New Economics Papers
on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty
Issue of 2011‒04‒23
nine papers chosen by
  1. Happiness, habits and high rank: Comparisons in economic and social life By Andrew E. Clark
  2. The rise and fall of spatial inequalities in France: A long-run perspective By Pierre-Philippe Combes; Miren Lafourcade; Jacques-François Thisse; Jean-Claude Toutain
  3. Boon or Bane? Others' unemployment, well-being and job insecurity By Andrew E. Clark; Andreas Knabe; Steffen Rätzel
  4. Measuring Mobility By Frank A. Cowell; Emmanuel Flachaire
  5. The Turkish Wage Curve: Evidence from the Household Labor Force Survey By Baltagi, Badi H.; Baskaya, Yusuf Soner; Hulagu, Timur
  6. Latin America's Economic Challenges: Lessons for Emerging Economies By Nora Lustig; Jaime Ros
  7. Inequality and Poverty under Latin America's New Left Regimes By Darryl McLeod; Nora Lustig
  8. The Knowledge Bank and Poverty Reduction By Nora Lustig
  9. The Rise and Fall of Income Inequality in Latin America By Nora Lustig; Leonardo Gasparini
  1. By: Andrew E. Clark (EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris, IZA - Institute for the Study of Labor - IZA, PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS : UMR8545 - Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) - Ecole des Ponts ParisTech - Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris - ENS Paris)
    Abstract: The role of money in producing sustained subjective well-being seems to be seriously compromised by social comparisons and habituation. But does that necessarily mean that we would be better off doing something else instead? This paper suggests that the phenomena of comparison and habituation are actually found in a variety of economic and social activities, rendering conclusions regarding well-being policy less straightforward.
    Keywords: comparison ; habituation ; income ; unemployment ; marriage ; divorce ; health ; religion ; policy
    Date: 2011–04–14
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-00586049&r=ltv
  2. By: Pierre-Philippe Combes (GREQAM - Groupement de Recherche en Économie Quantitative d'Aix-Marseille - Université de la Méditerranée - Aix-Marseille II - Université Paul Cézanne - Aix-Marseille III - Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) - CNRS : UMR6579, EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris, PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS : UMR8545 - Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) - Ecole des Ponts ParisTech - Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris - ENS Paris); Miren Lafourcade (EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris, PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS : UMR8545 - Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) - Ecole des Ponts ParisTech - Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris - ENS Paris, Université de Valenciennes et du Hainaut Cambrésis - Université de valenciennes et du Hainaut Cambrésis); Jacques-François Thisse (EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris, CORE - Center of Operation Research and Econometrics [Louvain] - Université Catholique de Louvain, PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS : UMR8545 - Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) - Ecole des Ponts ParisTech - Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris - ENS Paris - INRA); Jean-Claude Toutain (ERMES - Equipe de recherche sur les marches, l'emploi et la simulation - CNRS : FRE2887 - Université Panthéon-Assas - Paris II, Université Panthéon Sorbonne - Paris 1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I)
    Abstract: This paper uses a unique database that provides value-added, employment, and population levels for the entire set of French departments for the years 1860, 1930, and 2000. These data cover three sectors: agriculture, manufacturing, and services. This allows us to study the evolution of spatial inequalities within France and to test the empirical relevance of economic geography predictions over the long run. The evidence confirms the existence of a bell-shaped evolution of the spatial concentration of manufacturing and services. In contrast, labor productivity has been converging across departments. Last, our study also confirms the presence of strong agglomeration economies during the full time-period. Market potential during the first sub-period (1860-1930), and higher education during the second (1930-2000), together with sectoral diversity, account for the spatial distribution of these gains.
    Keywords: economic geography ; agglomeration economies ; human capital ; economic history
    Date: 2011–04–15
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-00586214&r=ltv
  3. By: Andrew E. Clark (EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris, IZA - Institute for the Study of Labor - IZA, PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS : UMR8545 - Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) - Ecole des Ponts ParisTech - Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris - ENS Paris); Andreas Knabe (OvGU - Otto-von-Guericke - University Magdeburg - University Magdeburg, CESifo - CESifo); Steffen Rätzel (OvGU - Otto-von-Guericke - University Magdeburg - University Magdeburg)
    Abstract: The social norm of unemployment suggests that aggregate unemployment reduces the well-being of the employed, but has a far smaller effect on the unemployed. We use German panel data to reproduce this standard result, but then suggest that the appropriate distinction may not be between employment and unemployment, but rather between higher and lower levels of labour-market security. Those with good job prospects, both employed and unemployed, are strongly negatively affected by regional unemployment. However, the insecure employed and the poor-prospect unemployed are less negatively, or even positively, affected. We use our results to analyse labour-market inequality and unemployment hysteresis.
