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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Self-Employment And Poverty In Developing Countries, Gary S. Fields
Self-Employment And Poverty In Developing Countries, Gary S. Fields
Gary S Fields
A key way for the world’s poor—nearly half of humanity—to escape poverty is to earn more for their labor. Most of the world’s poor people are self-employed, but because there are few opportunities in most developing countries for them to earn enough to escape poverty, they are working hard but working poor. Two key policy planks in the fight against poverty should be: raising the returns to self-employment and creating more opportunities to move from self-employment into higher paying wage employment.
Challenges And Policy Lessons For The Growth-Employment-Poverty Nexus In Developing Countries, Gary S. Fields
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 …
Aid, Growth And Jobs, Gary S. Fields
Aid, Growth And Jobs, Gary S. Fields
Gary S Fields
Various development objectives are worthy, but one objective merits special attention: reducing the scourge of absolute economic misery in the world. This study focuses on an important but relatively underemphasized approach to poverty reduction: helping the poor earn more in the labour market for the work they do, so that they can buy the goods and services they need to move up out of poverty. The core of the study is divided into three sections: defining the global poverty challenge and the world’s employment problem, presenting policy options for improving employment outcomes for the poor, and suggesting ways of choosing …
Changing Labor Market Conditions And Economic Development In Hong Kong, The Republic Of Korea, Singapore, And Taiwan, China, Gary S. Fields
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
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
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
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 …
[Review Of The Book Successes In Anti-Poverty], Gary S. Fields
[Review Of The Book Successes In Anti-Poverty], Gary S. Fields
Gary S Fields
[Excerpt] Michael Lipton has devoted a long career to studying and fighting poverty in the developing world. In this volume he talks about how to make anti-poverty programs work.
[Review Of The Book Resources, Values And Development], Gary S. Fields
[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
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
[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
[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
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 …
The Potential Role Of An Employment Guarantee Scheme In Korea's Social Safety Net, Gary S. Fields
The Potential Role Of An Employment Guarantee Scheme In Korea's Social Safety Net, Gary S. Fields
Gary S Fields
[Excerpt] Beginning in November 1997, the Republic of Korea underwent a devastating economic crisis. Declining macroeconomic conditions brought about major labor market disruptions in 1998: a quadrupling of unemployment, a fall of 9% in real wages, informalization of the remaining jobs, increased job insecurity, and rising poverty and inequality. Disadvantaged groups suffered a disproportionate impact. The result was not only economic misery but also social pain: increased homelessness, rising crime, heightened school dropouts, an accelerating divorce rate, and an overwhelming sense of social malaise. 1999 marked a major turnaround for Korea. GDP grew by 10.7%, and real wages are growing …
Assessing Progress Toward Greater Equality Of Income Distribution, Gary S. Fields
Assessing Progress Toward Greater Equality Of Income Distribution, Gary S. Fields
Gary S Fields
[Excerpt] Income distribution is only one indicator of economic well-being useful in gauging improvements in the economic position of the poor; change in income distribution, appropriately conceived and measured, is as good a criterion as any for assessing progress toward the alleviation of poverty. Income is intimately bound up with a family's command over economic resources. Rising modern-sector employment or reduced infant mortality might be suggestive of improvements in the economic position of the poor; gains in real income among low-income groups provide direct evidence that poverty is being alleviated. This chapter answers the following questions: What are the strengths …
Education And Income Distribution In Developing Countries: A Review Of The Literature, Gary S. Fields
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 …
Poverty Changes In Developing Countries, Gary S. Fields
Poverty Changes In Developing Countries, Gary S. Fields
Gary S Fields
[Excerpt] This chapter is concerned with measuring how the extent of poverty changes in a country over time. 'Poverty', as the term is used here, denotes the inability of an individual or a family to command sufficient resources to satisfy basic needs. The poverty line is a constant real amount below which people are said to be poor. The extent of poverty in a country is then based on variables such as the number who are poor and the extent of their resource shortfall. This chapter treats three topics: how poverty is defined, how much poverty there is, and how …
Poverty Measures And Anti-Poverty Policy, Francois Bourguignon, Gary S. Fields
Poverty Measures And Anti-Poverty Policy, Francois Bourguignon, Gary S. Fields
Gary S Fields
[Excerpt] Amartya Sen has made fundamental contributions to the study of distributional aspects of economic growth and decline. Among his pathbreaking works are his lectures on the economics of inequality (Sen, 1973), his article on the axiomatics of poverty measurement (Sen, 1976), and his book on anti-poverty policy in the context of famines (Sen, 1981). This paper is concerned with one of these areas, namely, the measurement of poverty and the implications for anti-poverty policy. In the 1960's and 1970's those who were working in the poverty field held a number of somewhat incompletely articulated views as to the extent …
Trade Strategies And The Poor: Adjusting To New Realities, Gary S. Fields
Trade Strategies And The Poor: Adjusting To New Realities, Gary S. Fields
Gary S Fields
[Excerpt] The major policy issue examined in this paper is that of a country's choice of a trade strategy in the context of helping the poor. As the end of the 1980s approaches, developing countries face a much more difficult economic situation than that which they confronted at the end of the 1970s. The paper begins by reviewing these new realities and the need for adjusting to them. After mentioning some non-policies, I proceed to consider both successful and unsuccessful country experiences and draw lessons from them. One policy singled out for special attention is wage policy and its interaction …
Employment Generation And Poverty Alleviation In Developing Economies, Gary S. Fields
Employment Generation And Poverty Alleviation In Developing Economies, Gary S. Fields
Gary S Fields
[Excerpt] We know well that the East Asian economies have achieved higher economic growth rates than those in any other region of the world and that production for world markets has featured as a hallmark of the East Asian successes. This paper has three purposes: first, to present comparative data showing that the rates at which employment opportunities improve and poverty is reduced mirror countries' differential growth experiences; second, to examine differences in labour market institutions, demonstrating that those in East Asia have similarities more likely to lead to higher output performance and shared improvements in living conditions; and third, …
Labor Standards, Economic Development, And International Trade, Gary Fields
Labor Standards, Economic Development, And International Trade, Gary Fields
Gary S Fields
[Excerpt] Higher real earnings at the fullest possible level of employment are the goals of those of us who work in the labor field. This paper addresses the role of labor standards in helping to achieve those goals. The United States government has two sets of interests in labor standards. The Department of Labor is supposed to "foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners of the United States, to improve their working conditions, and to advance their opportunities for profitable employment." The Agency for International Development seeks to "help the poor toward a better life" in a …
The Impact Of Government Policies On Urban Employment In Small Economies, Gary S. Fields
The Impact Of Government Policies On Urban Employment In Small Economies, Gary S. Fields
Gary S Fields
[Excerpt] Most of the policies intended to affect urban employment are not specifically employment policies nor are they specifically urban. Rather, the amount of urban employment, the composition of that employment, and the returns from it are determined by a whole host of policies. To review them all in a short paper is an impossible undertaking. The criterion by which I decided which policies to consider is policy-relevance, asking which set of policies is apt to have the largest impact on employment.
