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on Economic Growth |
| By: | Laura Policardo; Edgar J. Sanchez Carrera |
| Abstract: | The lack of data has challenged the study of the effect of wealth inequality on economic growth despite it being at the core of the international debate. Scholars have not found a unanimous effect of wealth inequality on economic growth for the last few years. In this paper, we provide a possible explanation of why wealth inequality might have a different effect on growth in different countries. So, we claim that a possible reason for such different effects could be the different socio-economic structure of the population and, more precisely, the level of economic segregation. We prove this effect with numerical simulations calibrated on accurate data. |
| Keywords: | Economic Growth; Wealth Inequality; Luxury Non-productive Assets; United States; France; Residential Segregation. |
| JEL: | D31 O47 O51 O52 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:frz:wpaper:wp2024_09.rdf |
| By: | Sefa Awaworyi Churchill (School of Economics, Finance and Marketing, RMIT University.); Simon Chang (University of Western Australia Business School, University of Western Australia.); Russell Smyth (Department of Economics, Monash University.); Trong-Anh Trinh (Centre for Health Economics, Monash University.) |
| Abstract: | This paper extends prior theory linking present-day sex ratios to present-day propensity for entrepreneurship among men backward in time to explore the long-run gender origins of entrepreneurship. We argue that present-day propensity for entrepreneurship among men will be higher in neighbourhoods which had historically high sex ratios. We propose that high sex ratios generate attitudes and behaviours that imprint into cultural norms about gender roles and that vertical transmission within families create hysteresis in the evolution of these gender norms. To empirically test the theory, we employ the transport of convicts to the British colonies of New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as a natural experiment to examine the long-run effect of gender norms on entrepreneurship in present-day Australia. We use a representative longitudinal dataset for the Australian population that provides information on the neighbourhood in which the participant lives, which we merge with data on the sex ratio in historical counties from the mid-nineteenth century. We find that men who live in neighbourhoods which had high historical sex ratios have a higher propensity for entrepreneurship. We present evidence consistent with the vertical transmission of gender norms within families being the likely mechanism. Arguments for policies to promote female entrepreneurship are typically couched in terms of gender norms representing a barrier to more women starting their own business. We present evidence consistent with gender norms contributing to gender differences in rates of entrepreneurship by being a spur for higher male entrepreneurship rather than a barrier to female entrepreneurship. |
| Keywords: | gender norms, sex ratios, entrepreneurship, Australia. |
| JEL: | I31 J21 J22 N37 O10 Z13 Z18 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mos:moswps:2024-11 |
| By: | Gustavo Pereira Serra (Department of Economics, Sao Paulo State University (UNESP), Brazil) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the economic effects of student loans in a segmented educational market. The motivation here draws upon some studies that verify differences in labor income returns and repayment difficulties depending on the characteristics of the institution attended by the student. I put forward a neo-Kaleckian model that considers three types of households: rentiers (RH), lower-skilled workers (LSW), and higher-skilled workers (HSW). Moreover, a cost-minimizing representative firm combines physical capital and labor in effective units in the production process, which also features some labor skill substitution, thus generating a bargaining process between the different worker groups and firms that determines the wage gap. The main result is that, for a debt-financed human capital investment, the conditions that drive long-term economic growth do not necessarily align with those that reduce the wage gap and household debt. In fact, in some cases, widening the wage gap may be a necessary condition for boosting economic activity and human capital accumulation. However, this investment might not reduce the wage gap and could raise concerns about household debt. |
| Keywords: | Household debt, student loans, capacity utilization, human capital |
| JEL: | E12 E22 E24 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:new:wpaper:2412 |