    Keywords: unemployment, externalities, job insecurity, well-being
    Date: 2011–04–14
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-00586022&r=ltv
  4. By: Frank A. Cowell (STICERD - London School of Economics); Emmanuel Flachaire (GREQAM - Groupement de Recherche en Économie Quantitative d'Aix-Marseille - Université de la Méditerranée - Aix-Marseille II - Université Paul Cézanne - Aix-Marseille III - Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) - CNRS : UMR6579)
    Abstract: Our new approach to mobility measurement involves separating out the valuation of positions in terms of individual status (using income, social rank, or other criteria) from the issue of movement between positions. The quantification of movement is addressed using a general concept of distance between positions and a parsimonious set of axioms that characterise the distance concept and yield a class of aggregative indices. This class of indices induces a superclass of mobility measures over the different status concepts consistent with the same underlying data. We investigate the statistical inference of mobility indices using two well-known status concepts, related to income mobility and rank mobility.
    Keywords: Mobility measures; axiomatic approach; inference
    Date: 2011–04–15
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00586269&r=ltv
  5. By: Baltagi, Badi H. (Syracuse University); Baskaya, Yusuf Soner (Central Bank of Turkey); Hulagu, Timur (Central Bank of Turkey)
    Abstract: This paper examines the Turkish wage curve using individual data from the Household Labor Force Survey (HLFS) including 26 NUTS-2 regions over the period 2005-2008. When the local unemployment rate is treated as predetermined, there is evidence in favor of the wage curve only for younger and female workers. However, if the lagged unemployment rate is used as an instrument for current unemployment rate, we find an unemployment elasticity of -0.099. We also find a higher elasticity for younger, less educated, low experienced workers than for older, more educated and more experienced workers. Another important finding is that the wages of females in Turkey are significantly more responsive to local unemployment rates than their male counterparts.
    Keywords: wage curve, fixed effects, instrumental variables, two-stage least squares
    JEL: J30 J60
    Date: 2011–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5633&r=ltv
  6. By: Nora Lustig (Department of Economics, Tulane University); Jaime Ros (Graduate School of Economics, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM))
    JEL: O10
    Date: 2011–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tul:wpaper:1112&r=ltv
  7. By: Darryl McLeod (Department of Economics, Fordham University); Nora Lustig (Department of Economics, Tulane University)
    Abstract: Inequality and poverty fell sharply in many Latin American countries during a decade in which voters in ten countries chose left-leaning leaders. Are these developments related? Using data for 18 Latin American countries, this paper presents econometric evidence that social democratic regimes in Brazil and Chile were more successful at reducing inequality and poverty than the so-called populist regimes of Argentina, Bolivia, and Venezuela. Both groups implemented policies to redistribute income, but the social democratic regimes' efforts were more effective. Argentina and Venezuela started the 1990-2008 sample window with lower levels of inequality, so to some extent recent reductions in inequality are a return to "normal" levels (as estimated by fixed effects). Conversely, inequality and poverty in Brazil and Chile fell to historic lows. Second, overall terms of trade shocks were more favorable to Argentina and Venezuela, so part of the drop in inequality can be attributed to commodity price booms.
    Keywords: poverty, inequality, left regimes
    JEL: O15 P16 I32
    Date: 2011–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tul:wpaper:1117&r=ltv
  8. By: Nora Lustig (Department of Economics, Tulane University)
    Abstract: The World Bank's (WB) mission and overarching goal is to reduce poverty. Moving ahead, what can the WB do to enhance its contribution to the poverty reduction agenda? This question can be answered from at least two perspectives: the WB as a lending institution and the WB as a knowledge bank. This article will concentrate on the latter and suggest two areas in which more and better information and analysis could help move the poverty reduction agenda forward: improving data on poverty and redressing poverty assessments to include the impact of fiscal policy on poverty and inequality.
    Keywords: poverty data, errors, gaps, inconsistencies
    JEL: O10
    Date: 2011–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tul:wpaper:1111&r=ltv
  9. By: Nora Lustig (Department of Economics, Tulane University); Leonardo Gasparini (Center for Distributional, Labor and Social Studies (CEDLAS) at Universidad Nacional de La Plata)
    JEL: O10
    Date: 2011–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tul:wpaper:1110&r=ltv
General information on the NEP project can be found at https://nep.repec.org. For comments please write to the director of NEP, Marco Novarese at <director@nep.repec.org>. Put “NEP” in the subject, otherwise your mail may be rejected.
NEP’s infrastructure is sponsored by the School of Economics and Finance of Massey University in New Zealand.
This page is being maintained by Thomas Krichel. It was last updated on 2024‒05‒02 at 13:08.