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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
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Issue of 2006‒02‒05
four papers chosen by |
| By: | Jairo Nuñez; Silvia Espinosa |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the relationship between growth, poverty and income distribution using household data for Colombia for the years 1996 to 2004. We study the relationship between growth, inequality and poverty by following the Poverty Equivalent Growth Rate (PEGR) methodology developed by Kakwani and Khandker, which considers both the magnitude of growth and the degree to which the poor benefit from the growth process. We also carry out a decomposition of the changes in poverty to better understand the effects of growth, distribution and migration on poverty. Once we have explored pro-poor growth, we move on to study the pro-poorness of Colombia’s main social programs using Kakwani and Son’s “Pro-Poor Policy” index. The results show that growth in Colombia has generally been anti-poor, a consequence of high inequality in the urban sector and of low growth rates in the rural sector. Moreover, more than half of Colombia’s social programs are also anti-poor, benefiting the non-poor to a larger extent than the poor |
| Date: | 2005–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:001049:002371&r=ltv |
| By: | Javier Herrera (DIAL, Paris); Mireille Razafindrakoto (DIAL, Paris); Francois Roubaud (DIAL, Paris) |
| Abstract: | Public statistics face quite a challenge when it comes to measuring new dimensions of development (institutions, governance, and social and political participation). To take up this challenge, modules on Governance, Democracy and Multiple Dimensions of Poverty have been appended to household surveys by National Statistics Institutes in twelve African and Latin-American developing countries. This paper presents the issues addressed and the methodological lessons learnt along with a selection of findings to illustrate this innovative approach and demonstrate its analytic potential. We investigate, for instance, the population’s support for democratic principles, the respect for civil and political rights and the trust in the political class; the “need for the State”, particularly of the poorest; the extent of petty corruption; the reliability of expert surveys on governance; the perception of decentralisation policies at local level; the level and vitality of social and political participation, etc. The conclusive appraisal made opens up prospects for the national statistical information systems in the developing countries. The measurement and tracking of this new set of objective and subjective public policy monitoring indicators would benefit from being made systematic. |
| Keywords: | Africa, Latin America, Democracy, Monitoring Mechanism, Household Surveys, |
| JEL: | I31 I32 I38 H11 D73 O54 O55 |
| Date: | 2006–01–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:got:iaidps:136&r=ltv |
| By: | Claudia Goldin |
| Abstract: | The modern economic role of women emerged in four phases. The first three were evolutionary; the last was revolutionary. Phase I occurred from the late nineteenth century to the 1920s; Phase II was from 1930 to 1950; Phase III extended from 1950 to the late 1970s; and Phase IV, the "quiet revolution," began in the late 1970s and is still ongoing. Three aspects of women's choices distinguish the evolutionary from the revolutionary phases: horizon, identity, and decision-making. The evolutionary phases are apparent in time-series data on labor force participation. The revolutionary phase is discernible using time-series evidence on women's more predictable attachment to the workplace, greater identity with career, and better ability to make joint decisions with their spouses. Each of these series has a sharp break or inflection point signifying social and economic change. These changes, moreover, coincide by birth cohort or period. The relationship between the development of modern labor economics and the reality of women's changing economic role is explored. The paper concludes by assessing whether the revolution has stalled or is being reversed. Women who graduated college in the early 1980s did not "opt-out,"but recent cohorts are too young to evaluate. |
| JEL: | J1 J2 N3 |
| Date: | 2006–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11953&r=ltv |
| By: | Samuel Bowles (Santa Fe Institute, University of Siena and University of Massachusetts); Rajiv Sethi (Barnard College, Columbia University) |
| Abstract: | We explore the dynamics of group inequality when segregation of social networks places the initially less affluent group at a disadvantage in acquiring human capital. Extending Loury (1977), we demonstrate that (i) group differences in economic success can persist across generations in the absence of either discrimination or group differences in ability, provided that social segregation is sufficiently great, (ii) there is threshold level of integration above which group inequality cannot be sustained, (iii) this threshold varies systematically but non-monotonically with the population share of the disadvantaged group, (iv) crossing the threshold induces convergence to a common high level of human capital if the less affluent population share is suf- ficiently small (and the opposite, otherwise), and (v) a race-neutral policy that reduces the cost of acquiring human capital can expand the range over which reducing segregation can be Pareto-improving. JEL Categories: D31, Z13, J71 |
| Keywords: | segregation, networks, group inequality, human capital |
| Date: | 2006–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ums:papers:2006-02&r=ltv |