Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Intergenerational Comparison Of Inequality And Standard Of Living, Jillian Cookinham

Honors Theses and Capstones

This paper encompasses how inequality and standard of living have changed intergenerationally. Existing research and a regression analysis examine how income, corporate profits, housing, education, retirement, and health insurance are interconnected in American inequality and standard of living. Data analyzed in the regression includes the period of 1990 to 2021. However, the literature review extends back to 1970. Findings from existing research and regression analysis are used to provide policy recommendations on how the federal government may improve inequality by addressing the housing shortage, revising the tax system, and encouraging automatic enrollment in retirement plans.

On Income Inequality And Poverty In Egypt: Is Prosperity Immoral?, Mohamed Karim Lotfy Abdelkhalek

Theses and Dissertations

There are varying perspectives on, and divergent solutions to, the phenomena of income inequality and poverty. There seems to be polarizing views on both of these sensitive topics. One side of the argument believes income inequality should in itself be mitigated through redistribution measures, while the other argues that this should not be the focus of policy makers, as it deters them from facing the more pressing issue facing society – which is absolute poverty. The relationship between income inequality, poverty, and citizen well-being in Egypt is one that warrants further research, and this paper aims to fill this lacuna. …

The Paycheck Protection Program's Effect On Real Estate Prices, Someswar Amujala

CMC Senior Theses

This paper investigates the relationship between the Paycheck Protec- tion Program (PPP) and real estate price increases. The Paycheck Protection Program was established by the Small Business Association in 2020 to pro- vide forgivable loans to businesses to aid with potential losses from COVID- 19 impacts. I leverage zip code level data across the United States and a fixed effects panel data model to quantitatively measure the PPP’s influence on housing and rental prices. I find a positive and significant relationship between the number of PPP loans disbursed and housing and rental rates. Specifically, a 1% change in the number …

Income Inequality And Consumption Pattern Among Bop Consumers In India, Sarath Sennimalai, S D. Sivakumar

International Review of Business and Economics

Marketing discipline has evolved through the context of the industrialized or developed world. However, the largest groups of consumers are also the poorest (Bottom of the Pyramid category) and economic inequality is still persisting among BOP consumers. Using the Gini co-efficient, economic inequality was measured with the help of World Bank report. The main aim of this paper is to know about the trends that took place in income inequality and consumption pattern among BOP consumers based on household surveys (from NSSO and World Bank). It shows that income inequality among BOP consumers has been increasing simultaneously with increase in …

Backfire: How The Rise Of Neoliberalism Facilitated The Rise Of The Far Right, Jacob Fuller

Capstone Showcase

The U.S. far right has become increasingly mainstream in contemporary American politics. In this paper, I analyze the theory that the far right has gained ground due to a backlash from neoliberal policies beginning in the 1980s under Ronald Reagan. Using Process tracing, I operationalize claims made by those arguing that the white working class has moved towards the far right due to their loss of status, as well as the theory that specific wealthy actors have mobilized these groups and altered the movement against neoliberalism to suit their interests. I find that these arguments have merit, and further the …

Investigating The Role Of Income Inequality In The Impact Of Natural Disasters In Lower Middle-Income Countries, Madison L. Graham

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Addressing Urban Income Inequality Through Education: A Case Study In Atlanta, Garrett Bronn

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

For decades, the income inequality gap between the rich and poor has continued to expand dramatically, with criticism of existing education systems often at the heart of the issue. Large urban cities are commonly at the forefront of the issue, given the plethora of teacher strikes in recent years. Events such as the 11-day Chicago teacher’s strike in October of 2019 that idled academics and college prep for 350,000 students, have highlighted many current education issues (Hauck, 2019). With underfunded and poorly equipped middle and high schools, students in poor and minority neighborhoods in cities are less prepared academically, ill …

Building An Equitable And Inclusive City Through Housing Policies: Singapore's Experience, S Y Phang

PHANG Sock Yong

No abstract provided.

The Distributional And Countercyclical Effects Of Public Capital Investment In Transportation Infrastructure, Matthijs B. Schendstok

Theses and Dissertations--Economics

While the long run productivity of federal highway infrastructure spending has been well researched, their short run effects and effects on income inequality. This dissertation explores those under-researched unconventional effects.

