Economics Commons^™

The Meaning And Measurement Of Income Mobility, Gary S. Fields, Efe A. Ok

Gary S Fields

Income mobility may be seen as arising from two sources: (i) the transfer of income among individuals with total income held constant, and (ii) a change in the total amount of income available. In this paper, we propose several sensible properties defining the concept of income mobility and show that an easily applicable measure of mobility is uniquely implied by these properties. We also show that the resulting measure is additively decomposable into the two sources listed above, namely, mobility due to the transfer of income within a given structure and mobility due to economic growth or contraction. Finally, these …

Employment, Income Distribution And Economic Growth In Seven Small Open Economies, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] Resurgent interest has been manifested among development economists in trickle-down, i.e., the view that the more rapid the rate of economic growth, the more rapid the improvement in employment and income distribution. Throughout this paper, the term ‘income distribution’ will refer to the location and dispersion of the pattern of incomes, i.e., to ‘absolute incomes and poverty’ and to ‘relative income inequality’. Empirical evidence supports trickle-down in some cases, but the evidence is contrary to trickle-down in others.

These data indicate:

1. A high rate of economic growth is neither necessary nor sufficient for inequality to decline.
2. A high rate …

Income Distribution And Economic Growth, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] Who benefits how much from economic growth and why? This question is fundamental to today’s development economics. This chapter reviews some of the major lessons learned and major directions for future research in the study of income distribution and economic development.

Employment And Economic Growth In Costa Rica, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

Costa Rica’s economic growth in the last 25 years has had favorable labor market and income distribution consequences. Overall, employment growth kept pace with labor force growth, the mix of jobs improved, real wages rose, and relative inequality and absolute poverty fell. But during the economic crisis of 1980-82, when real per capita income plummeted, labor market conditions deteriorated markedly: unemployment doubled, employment composition worsened, and real wages fell by 40%. Growth, labor market conditions, and income distribution have moved together.

Earnings Mobility In Times Of Growth And Decline: Argentina From 1996 To 2003, Gary S. Fields, María Laura Sánchez Puerta

Gary S Fields

In recent years, the economy of Argentina has experienced both rapid economic growth and severe economic decline. In this paper, we use a series of one-year long panels to study who gained the most in pesos when the economy grew and who lost the most in pesos when the economy contracted. Various considerations led us to expect that mobility would be divergent—that is, that the individuals who started with the highest initial earnings would enjoy the largest earnings gains in pesos. Contrary to expectations and for a wide range of specifications, mobility is found to be mostly convergent, sometimes neutral, …

Challenges And Policy Lessons For The Growth-Employment-Poverty Nexus In Developing Countries, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

Productivity growth and structural change are generally considered to be important determinants of economic growth. However recent research revealed that they do not necessarily lead to higher growth and employment rates. Recent studies, drawing on data from developing countries, showed that only the “right” kind of productivity growth resulted in higher employment rates. Enterprises in Africa and Latin America caught up in matters of technology; however, this process resulted in a substitution of employment by technology. The same is true for structural change; only the “right” kind of structural change caused more growth and employment. Whereas in Asia, labour shifted …

Falling Labor Income Inequality In Korea’S Economic Growth: Patterns And Underlying Causes, Gyeongjoon Yoo, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

Over the last twenty-five years, the economy of the Republic of Korea achieved a remarkable growth rate of 7 percent per year in real per capita income, causing it to be labeled, justifiably, as a “miracle economy.” This exceptional economic growth has been accompanied by an even more exceptional fall in labor income inequality. Using a newly-developed methodology, we use data from Korea’s Occupational Wage Surveys to quantify the importance of various factors that have contributed to the fall in labor income inequality in Korea. We find the most important factors explaining the level of income inequality are job tenure, …

The Impact Of Research And Development On Economic Growth And Productivity In The U.S. States: Online Appendix, Luisa Blanco, James Prieger, Ji Gu

Luisa Blanco

This online appendix accompanies the article forthcoming in the Southern Economic Journal. This appendix contains additional information on the data and methodology used in the article, as well as results from additional and supplementary estimations.

Changing Labor Market Conditions And Economic Development In Hong Kong, The Republic Of Korea, Singapore, And Taiwan, China, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

In the newly industrializing economies (NIEs) of Hong Kong, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan (China), the entire working population has benefited from labor market institutions. The East Asian NIEs attained and maintained generally full employment, improved their job mixes, raised real earnings, and lowered their rates of poverty. This article reaches two principal conclusions. First, labor market conditions continued to improve in all four economies in the 1980s at rates remarkably similar to their rates of aggregate economic growth. Second, labor market repression was not a major factor in the growth experiences of these economies in the 1980s. …

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.

