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Full-Text Articles in Income Distribution

Changing Labor Market Conditions And Economic Development In Hong Kong, The Republic Of Korea, Singapore, And Taiwan, China, Gary S. Fields Sep 2015

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. …


The Dynamics Of Poverty, Inequality And Economic Well-Being: African Economic Growth In Comparative Perspective, Gary S. Fields Sep 2015

The Dynamics Of Poverty, Inequality And Economic Well-Being: African Economic Growth In Comparative Perspective, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

Two hundred and fifty million Africans (about 45% of the population) are poor. In rural areas, where most Africans live, there is, alas, a 'poor majority'. Rural poverty rates range from 37% in Madagascar and 41% in Kenya to 88% in Zambia and 94% in Ghana (Table 1). It is hard to imagine an issue in development economics that is of greater importance to humankind than the effects of economic growth on poverty and economic well-being. Yet there is remarkably little consensus on this vitally important issue, as illustrated by the following two polar positions: New patterns of growth will …


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.


Income Distribution In Developing Economies: Conceptual, Data, And Policy Issues In Broad-Based Growth, Gary S. Fields Sep 2015

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 …


Wealthy, But Unequal: The Anomaly Of Inequality In The United States, Joseph Puleo Aug 2015

Wealthy, But Unequal: The Anomaly Of Inequality In The United States, Joseph Puleo

Political Analysis

No abstract provided.


The Nexus Of Financial Deepening, Economic Growth, And Poverty: The Case Of Pakistan, Abdur Rehman Aleemi, Muhammad Azam Jul 2015

The Nexus Of Financial Deepening, Economic Growth, And Poverty: The Case Of Pakistan, Abdur Rehman Aleemi, Muhammad Azam

Business Review

This study investigates the nexus of financial development, economic growth, and poverty for Pakistan over a prolonged period of time, 1960- 2012. Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL)-Bounds testing approach to co integration and Unrestricted Error Correction Model (UECM)along with VECM Granger causality have been applied to examine the long-run dynamic relationship among financial development, economic development and poverty. For that purpose, we have developed two models and adopted a new and relatively strong proxy for financial development. The results suggest that financial development negatively affects both long-run and short-run economic growth. However, financial development is found to be positively affecting per …


The Effect Of The Earned Income Tax Credit In The District Of Columbia On Poverty And Income Dynamics, Bradley L. Hardy, Daniel Muhammad, Rhucha Samudra Jun 2015

The Effect Of The Earned Income Tax Credit In The District Of Columbia On Poverty And Income Dynamics, Bradley L. Hardy, Daniel Muhammad, Rhucha Samudra

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

Using unique longitudinal administrative tax panel data for the District of Columbia (DC), we assess the combined effect of the DC supplemental earned income tax credit (EITC) and the federal EITC on poverty and income dynamics within Washington, DC, from 2001 to 2011. The EITC in DC merits investigation, as the DC supplement to the federal credit is the largest in the nation. The supplemental DC EITC was enacted in 2000, and has been expanded from 10 percent of the federal credit in 2001 to 40 percent as of 2009. To implement the study, we estimate least squares models with …


A New Approach To Measuring Poverty In The United States: A Household's Ability To Consume, David Ashelman May 2015

A New Approach To Measuring Poverty In The United States: A Household's Ability To Consume, David Ashelman

Applied Economics Theses

The definition of poverty is a social construct. As such, quantitatively measuring poverty is problematic, and creates ineffective poverty-alleviation policy. This thesis examines the historical measure of poverty in the United States, compares U.S. poverty measurements to Great Britain and Canada, and then proposes a new way to measure poverty. Instead of measuring income as the defining factor of poverty, the new poverty measurement suggested eliminates income factors and focuses on a household’s ability to consume in a non-comparative manner. When quantifying a household’s ability to consume, implications arise in economic policy for anti-poverty programs, defining the middle class, minimum …


Integration Of Waqf And Islamic Microfiance For Poverty Reduction, Mohamed Aslam Haneef Prof., Ataul Huq Pramanik Prof., Mustafa Omar Mohamme Dr., Aliyu Dahiru Dr. Feb 2015

Integration Of Waqf And Islamic Microfiance For Poverty Reduction, Mohamed Aslam Haneef Prof., Ataul Huq Pramanik Prof., Mustafa Omar Mohamme Dr., Aliyu Dahiru Dr.

Aliyu Dahiru

This report presents the output of two-year collaboration between SESRIC and the Centre for Islamic Economics of International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM) on a research project that covered three OIC countries namely, Malaysia, Indonesia and Bangladesh. The research project aimed at developing an integrated Waqf-based Islamic microfinance model to optimize the use of combined resources of Waqf and Islamic microfinance institutions in OIC countries with a view to enhancing the effectiveness of IMF and Waqf institutions in addressing the socio-economic needs of the society, particularly through effective poverty alleviation programs. The report consists of four main sections. The first …


Examining The Relationship Between Received Remittances And Education In Malawi, Kasvi Malik Jan 2015

Examining The Relationship Between Received Remittances And Education In Malawi, Kasvi Malik

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines the relationship between received remittances and education using random samples from panel survey data from households in rural Malawi collected between 2008 and 2010. Past research as well as that conducted in this paper point to the fact that remittances and education share an important correlation. The results of this study indicate that on a microeconomic level, remittances have a highly significant and positive impact on household education. Other remittance-related factors such as the distance from agent, the remittance amount, and the type of account held by an individual also have a significant impact on the highest …


Impact Of Welfare Participation During Childhood On Adult Income, Curran A. Prettyman Jan 2015

Impact Of Welfare Participation During Childhood On Adult Income, Curran A. Prettyman

Lewis Honors College Capstone Collection

This paper analyzes the impact of welfare participation during childhood on adult income. In the United States, welfare programs have a long history originating from the 1800s, and over $20 billion are currently allocated to various anti-poverty programs, such as Aid to Families with Dependent Children and Supplemental Security Income. Many people believe that these programs effectively eradicate childhood poverty. However, ordinary least squares and instrumental variables regression models suggest welfare programs are counterproductive. On average, holding all else constant, with 95% confidence, the total dollar amount of funding received from welfare programs during childhood is statistically significant to a …


Breaking The Chains Of Poverty Among Filipino Households: Will It Be In This Lifetime?, John Paolo R. Rivera Jan 2015

Breaking The Chains Of Poverty Among Filipino Households: Will It Be In This Lifetime?, John Paolo R. Rivera

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) attributes persistent poverty in the Philippines to “weak macroeconomic management, employment issues, high population growth, an underperforming agricultural sector and unfinished land reform agenda, governance issues including corruption and a weak state, conflict and security issues, particularly in Mindanao, and disability” (Asian Development Bank [ADB], 2005, xvii). Despite copious and varied government initiatives to remedy the situation, however, Filipinos in the lower income deciles continue to suffer from the constant deprivation of basic necessities (Schelzig, 2005).