A note on poverty, inequality and growth

How inequality is generated and how it reproduces over time? This has been a major concern of social scientists for more than a century. The changes in aggregate or average income is a good measure for economic growth but is far from being the only one. There is an increasing “inequality” throughout the world. Over the period 1960-2000, the richest 5 % of the world’s nations averaged a per-capita income that was about twenty-nine times the corresponding figure for the poorest 5 %. Poverty also affects other forms of economic and social functioning. The measurement of poverty is based on the notion of poverty line, which is constructed from monetary estimates of minimum needs. Poverty is highly correlated with the lack of education, and there is an intimate connection between nutrition and poverty. The measurement of inequality is a highly controversial one. It is a field in which there are large differences in social judgments, which translate themselves into differences in social judgments, such as the measure of inequality or the choice of equivalence scale. Social and Economic indicators demonstrate the data for the population based measures on economic, social and health outcomes and answer the question about inequality and well being. This article attempts to examine the relationship between inequality and the process of socio-economic development and also to overview the theories of income inequality and to measure the income distribution and moreover to investigate the role and the effects on socio-economic growth. Keywords: Income distribution, inequality, poverty, convergence, growth.

Enterpreneurship and innovation activites in the schumpeterian lines

The importance of diffusion of technology for economic growth has been emphasised by economic literature. Much of the recent work on economic growth can be viewed as refining the basic economic insights of classical economists. The recent debate on the determinants of output growth has concentrated mainly on the role of knowledge, typically produced by a specific sector of the economy, and furthermore in the role of entrepreneurship and the implications on economic growth. This paper attempts to examine the role of entrepreneurship, and those of innovation activities (technical change, research and development and diffusion of technology) and the effects of output growth, according to the Schumpeterian lines. Following on the Schumpeterian tradition, this paper starts from the recognition that there are two main patterns of innovations: the first one is the creative destruction pattern and the second one is a creative accumulation pattern. Also, it emphasizes the role of entrepreneurship and the impact of the diffusion of technology in the inter-country and international economic contexts using some of the empirical implementation of epidemic, probit analysis and moreover from technological substitution models. Key Words: Entrepreneurship, Innovation Activities, Diffusion, Modernization, Competitiveness, Schumperer.

Economic Geography and Regional Growth: An Empirical Evidence From Greece

There is a huge literature regarding the main determinants and sources of economic growth. Most of the recent work emphasizes on the role of knowledge, and innovation activities typically produced by a specific sector of the economy, and furthermore in the role of entrepreneurship and analysing the implications and the importance for economic growth. Moreover, the socio-economic and public policies aimi to distinguish the determining factors of growth, in order to enhance the regional cohesion and the convergence process. Much of the recent work on regional growth can be viewed as refining the basic economic insights of economic geography. There are two principal theories of why growth rates are differ, the first is the theory of comparative advantage and the second is the theory of increasing returns to scale. This paper attempts to examine the main sources of regional growth through an inter-and intra sectoral analysis. In particular, the paper attempts to investigate through an empirical inter-comparison study using statistical-data from several Greek regions, the determinant sectoral factors and the implications to growth process. We also employ the empirical non-parametric analysis. We find support for the existence of economic geography effects in several manufacturing sectors and moreover we find that these effects are economically very significant.

Peripheral Regions in Duress: Counter-Social Capital Impediments of Local Development in Rural Greek Areas

Unlike most enthusiastic narratives of various success stories in recent North European regional economic development led by innovation, localized learning, social capital and institutional embeddedness, this paper deals with a set of major stresses and problems of local economic development in peripheral, less favoured, regions. By drawing upon concrete research experience of regional development projects we try to shed light upon the processes of spatio-economic change and the management of local production in connection with prevailing cultural attitudes/values in less developed Greek rural areas. attidudes/values constituting a kind of localized “counter-social capital†deposit that impedes any likely innovative local development initiatives. The paper argues that the major problems facing these areas are not only or solely associated with the effects of market economy restructuring and the operation of macroeconomic and macropolitical forces at the regional and local level, but, also with inadequate management of human skills, lack of productive mentality and negative cultural values and attitudes. The policy relevance of our analysis calls for the elaboration of alternative development strategies aimed rather at enchancing local social capital potentialities than at improving hard infrastructures and providing financial incentives to local firms.

Central London under Reconstruction Policy and Planning, 1940-1959

The thesis deals with the formation of the post-Second World War reconstruction and planning machinery in Great Britain on the one hand, and on the other, with the replanning efforts undertaken in London and especially the redevelopment programme regarding its central area in the form of the comprehensive development projects. The central hypothesis is that, although the planning thought, legislation and technique realised significant evolutionary steps by introducing important innovatory instruments and bold planning concepts, the rebuilding of Central London was not a success to a comparable extent. This divergence between concept, plan and outcome was mainly due to the difficulties faced during the implementation stage as a result of financial problems and, in addition, to the way that the application of aspects of Modern Architecture in some of the new buildings were carried out. The work is structured in three parts. The first one, under the title "Reconstruction and Planning Machinery", explores the administrative and statutory developments in town planning matters during the period 1940-1959. The conclusion of this analysis is that, because of the sweeping character of the new planning system which was introduced, a contradiction had emerged due to the pluralistic character of the British socio-economic system. The second part has the title “Replanning London” and deals with the plans proposed for London as a whole during the 1940s. The main finding was that the six plans which were proposed could be considered as sections of one planning endeavour. These plans have a unified and continuous character, although each one had been prepared by a different team of planners. Finally, the third part, under the title “Redeveloping Central London”, examines the proposals for the rebuilding of the City of London and for specific areas of Central London located on both sides of the Thames. The main conclusion of this analysis is that, although these projects introduced innovations concerning the control of urban dencities, and the hygiene of residence and office accommodation in the city centre, they failed to achieve one of their main targets. This was the unification of both parts of Central London located at the north and south banks of the Thames

Low carbon technologies integration in smart low voltage network

The impacts of Low Carbon Technologies (LCTs), with emphasis on Electric Vehicles (EVs) and Heat Pumps (HPs), on the low voltage (LV) network were analyzed. The United Kingdom (UK) has a legally mandated policy concerning reduction of greenhouse gasses (GHGs) emissions. Therefore, the integration of LCTs especially EVs and HPs at the LV network is expected to increase in the drive to reducing the GHGs emissions. Future uptake scenarios, adapted from the National Grid studies, of EVs and HPs were developed for the LV network under study. Gridlab-D, an agent based power system simulation software, was employed to model a real urban LV network. The model was run for four different scenarios considering seasonal load profiles and projected EVs and HPs uptakes for each of the year 2020 and 2030 respectively. The results were analyzed in terms of transformer loading, voltage profiles of the feeders, and the ampacity loading of the cables for the different scenarios for the year 2020 and 2030 respectively