New directions in the analysis of inequality and poverty

Over the last four decades, academic and wider public interest in inequality and poverty has grown substantially. In this paper we address the question: what have been the major new directions in the analysis of inequality and poverty over the last thirty to forty years? We draw attention to developments under seven headings: changes in the extent of inequality and poverty, changes in the policy environment, increased scrutiny of the concepts of ‘poverty’ and inequality’ and the rise of multidimensional approaches, the use of longitudinal perspectives, an increase in availability of and access to data, developments in analytical methods of measurement, and developments in modelling

Towards Comparative and Aggregate Vulnerability: An Analysis of Welfare Distributions in Rural Provinces in Thailand and Vietnam

Several measures of vulnerability to poverty have been suggested in the literature. In practise, only little is known about the robustness of vulnerability comparisons based on these often quite specific measures. The theory of stochastic orders can be applied to shed some light on such issues. In the DFG research project "Impact of Shocks on the Vulnerability to Poverty: Consequences for Development of Emerging Southeast Asian Economies" (DFG FOR 756), an extensive panel survey was carried out in six rural provinces of Thailand and Vietnam in 2007. We establish cumulative distribution functions for income and consumption at the provincial level and search for stochastic dominance relations between these distributions. Our comparisons allow for initial, but quite robust conclusions on welfare and provide benchmarks for assessing the vulnerability to poverty in the research regions. --welfare distribution,stochastic ordering,vulnerability

International Trade Modeling Indices and Measurement Issues

Trade indices are used to measure different aspects of a country’s participation in world trade. Such indices range from Trade Openness Index (TOI) measuring the degree of openness of a country, to Commodity Concentration Index (CCI) and Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) measuring diversity and competitiveness of a country’s export basket. However, each index being a summary measure has its own limitation and specific use. One must, therefore, be extremely careful in drawing policy conclusions from the values of these indices obtained in the context of a given data set at hand.Internationa Trade, RCA, CCI

New Directions in the Analysis of Inequality and Poverty

Over the last four decades, academic and wider public interest in inequality and poverty has grown substantially. In this paper we address the question: what have been the major new directions in the analysis of inequality and poverty over the last thirty to forty years? We draw attention to developments under seven headings: changes in the extent of inequality and poverty, changes in the policy environment, increased scrutiny of the concepts of ‘poverty’ and inequality’ and the rise of multidimensional approaches, the use of longitudinal perspectives, an increase in availability of and access to data, developments in analytical methods of measurement, and developments in modelling.inequality, poverty, distribution of income

New Directions in the Analysis of Inequality and Poverty

Over the last four decades, academic and wider public interest in inequality and poverty has grown substantially. In this paper we address the question: what have been the major new directions in the analysis of inequality and poverty over the last thirty to forty years? We draw attention to developments under seven headings: changes in the extent of inequality and poverty, changes in the policy environment, increased scrutiny of the concepts of 'poverty' and inequality' and the rise of multidimensional approaches, the use of longitudinal perspectives, an increase in availability of and access to data, developments in analytical methods of measurement, and developments in modelling.Inequality, poverty, distribution of income

