Inequality in South Africa: The distribution of income,expenditure and earnings

This article empirically analyses the state of inequality in South Africa. International comparisons show South Africa to be among the most unequal countries in the world. The levels of income inequality and earnings inequality are analysed with a range of measures and methods. The results quantify the extremely high level of inequality in South Africa. Earnings inequality appears to be falling in recent years, with relative losses in the upper-middle parts of the earnings distribution. Decomposing income inequality by factor source reveals the importance of earnings in accounting for overall income inequality. The article concludes by observing that, internationally, significant sustained decreases in inequality rarely come about without policies aimed at achieving that, and suggests that strong policy interventions would be needed to reduce inequality in South Africa to levels that are in the range typically found internationally.     

Employee job satisfaction in developing countries: The case of Kenya

Although developing countries that rely on agriculture continue to invest considerable amounts of resources toward the training of qualified agricultural manpower, the intensification of agricultural research, and the development of favourable agricultural policies, little attention is given to the organizational and social structure of the workplaces of the technical workers in agriculture. We argue that an understanding of what produces satisfied agricultural technicians is important in its own right, but is also important for indirectly increasing agricultural production in these developing countries. Following a social exchange theoretical argument, and using a national sample of technically trained agricultural personnel in Kenya, we identify the factors in the workplace that affect job satisfaction. Implications for management are drawn from these findings.     

China＇s Pattern of Growth： Moving to Sustainability and Reducing Inequality

I. Introduction China’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth has averaged 9.4 percent per annum since1978. As a result of this impressive growth, millions of people were lifted out of poverty. Economic reforms implemented over the last 25 years have certainly been instrumental in the remarkable growth performance, leading to higher productivity growth than in the pre- reform period. Nevertheless, it is widely agreed that China’s growth during this period has been resource intensive, drawing…     

Roles of Income Polarization,Income Inequality and Ethnic Fractionalization in Social Conflicts: An Empirical Study of Indonesian Provinces, 2002–2012

Previous studies have cited inequality as a major factor relating to conflicts in Indonesia, while consideration of polarization and fractionalization as drivers of conflict is limited. The current paper examined the roles of three indices (polarization, inequality and fractionalization) in explaining the incidence of conflicts in Indonesian provinces over 2002–2012. This study used income (proxied by expenditure) differences to measure polarization and inequality, with subnational data as the unit of analysis. In addition, to complete the analysis, the present study used a variety of socioeconomic indicators as additional control variables. This paper verified that the high degrees of income polarization, ethnic fractionalization and income inequality are associated with the high probability of conflicts in Indonesian provinces. It also found that socioeconomic factors such as poverty, unemployment, population and natural resources, as well as some types of local government spending are significantly associated with conflicts.     

Financial openness,financial sector development,and income inequality: With an extensive set of pull and push factors

This paper investigates the impact of financial openness on financial sector development and income inequality. We use the de jure and de facto measures of financial openness across 78 countries from 1980 to 2019. By employing a system generalized method of moments (GMM) with 5-year averaged data and a novel push and pull modeling framework, we obtain three key results. First, the de jure measure of financial openness exacerbates income inequality and is sensitive to banking crises and conflict intensity. Second, the de facto measure spurs stock value traded in emerging market economies (EMEs) and declines domestic credit in Africa. Third, the interaction between de facto measures with schooling and governance factors affects financial sector development and income inequality. We highlighted that the mere usage of the de jure measure and their interaction is incorrect. The key implication is that valuable information about the real impact of openness can be obtained from the de facto measures and their interaction with favorable macroeconomic fundamentals, governance factors, and adverse nonpolicy factors.     

儒家文化降低企业内收入不平等了吗——基于区域信任度与公平感的视角

在我国不断推动区域均衡发展和收入公平分配的背景下,传统文化是否能够促进企业内收入分配均衡并提供有益的启示？文章首先对儒家文化所产生的企业内收入分配效应进行了理论分析;其次,基于 2007-2020 年 A 股上市公司数据对企业内收入不平等程度进行准确测算,同时手工整理出唐代至清末存在过的书院位置信息与数量,并与上市公司注册地位置匹配以表征儒家文化的影响力;最后,综合利用固定效应模型、中介效应模型以及工具变量法分析了儒家文化对企业内收入不平等的影响及其作用机制。研究发现,儒家文化对企业内收入不平等有着显著的“抑制效应”,这一结论在进行一系列稳健性检验并控制内生性问题后依然成立。中介效应检验表明,儒家文化的影响越大,区域信任度和公平感则越强,企业内收入不平等程度越低。异质性分析结果显示,“抑制效应”在受儒家文化影响较弱的少数民族聚居的边疆省份和民营企业中表现不明显,并且随着西方文化的冲击而减弱。研究结论从正面肯定了儒家文化的当代价值,为缩小贫富差距贡献了中国智慧,也为推动实现区域共同富裕提供了新的视角与证据。     

The growth,poverty and inequality nexus in South Africa: Cointegration and causality analysis

This study empirically established the long-run relationship and causality effects that exist between growth, poverty and inequality. The analysis was carried out on a panel of nine South African provinces from 1995 to 2012. To capture poverty and inequality in a broader context, two measures of poverty (income and non-income) and three measures of inequality (income, education and land) were adopted for the study. The results confirm that there is a long-run relationship between growth, poverty and inequality. Notable results from the causality tests suggest that growth does not promote equal distribution of income in society but as income distribution begins to equalise, economic growth rises. This is regarded as growth–inequality disconnect. The unidirectional causality, which runs from income poverty to income inequality, suggests that a rising level of income poverty will lead to falling income inequality in the society; likewise, income inequality increases as non-income poverty declines.     

The Determinants of Labour-time Allocation between Farm and Off-farm Work in Rural China: the Case of Liaoning Province

This article examines the determinants of the allocation process of labour time between farm and off-farm activities (OFAs) in north-east rural China during the late 1990s. The question is addressed by means of a dedicated fieldwork survey of 450 rural households in a clustering of nine villages in Xinmin County located in Liaoning Province. The econometric methodology consists of deploying a multinomial logit model to track the distribution of OFA employment opportunities. Our results reveal that market forces, rather than overt political connections, are assuming increasing significance, especially for those operating own-account enterprises (OAEs); that birthplace and location remain potent determinants of work destination and earnings capacity; and that being male and single motivates rural inhabitants to seek OFAs to a much greater extent than other household members. These findings have implications for those responsible for framing policy. In particular, a further round of liberalization to favour OFAs is suggested.