Widening Income Inequality Research Articles

Korean Industrial Relations in the Era of Globalisation

Globalisation has influenced the transformation of Korean industrial relations by manifesting itself in the government’s globalisation strategy and neo-liberal restructuring policies. Global market competition and international labour standards have been the key reference criteria used by the Korean government and other concerned parties to reform labour laws. Under the reality of globalisation and economic crisis, labour has been increasingly disadvantaged, with workers having experienced not only growing job insecurity, accompanied by high unemployment and deteriorated employment status as demonstrated by the sharp rise of non-standard workforce, but also widening income inequality. The Korean government’s effort to build a tripartite partnership as part of its strategic response to globalisation and the economic crisis has been constrained by the process of labour law reform and economic restructuring. At the same time, the pressure of globalisation has led to the instability of labour relations at the enterprise level by producing intense labour-management confrontations concerning employment adjustment and corporate restructuring. HRM schemes of Korean companies have to a large extent shifted to the performance-based system as a result of managerial efforts to respond to growing global competition and to benchmark global best practices.

Confidence in Hong Kong's Capitalist Society in the Aftermath of the Asian Financial Turmoil

The Asian financial turmoil that hit Hong Kong unexpectedly has produced the worst postwar economic crisis in this bastion of unfettered capitalism. It has exacerbated some worrisome trends that have plagued Hong Kong for more than a decade: diminishing international competitiveness of the economy; widening income inequality; greater involvement of the government in economic affairs; declining mobility opportunities; and an increasingly anxious middle class. Empirical findings however show that whilst Hongkongers' confidence in Hong Kong's capitalist society has been shaken a little, popular support for it has, on the whole, remained robust. Still, social discontent is on the rise, particularly among the middle-classes. Growing popular demand for governmental intervention and the proclivity of the post-1997 regime to exercise economic activism might, in the long run, threaten the viability of this last example of untrammeled capitalism.

Centripetal Forces in China's Economic Takeoff

This paper uses provincial time series data from China to empirically investigate two propositions relating to economic development: (i) that economic takeoff is associated with technological transfer through foreign direct investment (FDI); and (ii) that takeoff is accompanied, at least in the short term, by widening income inequality. The results indicate that FDI flows have increased the rate of convergence in per capita incomes across China's provinces. However, the pattern of FDI, which has gone mainly to the relatively wealthy provinces, has caused different provinces to converge to different steady states.

Inequality in property incomes in nineteenth-century Austria

The article examines the distribution of wealth in the alpine lands of the Habsburg Monarchy in the period 1820–1913. A moderate rise in overall inequality from the first to the second half of the period can be observed. This rise is due to sectoral shifts within the society. Inequality between various social groups shows various changes with widening as well as narrowing inequality in the different parts of society. Altogether, the changes in wealth inequality do not support the notion of widening income inequality in the early stages of industrialization in Austria.

Centripetal forces in China's Economic Take-Off

This paper uses provincial time series data from China to empirically investigate two propositions relating to economic development: (i) that economic takeoff is associated with technological transfer through foreign direct investment (FDI); and (ii) that takeoff is accompanied, at least in the short term, by widening income inequality. The results indicate that FDI flows have increased the rate of convergence in per capita incomes across China’s provinces. However, the pattern of FDI, which has gone mainly to the relatively wealthy provinces, has caused different provinces to converge to different steady states.

Continuity and Change in the Restless Urban Landscape

Recent inquiry in urban studies highlights the dynamic restructuring of urban areas, with new elements of the landscape taken as reflections of sweeping economic and sociocultural change. American cities are portrayed as “galactic” and “restless” manifestations of global and national industrial restructuring, widening income inequality, demographic shifts, and the cultural sensibilities of new class formations. Yet the persistence of residential segregation and suburban development processes provide reminders of the historical continuity of American urban form. This paper critically evaluates continuity and change in the urban landscape, drawing on feminist urban research and theories of residential differentiation to analyze changes in spatial segregation among families and households. I apply the methods of the classical factorial ecology literature to a special census tabulation that controls for tract boundary changes between 1980 and 1990. The analysis focuses on Minneapolis–St. Paul, which exemplifies processes of industrial restructuring and suburban development and an unusually high rate of female labor force participation. Results indicate that urban demographic trends have inscribed increasingly complex patterns of neighborhood segregation. The delayed child-bearing, increased employment, and high household incomes of married women of the baby boom generation have altered the 1960s “family status” construct. I offer a theory of the “public household” to illuminate this transformation, which entails an erosion of the boundaries between markets and family life as households confront the contradictions of suburban built environments. The foundations of residential differentiation display remarkable continuity, and the public household is rooted in long-term demographic trends, widening inequality, and increasing consumption standards driven by postwar suburbanization and housing policy. Ultimately, restlessness in the urban landscape is a story of dynamic stability, as turbulent social and institutional change reflects the struggles of workers and families adjusting to the imperatives of life in a low-density urban environment.

