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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Economics

Selected Works

Gary S Fields

2011

Income distribution

Articles 1 - 9 of 9

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

[Review Of The Book Resources, Values And Development], Gary S. Fields Nov 2011

[Review Of The Book Resources, Values And Development], Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] Sen will not let us forget that development economics is a branch of social science. I expect that he will contribute as much to it in the future as he has in the past. For those wishing to join in the study of these issues, Resources, Values and Development would be an excellent place to start.


Who Benefits From Economic Development? - A Reexamination Of Brazilian Growth In The 1960'S, Gary S. Fields Nov 2011

Who Benefits From Economic Development? - A Reexamination Of Brazilian Growth In The 1960'S, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] The purpose of this paper is to reexamine one of these two challenges, namely, the distributional impact of Brazilian economic growth during the 1960's. My results lead to a quite different interpretation from the conventional one. I will show that the poor in Brazil did participate in the rapid economic growth of the decade. Estimates presented below indicate that average real incomes among families defined as poor by Brazilian standards increased by as much as 60 percent while the comparable figure for nonpoor families is around 25 percent. However, since nonpoor families receive incomes which are much greater than …


[Review Of The Book Income Distribution In Less Developed Countries], Gary S. Fields Nov 2011

[Review Of The Book Income Distribution In Less Developed Countries], Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] This book by R. M. Sundrum, a professor at the Australian National University and former director of the World Bank, is a compilation of issues, ideas, and data on income distribution in less developed countries (LDCs). Each chapter or section has something meaningful to say, and for this reason the book bears careful study. However, no overarching theme or approach is apparent, so the reader is likely to come away with numerous small lessons about distribution and development but few larger conclusions.


[Review Of The Book The Distribution And Redistribution Of Income: A Mathematical Analysis], Gary S. Fields Nov 2011

[Review Of The Book The Distribution And Redistribution Of Income: A Mathematical Analysis], Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] This book seeks "to bring together, in a single body, the many strands of formal analysis of income distribution and redistribution which have developed since the beginning of the 1970s" (p. ix). It does this beautifully. Peter Lambert has produced an eminently readable and instructive volume, suitable for researchers, practitioners, and students alike.


Who Benefits From Economic Development? Reply, Gary S. Fields Nov 2011

Who Benefits From Economic Development? Reply, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] Before the appearance of my 1977 paper in this Review, it was widely thought that the income distribution worsened during the economic growth which took place in Brazil during the 1960's. My paper demonstrated that the familiar data, when analyzed from an absolute perspective, could show that the poor had benefited from growth. I found that the entire income distribution shifted, benefiting every income class; that the proportion of the economically active population with incomes below the poverty level (as defined by Brazilian standards) declined during the decade; that those who remained poor were less poor than before in …


Education And Income Distribution In Developing Countries: A Review Of The Literature, Gary S. Fields Oct 2011

Education And Income Distribution In Developing Countries: A Review Of The Literature, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] This paper is a survey of the available literature on education and income distribution in developing countries. Education may affect the distribution of income in a variety of ways: by raising the level of income; by changing, for better or worse, the dispersion of income; by opening up new opportunities for the children of the poor and thereby serving as a vehicle for social mobility and/or, by limiting participation to the children of the well-to-do, transmitting intergenerational inequality; by offering greater access to favored segments of the population (boys, city-dwellers, certain racial groups); by rewarding differently the education received …


Growth And Distribution In The Market Economies Of East Asia, Gary S. Fields Oct 2011

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 …


The Measurement Of Income Mobility: An Introduction To The Literature, Gary S. Fields, Efe A. Ok Aug 2011

The Measurement Of Income Mobility: An Introduction To The Literature, Gary S. Fields, Efe A. Ok

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] Our main purpose in this survey is, therefore, to provide a somewhat unified setting within which the basic features of the theory of income mobility measurement can be outlined. Our aim is to provide a (subjectively) selective introduction to the literature on income mobility, and thereby shed some light on particular aspects of mobility measurement. Consequently, the present study should not be viewed as an exhaustive survey of the related literature. It is rather a very concise account of some key elements of the theory of income mobility measurement.


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 …