THE DRIVERS OF INCOME INEQUALITY IN RICH COUNTRIES

Rising income inequality has recently come centre‐stage as a core societal concern for rich countries. The diagnosis of the forces driving inequality upwards and their relative importance remain hotly contested, notably with respect to the roles of globalization versus technology and of market forces versus institutions and policy choices. This survey provides a critical review and synthesis of recent research. The focus is on income inequality across the entire distribution, rather than only on what has been happening at the very top. We pay particular attention to include what has been learned from the analysis of micro‐data, to ensure that the coverage is not unduly US‐centric and to analyses of the interrelations between the different drivers of inequality. The marked differences in inequality trends across countries and time periods reflect how global economic forces such as globalization and technological change have interacted with differing national contexts and institutions. Major analytical challenges stand in the way of a consensus emerging on the relative importance of different drivers in how income inequality has evolved in recent decades.     

EVALUATING DEVELOPMENT IN SMALL SUBNATIONAL AREAS OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

This paper focuses on problems of measuring and evaluating development for small subnational areas in a developing country. It has been stressed that the core of the problem is a lack of suitable tools to do the job, due to conditions of underdevelopment. Paucity of conventional economic data lead to difficulty in the computation of aggregates for gross domestic product (GDP) and most similar measures. The gap the paper hopes to bridge is the need to define "development" in quantitative terms for small subnational spatial areas with deficient data bases and traditional societies, against the paradox of the non-quantitative nature of development. Despite the staggering diversity of physical, ecological, political and socio-economic attributes in such areas, it is possible to formulate sufficient proxy indicators for evaluating development using physical, structural, demographic and socio-economic variables. This paper demonstrates that construction of a multivariate Composite Spatial Development Value Index (CSDVI) goes a long way in solving the problem of economic development evaluation under these data - deficient conditions arising from underdevelopment.     

A META-ANALYSIS OF FDI AND PRODUCTIVITY SPILLOVERS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

This meta-analysis reviews the intrasector heterogeneity of productivity spillovers from foreign direct investment (FDI) in 31 developing countries through a larger more comprehensive data set. We investigate how the inconsistencies in the reported spillover findings are affected by publication bias, characteristics of the data, estimation techniques, and empirical specification, analyzing 1450 spillover estimates from 69 empirical studies published in 1986–2013. Our findings suggest that reported FDI spillover estimates are affected by publication bias. In combination with model misspecification of the primary studies, the bias overstates the genuine underlying meta-effect, but the meta-effect remains economically and statistically significant. Our results emphasize that spillovers and their sign largely depend systematically on specification characteristics of the primary studies and publication bias. Publication bias is not caused by “best practice” choices. Future research needs to cover more developing countries and to investigate not only whether spillovers occur, but also to explore inside the black box of how spillovers actually emerge.     

TRANSITION OF THE HOUSING SECTOR IN THE EAST CENTRAL EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

The fall of socialism in 1989–1990 led to the end of the East European housing model, which was based on the limitation of property rights, extensive central planning and politically determined allocation of subsidies. This paper aims to present a clear picture of the current housing situation through a reliable information system. The major observation is that in the countries studied, the housing situation is relatively good; it is not housing shortage, but die inefficiency of the institutional system, affordability and deferred maintenance that are the main problems. Based on the idea of "enabling policies" - policies that facilitate the activities of the key stakeholders in the sector while providing an essential element of the social safety net - the paper establishes the goals and objectives that should guide the formulation of policy and institutional reforms within the sector, and defines priorities for actions to be taken by national and local governments and by international agencies in support of governments.     

GALTONIAN REGRESSION ACROSS COUNTRIES AND THE CONVERGENCE OF PRODUCTIVITY†

ABSTRACTS A Galton model, in logarithmic form is used to explain the convergence of countries' productivities over time, including β and σ convergence. The ‘regression fallacy’ does not arise. When comparing growths and levels of productivity, countries should be classified by their initial levels of productivity, preferably after logarithmic transformation. Errors in the data may justify using an error-in-variables model, or the geometric mean of the original and reverse regressions, but this is not certain.     

FULL OF EASTERN PROMISE - UNDERSTANDING HOUSING PRIVATIZATION IN POST-SOCIALIST COUNTRIES

In a period of economic transition, many commentators have identified the inefficiencies, distortions and inequalities which exist in the housing system of post-socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe. These structural flaws are deemed to be incompatible with the adoption of free market principles and economic liberalization. For economic and political reasons the reform of the housing system has become a necessary and indispensable element of the market reform process. This paper contributes to the growing debate on the context in which housing reform and housing privatization programs have been adopted in Europe's post-socialist economies. The paper goes on to argue that the introduction of housing privatization and the preoccupation with owner-occupation has not been based on any overall assessment of what has occurred elsewhere in western Europe or on the experience of housing provision in other advanced western capitalist countries. The economically driven orthodox approach towards privatization and the way this has been translated into the housing system of post-socialist countries raises important policy questions on the longer term viability of housing provision and the creation of a sustainable housing system.     

他山之石

相比世界上几个主要汽车消费国家和地区的召回制度,我们发现,《汽车产品召回监督管理条例（征求意见稿）》的尽快出台,已经迫在眉睫,因为中国已经成为世界第一汽车产销大国,而汽车和消费者的生命是如此的息息相关。相对于一些汽车企业对这项新法规“过严“的抱怨,我们也发现,召回法规的日益严苛已经是国际潮流,而我们所谓“过严”的法规实际上还是充分考虑国情,宽容有加的。     

IMPACT OF FINANCIAL INCLUSION IN LOW- AND MIDDLE-INCOME COUNTRIES: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF REVIEWS

Financial inclusion programmes seek to increase access to financial services such as credit, savings, insurance and money transfers. Despite a wealth of systematic review evidence, the impacts of financial inclusion are inconclusive. Hence, the first systematic review of systematic reviews was undertaken to synthesize the impacts of financial inclusion interventions on economic, social, gender and behavioural outcomes. Thirty-two systematic reviews were identified. The headline finding is that impacts are more likely to be positive than negative, but the effects vary, and appear not to be transformative in scope or scale, as they largely occur in the early stages of the causal chain. The effects of financial services on core economic and social poverty indicators are small and inconsistent. There is no evidence for meaningful behaviour-change outcomes. The effects on women's empowerment appear generally positive, but they depend upon programme features that are often peripheral to the financial service, and cultural and geographical context. Accessing savings opportunities has small but more consistently positive effects for poor people, and bears fewer downside risks for clients than credit. The inconsistent quality of the primary evidence base that formed the basis of their syntheses raises concerns about the reliability of the overall findings.     

THE EFFECTS OF HUMAN CAPITAL INTERVENTIONS ON ENTREPRENEURIAL PERFORMANCE IN INDUSTRIALIZED COUNTRIES

This paper provides a systematic review of studies on the effects of human capital interventions on entrepreneurial performance in industrialized countries. We identify 21 experimental and quasi‐experimental studies published before September 2018. These studies examine the effects of business training, formal education, and entrepreneurship education. Their performance outcomes include firm profits, firm size, and entrepreneurial earnings. The main finding across these studies is that these interventions do not have statistically significant effects. Formal education is the only exception, showing positive effects on firm profits and entrepreneurial earnings, yet these effects are small in magnitude. Evidence is inconclusive regarding effect duration. These findings stand in stark contrast to correlational studies, which tend to find large positive correlations between human capital interventions and entrepreneurial performance. We therefore conclude that correlational studies tend to overestimate the benefits of human capital interventions. Moreover, our estimates show that the interventions are associated with moderately low additionality.