In the first chapter, I investigate the effects of federal infrastructure grants on income inequality. I find that grants reduce inequality in both recipient and neighboring states. The reduction is driven by greater income among the bottom three income quintiles. I explore two mechanisms using person level data and find that the reduction in inequality is attributable to higher income for low-skilled workers and workers working in low-skilled industries.

In …

On The Relation Between Income Inequality And Economic Growth: An Asymmetric Analysis, Amid Motavallizadeh Ardakani

Theses and Dissertations

Economic growth and income inequality are two prominent topics in development economics due to their close relation to social stability. The main objective of this thesis is to investigate the short-run and long-run dynamics between income inequality and income growth. Additionally, it is important to consider the dynamic between income inequality and income volatility. This investigation fills a gap in the literature by examining whether changes in income, as well as changes in income volatility, have asymmetric effects on income distribution. The study of asymmetric impacts is critical because it might not be always true that economic booms and busts …

Living With Robots: Automation And Income Inequality In The 21st Century, Michael Dickson

Global Honors Theses

The increasingly automated nature of manufacturing and service industries poses difficulties a majority of the world’s employed population. This creates an automative industrial revolution driven by advanced computing systems and increasingly independent robotic technologies. Losing employment in industrial revolutions such as this one poses threats to the established population. The replacement of obsolete work with new, more valuable work has not been observed in this case, presenting the problem of extreme unemployment to the nations of the world that was not a problem in past industrial revolutions. In order to counter the effects of mass unemployment, several groups have proposed …

An Analysis Of Income Inequality Reduction In Brazil Under President Lula Da Silva, Victoria Rose Belcher

Senior Theses

This thesis analyzes trends in income inequality reduction across different regions of Brazil from 2000 to 2010. This period was selected because it was a period of consistent economic growth and national inequality reduction, as measured by the GINI Index, as well as a period that witnessed the introduction of new government policies by President Lula da Silva. This thesis provides extensive background information about Lula’s presidency and income inequality in Brazil before conducting an economic analysis of the trends in income inequality reduction through the country. This thesis concludes that the trend of inequality reduction favored certain regions of …

Worker Cooperatives As An Innovative Strategy To Address Income Inequality?, Bryan Titzler

Stevenson Center for Community and Economic Development—Student Research

This project explores the relation between the magnitude of the cooperative sector and the degree of income inequality in a country. After a somewhat selective consideration of the possible linkages between the size of the cooperative sector and income inequality, and using Gini as the primary measure for income inequality and two proxies for the size of the cooperative sector, an empirical exploration is done in three ways. First, simple plots are used to judge the gross relation between Gini and each of the two proxies for the size of the cooperative sector. Both plots show a perceptible negative relation. …

Determining The Effect Of The Minimum Wage On Income Inequality, Benjamin S. Litwin

Student Publications

Many recent studies have shown a significant increase to income inequality since the 1980s. One of the proposed methods for fixing this trend is to increase the minimum wage, since this policy would help those at the low end of the income spectrum to see economic growth. To analyze the effectiveness of this policy, we studied data from countries that are part of the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation. By forming an econometric model to account for many factors that affect income inequality in nations around the world, including the real value of the minimum wage, we can determine …

Do Living Wages Alter The Effect Of The Minimum Wage On Income Inequality?, Benjamin S. Litwin

Gettysburg Economic Review

Anker (2006) proposed a new methodology for calculating the living wage in countries around the world. By looking at OECD nations between 2000-2010, we look to see if countries with a national minimum wage higher than this living wage value see a notable difference in the effect of the minimum wage on income inequality. Our results show that countries with the minimum wage higher than the living wage value do see lower inequality, although there is a key value of the minimum wage, at which countries start to see disemployment effects that increase inequality.

