable Development Goals. It has been argued that climate mitigation policies can, if well-designed in response to contextual factors, also achieve environmental, economic, and social progress, but otherwise pose risks to economic inequity generally and health inequity specifically. Decisions around such policies are hampered by data gaps, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and among vulnerable populations in high-income countries (HICs). The rise of "big data" offers the potential to address some of these gaps. This scoping review sought to explore the literature linking energy, big data, health, and decision-making.Literature searches in PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science were conducted. English language articles up to April 1, 2020, were included. Pre-agreed study characteristics including geographic location, data collected, and study design were extracted and presented descriptively, and a qualitative thematic analysis was performed on the articles using NVivo.Thirty-nine articles fulfilled eligibility criteria. These included a combination of review articles and research articles using primary or secondary data sources. The articles described health and economic effects of a wide range of energy types and uses, and attempted to model effects of a range of technological and policy innovations, in a variety of geographic contexts. Key themes identified in our analysis included the link between energy consumption and economic development, the role of inequality in understanding and predicting harms and benefits associated with energy production and use, the lack of available data on LMICs in general, and on the local contexts within them in particular. Examples of using "big data," and areas in which the articles themselves described challenges with data limitations, were identified.The findings of this scoping review demonstrate the challenges decision-makers face in achieving energy efficiency gains and reducing emissions, while avoiding the exacerbation of existing inequities. Understanding how to maximize gains in energy efficiency and uptake of new technologies requires a deeper understanding of how work and life is shaped by socioeconomic inequalities between and within countries. This is particularly the case for LMICs and in local contexts where few data are currently available, and for whom existing evidence may not be directly applicable. Big data approaches may offer some value in tracking the uptake of new approaches, provide greater data granularity, and help compensate for evidence gaps in low resource settings.

Psychological distress in late adolescence: The role of inequalities in family affluence and municipal socioeconomic characteristics in Norway.

The present study aims to explore, in the national context of Norway, how municipal socioeconomic indicators affect anxiety and depressive symptom scores among senior high school students and whether this potential municipal effect is dependent on the adolescents' family affluence levels. This cross-sectional study is based on questionnaire data collected in five waves (2014-2018) of the Ungdata survey. The study sample consisted of 97,460 adolescents aged 16-18 years attending high school in 156 municipalities in Norway. Measures of psychological distress, depression, and anxiety symptoms were based on the screening instrument, Hopkins Symptom Checklist-10. Two-level random intercept models were fitted to distinguish the individual and municipality sources of variation in adolescents' mental health. In general, the results indicate substantial psychological symptom load among the study sample. Inequalities in adolescents' psychological distress between family affluence groups were evident, with the lowest symptom loads in the most affluent families. The predicted depressive and anxiety symptoms among the students increased slightly along with the percentage of municipal residents with tertiary educations and with increasing income inequalities in their residential municipality. However, the interaction models suggest that the adverse effects of higher municipal education level and greater income inequality are, to a certain extent, steepest for adolescents with medium family affluence. This study highlights two key findings. Both municipality effects and family affluence account for a relatively small proportion of the total variance in the students' psychological symptoms loads; however, the mental health inequalities we explored between socioeconomic strata on both the individual and municipal levels are not insignificant in a public health perspective. Results are discussed in the context of psychosocial mechanisms related to social comparison and perceptions of social status that may be applicable in egalitarian welfare states such as Norway.

Crisis, Inequality and Social Insurance

In this paper I present the ideas, preliminary results and future steps of a long term project aimed at investigating the distributional consequences of aggregate crises and the role of inequality and social insurance in shaping aggregate activity in times of crisis. For that, I develop a theoretical heterogeneous agents incomplete markets DSGE model, with both ex-ante and ex-post household heterogeneity, and one important source of social insurance, unemployment insurance. A first quantitative experiment, aimed at exploring the model's main properties and mechanisms, produces several preliminary results. First, ex-ante heterogeneity matters. Results for economies where there is only ex-post heterogeneity are significantly different from results for economies where there are both types of heterogeneity. Second, the model generates a substantial rise in inequality following a crisis, as a result of an increase in the probabilities of becoming or remaining unemployed. Third, social insurance helps to mitigate the impact of a crisis on aggregate consumption and this effect is stronger for a higher degree of heterogeneity. Finally, a progressive insurance scheme produces a higher mitigation effect than a flat one. By shedding new light on how social insurance policies may shape the impacts of an aggregate crisis, this work contributes to the recent but essential literature on the relevance of considering distributional aspects when targeting macroeconomic objectives.

