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Selected Works

Inequality

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Full-Text Articles in Business

Contesting Firm Boundaries: Institutions, Cost Structures, And The Politics Of Externalization, Virginia Doellgast, Katja Sarmiento-Mirwaldt, Chiara Benassi Aug 2017

Contesting Firm Boundaries: Institutions, Cost Structures, And The Politics Of Externalization, Virginia Doellgast, Katja Sarmiento-Mirwaldt, Chiara Benassi

Virginia Doellgast

This article develops and applies a framework for analyzing the relationship among institutions, cost structures, and patterns of labor–management contestation over organizational boundaries. Collective negotiations related to the externalization of call center jobs are compared across 10 incumbent telecommunications firms located in Europe and the United States. All 10 firms moved call center work to dedicated subsidiaries, temporary agencies, and domestic and offshore subcontractors. A subset of the firms, however, later re-internalized call center jobs, in some cases following negotiated concessions on pay and working conditions for internal workers. Findings are based on 147 interviews with management and union representatives, …

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Decomposing Ldc Inequality, Gary S. Fields Sep 2015

Decomposing Ldc Inequality, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] At the present time, there is great interest among development economists in the problem of economic inequality in less developed countries (LDCs). Studies of the determinants of inequality follow either of two general approaches. The more traditional approach is associated with names like Kuznets (1963), Chenery and associates (1960, 1968, 1975), Adelman and Morris (1973), Ahluwalia (1976) and Chiswick (1971). These studies share a common methodology, consisting basically of looking at a cross-section of countries, and (1) measuring the degree of inequality in each, (2) measuring other characteristics of each country (e.g., level of GNP, its rate of growth, …

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Changes In Poverty And Inequality In Developing Countries, Gary S. Fields Sep 2015

Changes In Poverty And Inequality In Developing Countries, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

This paper presents new data on poverty, inequality, and growth in those developing countries of the world for which the requisite statistics are available. Economic growth is found generally but not always to reduce poverty. Growth, however, is found to have very little to do with income inequality. Thus the "economic laws" linking the rate of growth and the distribution of benefits receive only very tenuous empirical support here.

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Workplace Dignity: Communicating Inherent, Earned, And Remediated Dignity, Kristen Lucas Jun 2015

Workplace Dignity: Communicating Inherent, Earned, And Remediated Dignity, Kristen Lucas

Kristen Lucas

Extant research on dignity at work has revealed conditions that contribute to indignity, employees’ responses to dignity threats, and ways in which employees’ inherent dignity is undermined. But while dignity – and specifically indignity – is theorized as a phenomenon subjectively experienced and judged by individuals, little research has privileged workers’ own perspectives. In this study, working adults reveal how they personally experience and understand meanings of dignity at work. I describe three core components of workplace dignity and the communicative exchanges through which dignity desires commonly are affirmed or denied: inherent dignity as recognized by respectful interaction, earned dignity …

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Nine Out Of Ten. The "Losers" In Italy's Long Crisis. Changes In Income Distribution, Effects Of Policies, Rise In Inequality, Mario Pianta Dec 2011

Nine Out Of Ten. The "Losers" In Italy's Long Crisis. Changes In Income Distribution, Effects Of Policies, Rise In Inequality, Mario Pianta

Mario Pianta

In the analysis of inequality in advanced countries it is often argued that the wide array of changes in economic activities, labour markets and public policies result in a complex picture of changes in individual incomes that escape any general interpretation. In this paper the available data on the functional and personal distribution of income are examined and the results of the literature are surveyed providing an interpretation of developments in inequality in Italy, compared to other European countries. The argument is that there is strong evidence that most benefits of the (modest) economic growth of the last decade have …

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Regional Inequality And Other Sources Of Income Variation In Colombia, Gary S. Fields, T. Paul Schultz Oct 2011

Regional Inequality And Other Sources Of Income Variation In Colombia, Gary S. Fields, T. Paul Schultz