Long-Term Economic Mobility And The Private Sector In Developing Countries: New Evidence, Gary S. Fields, Walter S. Bagg
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 …
Reducing Poverty: The Overall Framework, Guy Pfeffermann, Gary S. Fields
Reducing Poverty: The Overall Framework, Guy Pfeffermann, Gary S. Fields
Gary S Fields
[Excerpt] How private firms contribute to economic mobility and poverty reduction and what governments can do to enhance their contribution is the theme of this book. We look first at the positive role the private sector plays in economic development, a role that has received less emphasis that that of other players. We then focus on the labor market and how various mechanisms in the economy interact to affect conditions for people as workers and as consumers. The volume examines the links among the business environment, private sector development, economic growth, poverty reduction, and economic mobility. Until recently, development economists …
Employment In Low-Income Countries: Beyond Labor Market Segmentation?, Gary S. Fields
Employment In Low-Income Countries: Beyond Labor Market Segmentation?, Gary S. Fields
Gary S Fields
[Excerpt] Throughout the world, there are fundamentally two, and only two, ways that people can escape from poverty. One is by earning their way out of poverty. The other is by receiving socially-provided goods and services that lift them out of poverty. Even with multilateral and bilateral assistance, low-income countries are too poor to be able to make a significant dent in poverty by the social services route alone. This means that creating more and better earning opportunities for the poor is the only other option available. In policy discussions, two mistakes are often made. One is to assume that …
Escaping From Poverty: Household Income Dynamics In Indonesia, South Africa, Spain, And Venezuela, Gary S. Fields, Paul L. Cichello, Samuel Freije, Marta Menéndez, David Newhouse
Escaping From Poverty: Household Income Dynamics In Indonesia, South Africa, Spain, And Venezuela, Gary S. Fields, Paul L. Cichello, Samuel Freije, Marta Menéndez, David Newhouse
Gary S Fields
[Excerpt] This study presents the main results of a larger, more technical report (Fields and others 2001) and subsequent work (Fields and others 2002) that analyzes income mobility in Indonesia, South Africa, Spain, and Venezuela. These economies were selected on the basis of the availability of panel data with which to analyze household income dynamics in the 1990s. By following households over time, we are able to investigate how households that were poor initially fared economically, relative to their richer counterparts. We can learn more about how and why households exit—and enter—poverty. To gauge income mobility, this study centers on …
Do Inequality Measures Measure Inequality?, Gary S. Fields
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 …
Reflections On My Immersion In India, Gary S. Fields
Reflections On My Immersion In India, Gary S. Fields
Gary S Fields
[Excerpt] Kalavati’s family derives all of its money from labor earnings. Her husband long ago worked for the Cannon textile mills when they were still making bath towels in India. Sixteen years earlier, the mill shut down, moving to a place where labor was even cheaper, and her husband lost his job. For fifteen years, he did not work. Then finally, he got a job where he works at night. He does not tell Kalavati where he works or how much he earns, nor does he contribute his earnings to the day-to-day expenses. (He does contribute to interest payments to …
Poverty Effects Of The Minimum Wage: The Role Of Household Employment Composition, Gary S. Fields, Baran Han, Ravi Kanbur
Poverty Effects Of The Minimum Wage: The Role Of Household Employment Composition, Gary S. Fields, Baran Han, Ravi Kanbur
Gary S Fields
A change in a country’s minimum wage will in general affect the number of workers in covered sector employment, uncovered sector employment, and unemployment. The impact of these labor market adjustments on absolute poverty will depend on how the pattern of employment composition changes within households and on how income is shared within households. An earlier paper (Fields and Kanbur, 2007) focused on the income-sharing dimension of the problem. The present paper focuses on household employment composition. For a particular structure of the labor market— one with good jobs, bad jobs, unemployment, and adult and youth workers— and with a …
Poverty And Low Earnings In The Developing World, Gary S. Fields
Poverty And Low Earnings In The Developing World, Gary S. Fields
Gary S Fields
More than three billion people are poor by international standards, and essentially all are to be found in the low- and middle-income countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The issues for understanding poverty in the developing world - among them, self-employment and household enterprises, agricultural work, casual employment, and informal work – differ from those in the developed world. Different policy issues predominate: stimulating economic growth, harnessing the energies of the private sector, increasing paid employment, and raising the returns to self-employment. This chapter details how the poorer half of the world’s people work and gives an overview of …