Income Distribution In Developing Economies: Conceptual, Data, And Policy Issues In Broad-Based Growth, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] The aim of economic development is to raise the standard of living of a country's people, especially its poor. Economic growth, particularly when broadly based, is a means to that end. 'Underdevelopment' can be defined as a state of severely constrained choices. When one is choosing from among an undesirable set of alternatives, the outcome will itself be undesirable. Standards of living will be low. If standards of living are to be improved, people must have a better set of alternatives from which to choose. 'Economic development' is the process by which the constraints on choices are relaxed. Based …

Identification Of Key Productive Sectors In The Mexican Economy, Isaac Sánchez-Juárez, David Revilla, Adelaido García-Andrés

Isaac Sánchez-Juárez

This article focuses on identifying what are the key sectors with high potential for drag induced investment in the Mexican economy, also characterizes the sectors according to their hierarchy, impact and degree of articulation. To achieve this the input-output matrix national 2003 was used (disaggregated into 20 sectors and 79 sub-sectors), provided by the official government agency responsible for generating statistical information, which applied the traditional method of calculation of multipliers which takes into account both relations hierarchical such as circular between the productive sectors of Rasmussen (1956). The originality of the work lies in the application of the social …

Convergencia En Tecnología, Cinthya Caamal, Claudia Sánchez, Vicente German-Soto

Vicente German-Soto

México: Crecimiento Económico Regional Y Marco Institucional, Isaac L. Sánchez-Juárez, Rosa M. García

Isaac Sánchez-Juárez

En este capítulo se estudia, de forma preliminar, el papel que juegan las instituciones formales en lo general y tres tipos en particular en el crecimiento económico de México: los derechos de propiedad, la calidad gubernamental y el tipo de sistema político. De acuerdo con la mayor parte de literatura, perteneciente a la economía institucional, existe una relación positiva entre el crecimiento económico y las instituciones. Usando un modelo estándar de crecimiento, se muestra que mejores instituciones ayudan a incrementar el ingreso per cápita, a través de su impulso a la inversión y la productividad. Sobre la base del modelo …

Foreign Capital Flows And Economic Growth In Pakistan: An Empirical Analysis, Sharafat Ali

Sharafat Ali

Pakistan economy has received large inflows of foreign capital, in shape of foreign debt, FDI and worker’s remittances, over the years. The present study is focused on the examination of effects of these flows on economic growth in Pakistan. Johansen cointegration technique and Granger causality test has been used for the analysis for the sample period of 1972-2013. The results reveal negative impacts of these flows on economic growth of the economy in long run. Short run analysis confirmed unidirectional causality running from debt service, FDI, inflation and literacy rate to growth. Causality from domestic investment is not concluded but …

(Re) Industrializar Para Superar La Desaceleración En México, Isaac L. Sánchez-Juárez

Isaac Sánchez-Juárez

En el ámbito económico, uno de los mayores problemas que una nación puede enfrentar es la desaceleración del ritmo de producción de bienes y servicios, México desde 1982 padece un problema de este tipo. Para la teoría sectorial-estructural del crecimiento, su origen radica en la pérdida de dinamismo del sector industrial manufacturero, caracterizado por la presencia de rendimientos crecientes. El artículo ofrece evidencia de lo anterior y por tanto enfatiza la importancia de la política industrial. A partir de la revisión de la literatura sintetiza la política industrial implementada, las condiciones internacionales para la (re) industrialización, las restricciones que imponen …

An Assessment Of Eda's Partnership Planning Program, George A. Erickcek, Brad R. Watts, Larry Ledebur, Claudette Robey, Daila Shimek, Kevin O'Brien, Andrew Batson, Jim Robey, Jacob Duritsky, Kim Merik

Larry C. Ledebur

This report examines EDA‘s Partnership Planning Program, which consists of Economic Development Districts (EDDs) and the Comprehensive Economic Development Strategies (CEDS) they are required to create, and provides recommendations as to how the program could be improved to lead effective regional development strategic efforts.