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] Regional inequality is of interest for a variety of reasons: planning development policies aimed at alleviating poverty and reducing personal inequality, gauging the degree of a country's labor market integration, understanding patterns of population movement in general and labor force migration in particular, predicting future urbanization, and characterizing the poor. Policymakers often aim development programs at particular target groups such as those living in certain regions of a country. In this paper we analyze the determinants of incomes and income inequality in one less developed country, Colombia, examining both personal and regional aspects. The results help clarify the potential …

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Do Inequality Measures Measure Inequality?, Gary S. Fields Aug 2011

Do Inequality Measures Measure Inequality?, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] In the literature, much attention has been paid to a number of aspects of inequality including the distinction between relative and absolute inequality, axiomatization of inequality, the Lorenz criterion for inequality comparisons, properties of various inequality measures, and inequality decomposition. In no way do I wish to argue with the main results derived in these areas. Rather, my purpose here is to add to the theory of inequality measurement by dealing with one aspect of inequality which has been largely ignored by economists and by others. This is the question of how inequality changes - in particular, whether it …

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Forces Of Inequality? The Impact Of Technology And Globalisation, Mario Pianta, Leopoldo Nascia Dec 2008

Forces Of Inequality? The Impact Of Technology And Globalisation, Mario Pianta, Leopoldo Nascia

Mario Pianta

In searching for the causes of the general increase of inequality in Europe over the past two decades, technological change and increasing international integration are major forces that need to be investigated. While they have affected the overall changes in economic structures with complex – direct and indirect – influences on income distribution, we focus here on their specific impact on three issues: a) inequalities between profits and wages; b) the polarisation of employment by professional skills; c) wage polarisation.

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Guest Editors' Introduction For Special Issue On "Inequality: Mechanisms And Effects", Mario Pianta, Maurizio Franzini Dec 2008

Guest Editors' Introduction For Special Issue On "Inequality: Mechanisms And Effects", Mario Pianta, Maurizio Franzini

Mario Pianta

Inequality is a multidimensional phenomenon involving both economic and social processes, and regulated by a variety of political processes and policies. Measures of economic inequality, in terms of income and wealth, however, provide an effective picture of broad patterns of inequality. Between the end of the 1970’s and mid-2000’s, such indicators have documented a general growth in inequalities within and between countries, highlighting a major aspect of economic development over that period.

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Innovation And Wage Polarisation In Europe, Mario Pianta, Elisabetta Croci Angelini, Francesco Farina Dec 2008

Innovation And Wage Polarisation In Europe, Mario Pianta, Elisabetta Croci Angelini, Francesco Farina

Mario Pianta

In this article we improve on the literature dealing with the polarising effects of technological change on wages by proposing more rigorous definitions of wage dispersion within industries and of the different types and effects of innovation. We carry out an analysis across 10 manufacturing and service sectors in seven European countries (France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the UK), for two time periods. In addition to structural economic variables, we draw data from two waves of the Community Innovation Surveys (CIS 2, 1994–1996 and CIS3, 1998–2000) and from two waves of the European Community Household Panel (ECHP, …

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How Much Should We Care About Changing Income Inequality In The Course Of Economic Growth?, Gary S. Fields Jan 2008

How Much Should We Care About Changing Income Inequality In The Course Of Economic Growth?, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

This paper asks how much we should care about changes in Lorenz curves and standard inequality measures when economic growth takes place. I conclude that these changes are of some importance but that other aspects of inequality and poverty are more important.

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Innovations, Profits And Wages, Mario Pianta, Massimiliano Tancioni Dec 2007

Innovations, Profits And Wages, Mario Pianta, Massimiliano Tancioni

Mario Pianta

This paper investigates the dynamics of wages and profits and the influence innovation strategies have on them. The relationships between innovation, productivity, and distribution are modeled and estimated by employing panel data techniques. Two European innovation surveys (1994–96 and 1998–2000) are used with data at both the country and industry levels. Innovation is found to have positive effects on income dynamics beyond the role it has on productivity gains; it may weaken the distribution constraint posed by the competition between profits and wages. Profits are driven by both the Schumpeterian effects of new products and the diffusion effects of new …

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