Essays On Income Inequality, Minority Health And Healthcare Spending, Rui Cheng

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This set of essays addresses issues related to income inequality, public healthcare supply and population health. Income inequality has been found to affect health in a number of studies. Using data from Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), a telephone survey of adults in the United States, the first chapter of my dissertation studies the effect of state level and county level income inequality on health status and the pathway via public health spending. By using multiple imputation method applied to BRFSS income data, it derives synthetic Gini coefficient at state level and county level for each year from 2000 …

Low-Income Housing Development, Poverty Concentration, And Neighborhood Inequality, Matthew Freedman, Tamara Mcgavock

Matthew Freedman

An Examination Of The Correlation Between Educational Attainment And Upward Economic Mobility Within And Without ‘High Tech Clusters’ In The Us In 2012, Hannah Cecilia Oakley

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Three Essays On The Economics Of Defense Contracting, Output And Income Inequality, Edward M. Decambra

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes both the economics of the defense contracting process and the impact of total dollar obligations on the economies of U.S. states. Using various econometric techniques, I will estimate relationships across individual contracts, state level output, and income inequality. I will achieve this primarily through the use of a dataset on individual contract obligations.

The first essay will catalog the distribution of contracts and isolate aspects of the process that contribute to contract dollar obligations. Accordingly, this study describes several characteristics about individual defense contracts, from 1966-2006: (i) the distribution of contract dollar obligations is extremely rightward skewed, …

Distribution And Debt: How Consumption And Household Debt Can Affect Economic Growth, Jeremy Rees

Senior Theses and Projects

Over the past 30-40 years, consumer debt has grown substantially faster than income in the United States. As a result, consumption has grown fast relative to national income. The economic growth that we have experienced in the US economy has shown to be unreliable as demonstrated by the Great Recession in 2007-2008. By creating unstable growth, consumer behavior could be an explanation behind the recession as well as the cause of future economic downturns. This paper implements a new theory of consumption practices and tests for the stability of economic growth and sustainability of consumer debt by using a neo-Kaleckian …

Does Educational Inequality Explain Income Inequality Across Countries?, Claudia Petcu

Honors Projects

A wide variety of studies support the notion that income inequality has detrimental effects on a country’s economic growth, levels of trust in government, and even health of its citizens. Throughout economics literature, numerous researchers have endeavored to explain the variance in income inequality across countries. One notable area of inquiry examines how dispersion in education of the labor force impacts income inequality, but it generally yields ambiguous and inconsistent results. This paper examines income inequality as a function of educational inequality in a cross-sectional analysis. It attempts to improve on previous research by utilizing more recent data such as …

Occupy This: The Effect Of Income Inequality On Gdp Per Capita Growth Using Panel Data In The United States From 1963 To 2009, Dylan B. Lee

CMC Senior Theses

Income inequality and its relationship to long-term GDP per capita growth has been researched for decades since the development of the Kuznet’s Curve. Theoretical and empirical research has shown mixed results including positive, negative, non-existent, or statistically insignificant relationships. Empirical research on income inequality and economic growth in the United States has also shown mixed results. In addition to using existing data, this paper uses originally-constructed Gini Coefficients from 2005 to 2009. A statistically significant negative correlation between income inequality, and both short-term growth and long-term growth is found in the analysis of this data. Finally, this paper attempts to …

Integrated Overview, Case-Studies And Analysis: Income Inequality In Latin America, Post-1980, Aaron R. Campbell

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis provides an integrated overview on the historical and contemporary literature dedicated to the study of within-country income inequality in Latin America.

The central hypothesis of this report is that there are underlying factors that drive the persistent levels of high within-country inequality experienced by Latin American countries. We study two countries, Brazil and Bolivia, through the process of reform and growth, and note the effects on the labor markets.

Using all available statistics and the wealth of knowledge compiled since the early 1980s, this study identifies those trends, and the factors that cause them to reappear in numerous …

Income Inequality And The Probability Of Violent Revolt, Noah Cecil

Honors Papers

This paper examines the effect of income inequality on the impetus of an organized dissident group to initiate a "revolt" in an attempt to wrest power from the government regionally or countrywide. After suggesting alterations and extensions of a mathematical framework developed by Blomberg, Hess, and Weerapana (2004) income inequality, economic growth, urbanization, and political rights data from 102 countries from 1972-1999 are used to determine their respective influences on the likelihood of a revolt being initiated in a given year. Income inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient is found to be statistically significant in determining the likelihood of …