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, …

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 …

An Economic Development Strategy For Charlevoix County - A Feasibility Study, Michelle Miller-Adams

Michelle Miller-Adams

Staff of the Upjohn Institute will work with the Charlevoix Community Foundation to study the feasibility of a collaborative economic development strategy for the region. Through stakeholder interviews and a community convening, Institute staff will examine the networks currently in place among leaders in the county's three communities, present to stakeholders the findings of this network analysis along with regional data, and facilitate a community conversation about possible collaborative strategies designed to address the challenges facing Charlevoix County.

Assessment Of The Importance Of Small Business To Kalamazoo County's Economy And The Adequacy Of Services To Nurture Small Business Formation, George A. Erickcek

George A. Erickcek

No abstract provided.

Small Cities Blues: Looking For Growth Factors In Small And Medium-Sized Cities, George A. Erickcek, Hannah J. Mckinney

George A. Erickcek

The purpose of this exploratory study is to attempt to identify particular public policies which have the potential to increase the economic viability of smaller metropolitan areas and cities. We identify characteristics associated with smaller metro areas that performed better-than-expected (winners) and worse-than-expected (losers) during the 1990s, given their resources, industrial mix, and location as of 1990. Once these characteristics have been identified, we look for evidence that public policy choices may have promoted and enhanced a metro area's ability to succeed and to regain control of its own economic destiny. Methodologically, we construct a regression model which identifies the …

Thinking About The Future Of Small Metropolitan Areas, George A. Erickcek, Hannah J. Mckinney

George A. Erickcek

No abstract provided.

Southcentral Michigan Five-Year Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy: Final Report, George Erickcek, Don Edgerly, Brian Pittelko, Claudette Robey, Bridget Timmeney

George A. Erickcek

No abstract provided.

The 1990 Economic Impact Of The Upjohn Company On Kalamazoo County, George A. Erickcek

George A. Erickcek

No abstract provided.

Economic Development Recommendations That Focus On The "Working Poor": Lessons From Waco, George Erickcek, Don Edgerly, Brian Pittelko, Claudette Robey, Bridget Timmeney, Jim Robey

George A. Erickcek

No abstract provided.

The 1989 Economic Impact Of The Upjohn Company On Kalamazoo County, George A. Erickcek

George A. Erickcek

No abstract provided.

Identification Of The Key Economic And Social Issues Facing The Greater Battle Creek Area, George A. Erickcek

George A. Erickcek

No abstract provided.

An Economic Opportunity Concept For The Northside Of The City Of Kalamazoo, Timothy J. Bartik, George A. Erickcek

George A. Erickcek

No abstract provided.

The Future Of State And Local Economic Development Policy: What Research Is Needed, Timothy Bartik

Timothy J. Bartik

No abstract provided.

Taxes And Local Economic Development: What Do We Know And What Can We Know?, Timothy Bartik

Timothy J. Bartik

No abstract provided.

The Roles Of Tax Incentives And Other Business Incentives In Local Economic Development, Timothy Bartik, Randall Eberts

Timothy J. Bartik

No abstract provided.

Growing State Economies: How Taxes And Public Services Affect Private-Sector Performance, Timothy Bartik

Timothy J. Bartik

No abstract provided.

The Perplexing Literature On Growth And Change, Timothy Bartik, Thomas Boehm, Alan Schlottmann

Timothy J. Bartik

No abstract provided.

Comments On Papers By Michael Wasylenko And Ronald Fisher, Timothy J. Bartik

Timothy J. Bartik

No abstract provided.

Economic Development Policy In Michigan, Timothy Bartik, Peter Eisinger, George Erickcek

Timothy J. Bartik

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Marginal Business Taxes On State Manufacturing, Richard Funderburg, Timothy Bartik, Alan Peters, Peter Fisher

Timothy J. Bartik

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of State And Local Taxes On Growth Using Improved Tax Measures, Timothy Bartik

Timothy J. Bartik

In collaboration with Alan Peters and Peter Fisher of the University of Iowa, this research project provided important new evidence on a long-standing controversy in academic and public policy circles: whether tax incentives are a cost-effective means of stimulating state economic growth. The research used a superior measure of the crucial explanatory variable—state and local taxes on business—and tested the sensitivity of the results to the kind of tax measure used. This project refocused scholarly debate on replicable findings about the impact of state and local business taxes on economic growth. The results were disseminated to the economic development policy …

The Effects Of State And Local Taxes On Economic Development: A Review Of Recent Research, Timothy Bartik

Timothy J. Bartik

No abstract provided.