Uncovering the socioeconomic facets of human mobility

Given the rapid recent trend of urbanization, a better understanding of how urban infrastructure mediates socioeconomic interactions and economic systems is of vital importance. While the accessibility of location-enabled devices as well as large-scale datasets of human activities, has fueled significant advances in our understanding, there is little agreement on the linkage between socioeconomic status and its influence on movement patterns, in particular, the role of inequality. Here, we analyze a heavily aggregated and anonymized summary of global mobility and investigate the relationships between socioeconomic status and mobility across a hundred cities in the US and Brazil. We uncover two types of relationships, finding either a clear connection or little-to-no interdependencies. The former tend to be characterized by low levels of public transportation usage, inequitable access to basic amenities and services, and segregated clusters of communities in terms of income, with the latter class showing the opposite trends. Our findings provide useful lessons in designing urban habitats that serve the larger interests of all inhabitants irrespective of their economic status.

Dying from envy: The role of inequality.

We hypothesize that when interpersonal comparisons, often referred to as "keeping up with the Joneses", are operational, relative deprivation (income inequality) results in increased likelihood of morbidity among lower income households. Using a simple theoretical model, we show that the larger the income disparities between "the Joneses" and "the followers", the higher is the followers' expenditure on conspicuous consumption and the lower is their expenditure on health. We empirically test our hypotheses using Canadian data from the Canadian Community Health Survey and the Survey of Household Spending and US data from the National Health Interview Survey. We find that, in peer groups defined by geographic proximity of residence or similar socio-economic background, larger income disparities are associated with higher spending by the followers on conspicuous consumption, lower health expenditure, worse self-reported health and younger age at death.

What’s Wrong with the Global? The Interconnected Roles of Inequality, Migrancy, Criminality, Religion, Class, and Caste in India

Abstract Postcolonial discourses often view globality as marking the continuation of the imperialist project. However, discourses entailing a genetic assessment of globality have identified that the workings of the neoliberal economy are largely responsible for its undoing. This mutually destructive relationship between globality and neoliberalism makes it even more necessary to strike a rupture between them. This article illustrates the strands of global and neoliberal discontent, positioning both globality and neoliberalism as arriving at cul-de sac despite vigorous effort to pretend otherwise. In particular, it dwells on the ontological status of the migrants in India by discussing the current strategy to criminalize them and uses Rahul Pandita’s Our Moon has Blood Clots: A Memoir of a Lost Home in Kashmir to show how criminalized migrants may be turned, by de-globing, into natural inhabitants of the Earth.

Time-varying evidence of predictability of financial stress in the United States over a century: The role of inequality

In this paper, we analyze time-varying predictability of financial stress due to growth in income inequality of the United States (US) over the annual period of 1913 to 2016. In order to ensure that we remove the asset price effects on income inequality, and provide incorrect inferences regarding the impact on financial stress, we work with capital-gains excluded six alternative measures of top shares of pretax income and wages. We find that the top 10%, the top 10% to 5%, and the top 5% to 1% inequality growth rates tend to predict financial stress relatively better than the corresponding inequality growth rates associated with the top 1%, top 0.1%, and the top 0.01% of the income distribution. Moreover, all the six metrics of inequality growth is capable of predicting the heightened financial stress observed during the onset of the Great Depression and the same associated with the recent global financial crisis. Finally, our in-sample evidence of predictability tends to carry over to an out-of-sample forecasting exercise under four out of the six measures of inequality considered, and in particular for the broader measures of inequality – a result consistent with our in-sample analysis.