We investigate whether income inequality affects subsequent growth in a cross-country sample for 1965-90, using the models of Barro (1997), Bleaney and Nishiyama (2002) and Sachs and Warner (1997), with negative results. We then investigate the evolution of income inequality over the same period and its correlation with growth. The dominating feature is inequality convergence across countries. This convergence has been significantly faster amongst developed countries. Growth does not appear to influence the evolution of inequality over time. Outline

https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/81822/1/02-28.pdf

Economic growth and income inequality

This paper describes the correlations between inequality and the growth rates in cross-country data. Using non-parametric methods, we show that the growth rate is an inverted U-shaped function of net changes in inequality: Changes in inequality (in any direction) are associated with reduced growth in the next period. The estimated relationship is robust to variations in control variables and estimation methods. This inverted U-curve is consistent with a simple political economy model, although, as we point out, efforts to interpret this model causally run into difficult identification problems. We show that this non-linearity is sufficient to explain why previous estimates of the relationship between the level of inequality and growth are so different from one another.

Inequality and Growth: What Can the Data Say?

Méthodes : Sur une série de 31 femmes présentant des varices périnéales d’origine extrasaphéniennes ayant bénéficié d’une exploration radiologique veineuse pelvienne et de l’embolisation des veines incontinentes nous avons étudié les résultats et les corrélations anatomo-clinique entre les varices et les signes cliniques de l’insuffisance veineuse pelvienne. Un sous-groupe B de 23 patientes présentant une insuffisance veineuse pelvienne et des signes cliniques a été comparé à un groupe A de 4 patientes qui ne présentaient pas d’insuffisance veineuse pelvienne à l’exploration. Nous avons choisi d’étudier 3 signes cliniques : la douleur pelvienne et la douleur des membres inférieurs survenant au début ou pendant les règles ainsi que la dyspareunie. La symptomatologie a été évaluée sur une échelle analogique de 0 à 10 et un score clinique (de 0 à 30) a été établi en ajoutant ces 3 chiffres.

http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/BF02973687.pdf

Références bibliographiques: La fibroscopie bronchique

This paper presents a critical review of the theoretical basis and empirical evidence for the popular practitioner idea that there are generational differences in work values. The concept of generations has a strong basis in sociological theory, but the academic empirical evidence for generational differences in work values is, at best, mixed. Many studies are unable to find the predicted differences in work values, and those that do often fail to distinguish between ‘generation’ and ‘age’ as possible drivers of such observed differences. In addition, the empirical literature is fraught with methodological limitations through the use of cross-sectional research designs in most studies, confusion about the definition of a generation as opposed to a cohort, and a lack of consideration for differences in national context, gender and ethnicity. Given the multitude of problems inherent in the evidence on generational differences in work values, it is not clear what value the notion of generations has for practitioners, and this may suggest that the concept be ignored. Ultimately, it may not matter to practitioners whether differences in the values of different birth cohorts reflect true generational effects, provided one can reliably demonstrate that these differences do exist. However, at present this is not the case, and therefore significant research is required first to disentangle cohort and generational effects from those caused by age or period. The suggestion that different groups of employees have different values and preferences, based on both age and other factors such as gender, remains a useful idea for managers; but a convincing case for consideration of generation as an additional distinguishing factor has yet to be made.

Generational Differences in Work Values: A Review of Theory and Evidence

What determines whether children grow up to be rich or poor? Arguing that parental actions are some of the most important sources of wealth inequality, Casey B. Mulligan investigates the transmission of economic status from one generation to the next by constructing an economic model of parental preferences. In Mulligan's model, parents determine the degree of their altruistic concern for their children and spend time with and resources on them accordingly—just as they might make choices about how they spend money. Mulligan tests his model against both old and new evidence on the intergenerational transmission of consumption, earnings, and wealth, including models that emphasize "financial constraints." One major prediction of Mulligan's model confirmed by the evidence is that children of wealthy parents typically spend more than they earn. Mulligan's innovative approach can also help explain other important behavior, such as charitable giving and "corporate loyalty," and will appeal to a wide range of quantitatively oriented social scientists and sociobiologists.

Parental Priorities and Economic Inequality

Since the early seventies, both the proportion in a generation of tertiary education graduates and the educational level of the working population have substantially increased in all developed countries as well as in most of the emerging economies. However more education has not meant more equality and the general upgrading of skills has coincided with growing within-country income inequality. Over the same period, intergenerational persistence of inequality has remained high in a large number of countries, and the differences in intergenerational mobility have remained significant across countries. In addition, several works reveal that intergenerational mobility is very low at both ends of the income and education spectrum. This shows (i) that under-education and poverty traps could exist, and (ii) that the same families constitute the best paid and the most educated group from one generation to the next. In a number of countries, the combination of intergenerational persistence (i.e., the hierarchy of families is maintained over time) and growing income and educational within-generation differences tend to create inegalitarian dynamics with a high social- and family-related determination.

/pdf/education-intergenerational-mobility-and-inequality-4ic6m21v5q.pdf

Education, Intergenerational Mobility and Inequality

Skill premia and intergenerational education mobility: the French case

In the last three decades, emerging countries have experienced a significant rise in growth, and thus in their real income per capita. After almost two centuries of ‘great divergence’ (Pomeranz, 2000; Pritchett, 1997) characterized by growth rates significantly higher in the North (developed countries) than in the South (developing countries), this surge in growth within a majority of less developed countries could open a new era of ‘great convergence’ on the World stage. Nevertheless, this has not coincided with a decrease in within-country inequalities. The increase in income inequality in the North is now well documented and it has been analysed in Chapter 1. In the South, the variations in within-country income inequality appear rather diverse (Wood, 1997).

/pdf/inequality-in-emerging-countries-2ygm6zmcbe.pdf

Inequality in Emerging Countries

Over the last 20 years, advanced economies have experienced an “unemployment versus inequality” tradeoff that is critically uneven across countries. To explain this, we propose an extended HOS model in which: the factors are skilled and unskilled labor; there is a continuum of goods; the world comprises two North countries (one egalitarian and one nonegalitarian) and the South; there is no factor price equalization; globalization consists in the South cornering a growing share of world production. In the North, globalization entails an inequality–unemployment tradeoff and the adjustment to globalization is more painful for the country that was initially inequality-oriented.

Joël Hellier

Papers

Education, Intergenerational Mobility and Inequality

Skill premia and intergenerational education mobility: the French case

Inequality in Emerging Countries

Globalization and the Inequality–Unemployment Tradeoff

Social mobility at the top and the higher education system