[Review Of The Book Growing Public: Social Spending And Economic Growth Since The Eighteenth Century], George R. Boyer

George R. Boyer

[Excerpt] Lindert’s discussion of the costs and benefits of the welfare state is only one part, albeit the most eye-catching part, of this wide-ranging work in comparative economic history. Volume 1, written for non-specialists, presents “The Story”; it is tailor-made for upper-level undergraduate courses in economic and social history, public policy, and welfare economics. Volume 2 presents “Further Evidence,” including the regression results that underlie the findings presented in the first volume, and eighty pages of appendices. Graduate students and scholars studying the welfare state will want to read this volume in conjunction with Volume 1. For those who want …

Unemployment And The Uk Labour Market Before, During And After The Golden Age, Timothy J. Hatton, George R. Boyer

George R. Boyer

During the ‘golden age’ of the 1950s and 1960s unemployment in Britain averaged 2 per cent. This was far lower than ever before or since and a number of hypotheses have been put forward to account for this unique period in labour market history. But there has been little attempt to isolate precisely how the determinants of wage setting and unemployment differed before, during and after the golden age. We estimate a two-equation model over the whole period from 1872 to 1999 using a newly constructed set of long-run labour market data. We find that the structure of real wage …

Exploring The Nexus Between Trade, Visitor Arrivals, Remittances And Income In The Pacific: A Study Of Vanuatu, Ronald R. Kumar, Vijay Naidu, Radika Kumar

Dr Ronald R Kumar

Trade, Aid, Remittances And Financial Development: The Case Of Pakistan, Ronald Kumar

Dr Ronald R Kumar

Insuficiencia Dinámica Manufacturera Y Estancamiento Económico En México. Análisis Y Recomendaciones De Política, Isaac Leobardo Sánchez Juárez

Isaac Sánchez-Juárez

Libro que aborda el problema del estancamiento económico en México, y lo explica por medio de un enfoque sectorial. Incluye también propuestas para superar el problema.

Educational Progress And Economic Development, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] Many development agencies seek to channel economic assistance to those less-developed countries (LDCs) and activities that will help the poor to achieve a better life (this phraseology is from the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act as amended in 1975). Education is an important indicator of countries' performance. This chapter examines the suitability of alternative education indicators as guides for planning and evaluating countries' progress and commitment toward increasing the participation of the poor in development.

Growth And Distribution In The Market Economies Of East Asia, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

This is a review and comparison of seven books dealing with income distribution and economic development focusing on the countries of East Asia. The books reviewed are: Irma Adelman and Sherman Robinson, Income Distribution Policy in Developing Countries. New York: Oxford University Press, 1979. Edward K. Y. Chen, Hyper-Growth in Asian Economies: A Comparative Study of Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan. New York: Holmes & Meier, 1979. John C. H. Fei, Gustav Ranis, and Shirley W. Y. Kuo, Growth with Equity: The Taiwan Case. New York: Oxford University Press, 1980. Walter Galenson, ed., Economic Growth and Structural Change …

Long-Term Economic Mobility And The Private Sector In Developing Countries: New Evidence, Gary S. Fields, Walter S. Bagg

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] Consistent with the mainstream view of economic growth as a factor promoting long-term economic mobility, we hypothesize that those economies in which economic growth has been most rapid are precisely the ones that have achieved the greatest progress toward poverty reduction through improved labor market conditions, especially in private employment. We also hypothesize that the positive relationship running from economic growth through the labor market to poverty reduction continued to hold in the 1990s in essentially the same way as in earlier years when globalization was less intense. Both hypotheses are confirmed by our data. Our results therefore cast …

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 …

Exploring Sectoral Contributions To Growth In Fiji: A Focus On Agriculture Development, Ronald R. Kumar

Dr Ronald R Kumar

Tourism Growth In Singapore: An Optimal Target, Habibullah Khan, Sock-Yong Phang, Rex S. Toh

PHANG Sock Yong

No abstract provided.

International Labor Rights And The Sovereignty Question: Nafta And Guatemala, Two Case Studies, Lance A. Compa

Lance A Compa

[Excerpt] Labor rights advocates in the United States and allied organizations abroad attempting to establish international fair labor standards run up against traditional notions of sovereignty in formulating national labor policies and development strategies. In the same way that entrenched sovereignty principles gradually yielded to international human rights claims after World War E, sovereignty is now being challenged by claims of international laborrights in the field of employment standards and industrial relations. This Article seeks to illuminate this challenge to sovereignty in two case studies of labor rights advocacy. Part I sets the stage with an overview of the growing …

A Welfare Economic Analysis Of Labor Market Policies In The Harris-Todaro Model, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

This paper presents a welfare economic analysis of the benefits of various labor market policies in the Harris-Todaro labor market model. The policies considered are a policy of modern sector job creation, which I call modern sector enlargement (MSENL); a policy of rural development, which I call traditional sector enrichment (TSENR); and a policy of wage limitation in the urban economy, which I call modern sector wage restraint (MSWR). First, I analyze the inequality effects of these policies. I then perform two welfare economic analyses, the first based on summary measures of labor market conditions (total labor earnings, unemployment, inequality …