Growth, Inequality and Globalization

To what extent is some poverty necessary for economic growth? Doespoverty motivate the poor to work harder, enabling them to both escape theirpoverty and in the process increase the total wealth of society? Or does povertyon balance promote those negative influences such as ill-health and a lack ofproper education that prevent the poor, and hence society, from attaining itsfull wealth potential? What effect does a redistribution of wealth from rich topoor have upon the growth rate? Would the poor manage the extra wealththereby gained in a manner more beneficial for society than when the rich managedit? How does income disparity within an economy wax and wane asgrowth takes place, and how does income disparity between economies changein the face of globalization? Perhaps most important of all, what can politicaleconomists learn from past experiences in informing policy recommendationsfor the future?Such are the questions to which two professors of economics address inGrowth, Inequality and Globalization: Theory, History, and Policy. In the firstof two discussions on the topic, phillipe Aghion from University CollegeLondon adopts a largely mathematical approach. In the second discussion,Jeffery G. Williamson from Harvard undertakes an empirical analysis. Thesetwo approaches compliment one another rather well.Two ideas are generally handed down to the modem student of economicson the relationship between growth and wealth inequality. One is based uponan incentives theory according to which inequality promotes faster growth. Theother derives from the Kuznet's hypothesis which holds that, as an economypasses through a growth phase, inequality first increases and then decreaseswith the onset of maturity. Aghion labels both of these ideas as fallacies, brieflyciting recent evidence which shows widening income inequality in the UnitedStates. His mathematical modeling further shows that, under certain circumstances,increases in inequality (as measured by the increased dispersion ofinvestment holdings among members of the society) can lead to lower growth.This is because the marginal return on investment for the poor is greater thanfor the rich. In plain language, poor people can create more wealth with anadditional unit of investment assets than the rich can. Hence, if the rich haveall the assets, society as a whole may not achieve the highest available returns.In a perfect capital market, the rich could perhaps lend or invest their surplus ...

Promoting health against inequality: using research to identify targets for intervention — a case study of women and smoking

With inequality back on the agenda of health promotion in the UK, researchers are being called upon to unravel the chain of risks which runs between socio economic disadvantage and poor health and to identify links in the chain where interventions should be targeted. This article is one response to the call. It is written as a contribution to a wider debate between the research and policy communities about how to understand and how to tackle health inequalities. It addresses one area of the debate, examining, and drawing policy messages from, the socio-economic patterning of women's smoking. Firstly, it describes the socio-economic differentials in women's smoking status, setting these in the context of widening income inequalities and the emergence of new forms of poverty. It notes how female smokers are concentrated among those who have lost out in the process of social polarisation. Secondly, the paper describes how women's smoking careers take shape within the socio-economic pathways which they follow through adolescence and across adulthood. Thirdly, the paper identifies a policy framework for health promotion which targets income inequalities, breaks into disadvantaged pathways and provides respite for those unable to escape their disadvantaged circumstances.

Measuring Third World Poverty by the International Poverty Line: The Case of Reform China*

ABSTRACTThis article selects a fast growing economy, China, under Deng Xiao‐ping's economic reforms, as a case example for exploring the use of the median income‐linked international poverty line in measuring third world poverty. Those third world countries which have a fast growing economy have the prospect of increased income inequality. Henceforth, the widening income inequality justifies a comparable poverty measurement which takes into account the relation between economic affluence and income distribution.

Mass Immigration, Free Trade, and the Forgotten American Worker

The author discusses the impact on the workforce of changes in U.S. economic and immigration policy. If continued mass immigration and the pursuit of free trade result in undermining the nations trade union movement and its labor-protection laws then the price is too high. It must also be considered exorbitant if these policies continue to help reduce American workers living standards and widen income inequality within the nation. (EXCERPT)

Dismantling the ‘Iron Rice Bowl’: Welfare Reforms in the People's Republic of China

ABSTRACTIn common with most countries in the world, China is facing an increasing demand for welfare. The free-market economic reforms of the last decade have dramatically transformed social policy in China, which is gradually retreating from an egalitarian and collective approach and moving towards a pluralistic and ‘residual’ orientation. Now, widening income inequalities are accepted as both necessary and inevitable.

Supportive Participation with Economic Growth: The Case of Japan

Whether political participation is positively related to economic equality is still a paradox. This paper explores the relations among political participation, economic equality, and economic development in Japan after World War II. There was little income bias in political participation in Japan during its period of rapid growth, partly because farmers who benefited inadequately from economic development participated more in politics. This rural bias in participation allowed significant redistribution of income from the urban to rural sector through the budgeting system, thus preventing the natural tendency of widening income inequality at the early stage of development. However, high rural participation did not undermine the rate of growth because it was supportive participation. Farmers overwhelmingly supported the incumbent Liberal Democratic Party, support that enhanced government's continuity and in turn nurtured growth.