Regional Income Distribution in Portugal

The structural evolution of the European economy has shown a real convergence between countries and divergence between regions (Mateus et al., 2000), so the economic and social cohesion, namely the approach of the various territories in terms of standard of living is assumed like a primary objective of economic policy. Concerns about inequality in income distribution have gained importance, encouraging the various studies that address specially inequality among individuals [see the studies of Rodrigues (1994, 1999 and 2008)]. Our research aims to address the problem of inequality in income distribution from a different perspective and we want to answer questions like if geography influences the pattern of inequality, or if the Portuguese’s standard of living depends on the place of residence, and finally, if the spatial units that make up the Portuguese territory have been converging in terms of income in the process of growth. The aim of this paper (which emerges from my PhD Thesis) is to study the regional income differences among the regions and municipalities of Portugal. Our individuals are the territorial units. We intend to evaluate convergence or divergence in income growth using a static analysis, with conventional measures and other indicators, being aware the regional differences in economic performance. To meet the objectives set out, after the introduction, we present some considerations concerning the recent developments in the Portuguese economy, from a regional perspective, which represent the framework of socio-economic conditions that can justify the results in terms of inequality and convergence between the territorial units. Then, after a brief literature review and an analysis of income distribution among municipalities and among the NUTS III of Portugal, we present some inequality measures applied to municipalities’ monthly average wage for the period 1991-2002. Finally, we conclude with a synthesis of results and possible future developments in the context of this work. We find a growing inequality between regional incomes over the period 1990-2006. In our view, the distribution of earnings reflects only the actual distribution of economic activity in Portugal, particularly concentrated in the coastal and metropolitan areas of Lisboa and Porto. The economic specialization and level of education among the population of each territorial unit are also, of course, crucial for this asymmetry on earnings

Exact Configuration of Poverty,Inequality and Polarization Trends in the Distribution of well-being in Cameroon

This study attempts to carry out a comprehensive analysis of poverty, inequality and polarization trends using Cameroon household surveys collected before and during the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) process. The theoretical decomposition frameworks propelling the study are motivated mainly by the Shapley value. Empirical estimates are obtained from the software DAD 4.4 using both money-metric and child nutrition indicators, and poverty lines, with the monetary threshold derived nonparametrically. Effects within-zones account for much of monetary poverty changes than effects between-zones. The findings that inter-zone effects contribute to alleviating rural poverty while aggravating urban poverty, suggests the potential for rural–urban migration to alleviate rural poverty. Changes in money-metric poverty and health deprivation sharply contrast each other. While health poverty deteriorated, income poverty retreated. This is an indication that economic growth may not necessarily engender significant reduction in all dimensions of well-being. Changes in health poverty are driven largely by effects of redistribution, whereas for income poverty the growth component seems to be more important. Both income and non-income dimensions highlight the dominant role of within-group components in accounting for inequality trends. However, while the between-group contributions to inequality are negligible in the health dimension, they are non-negligible in the income space. In terms of levels, polarization and inequality are more of an urban than a rural problem, yet inequality and polarization worsened only in rural areas in the period 1996–2001. As a whole, polarization indices do not give dissimilar trends from standard measures of inequality. The conflicting results from income and health well-being indicators are attributable to the observation that the economic rebound in Cameroon was preceded by fiscal austerity measures embedded in the Structural Adjustment Programmes that engendered a decline in the availability of public goods. Moreover, health indicators are slow-moving compared with income or expenditure, which does not include the quality of service received from social expenditures on health and nutrition. These results have implications for policy making: in terms of income deprivation, emphasis could be on growth-based labour-intensive policies that create opportunities for the rural poor to increase their incomes; and in terms of child health and perhaps general health, emphasis could be on redistribution of health infrastructure and personnel to increase outreach.

Dynamics in the Fitness-Income plane: Brazilian states vs World countries

In this paper we introduce a novel algorithm, called Exogenous Fitness, to calculate the Fitness of subnational entities and we apply it to the states of Brazil. In the last decade, several indices were introduced to measure the competitiveness of countries by looking at the complexity of their export basket. Tacchella et al (2012) developed a non-monetary metric called Fitness. In this paper, after an overview about Brazil as a whole and the comparison with the other BRIC countries, we introduce a new methodology based on the Fitness algorithm, called Exogenous Fitness. Combining the results with the Gross Domestic Product per capita (GDPp), we look at the dynamics of the Brazilian states in the Fitness-Income plane. Two regimes are distinguishable: one with high predictability and the other with low predictability, showing a deep analogy with the heterogeneous dynamics of the World countries. Furthermore, we compare the ranking of the Brazilian states according to the Exogenous Fitness with the ranking obtained through two other techniques, namely Endogenous Fitness and Economic Complexity Index