DIVERGENT INEQUALITIES: THEORY AND EMPIRICAL RESULTS

Widely used summary measures of inequality or the idea of the "disappearing middle class" are potentially misleading. Divergences between evidence cited and conclusions drawn include failing to distinguish between the concepts of inequality and polarization, and using scalar "inequality" measures which are not consistent with rankings based on Lorenz curves. In addition, inappropriate claims about trends in inequality can arise from focusing on only a sub-population such as full-time male workers, and failing to account for sampling variability. These divergences are illustrated using Canadian data on labour incomes over the 1967 to 1994 period.     

CHINESE REGIONAL INEQUALITIES IN INCOME AND WELL-BEING

Dividing China into seven regions reveals rural income and consumption divergence for both 1980–2005 and 2000–05. But while real rural consumption growth averaged 7.7 percent over 1985–2005 in the eastern coastal region, it averaged 6.5 percent uniformly in the interior. In evaluating well-being, such rapid improvement in all regions arguably overshadows negative connotations of divergence. Twenty years of household survey data reveal dramatic increases in rural household savings, as rural consumption improved more slowly than income in some periods. This raises questions about the suitability of consumption as a basis for measuring well-being and its distribution. Increased savings appear to be transient, as some households save while others dissave to purchase durables and afford lumpy services like education and healthcare—supplies of which became more plentiful in the 1990s. The paper argues that more meaningful measures of regional disparities come from differences in regional poverty headcounts. It also suggests that higher regional inequality and accompanying interregional migration indicate that inequality plays an important positive role in inducing economic actors voluntarily to move to more productive locations and activities as a mechanism for ensuring sustainable improvements in individual well-being.     

SELF EMPLOYMENT AMONG GRADUATES

An econometric model of the self employment decision is estimated for a large sample of UK graduates. Although the earnings distributions suggest that there are incentives to be self employed, the difference in the predicted earnings that an individual receives in the self employed and employed sectors is not a significant influence on the choice of sector and the decision depends on personal and social factors. Policies based on changing the pecuniary returns may not encourage the growth of self employment among graduates. The econometric results also suggest that the self employed are a non-random subset of the graduate workforce., revision accepted August 1989     

HOUSEHOLD CONSUMER EXPENDITURE INEQUALITIES IN INDIA: A DECOMPOSITION ANALYSIS

The objectives of this study are to decompose household consumer expenditure inequalities in India by regions (states) and sectors (urban-rural) for the years 1977–78 and 1983 based on the National Sample Survey data. A class of Generalised Entropy measures is used. Our results consistently indicate that the inequality within states contributes much more towards national inequality and within-sector inequality explains a large part of state level inequality. The inequality at state levels has shown a decline from 1977–78 to 1983 due to a better monsoon season in 1983, and anti-poverty programmes.     

ASSESSING INCENTIVE-BASED ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES FOR REDUCING HOUSEHOLD WASTE DISPOSAL

In residential solid waste management, the United States has a great deal of experience in applying incentive-based environmental policy in the form of unit pricing. This study examines the two most common forms of unit pricing practiced in the United States. It offers intuition and empirical evidence suggesting divergence of theoretical expectations and actual outcomes regarding the effects of switching to unit pricing. Data collected from households in Marietta, Ga. during a solid waste pricing experiment serve as the basis for the analysis.     

黄金行业中的"千足金"专访紫金矿业集团股份有限公司董事长兼总裁陈景河先生

陈景河先生,教授级高级工程师,现任紫金矿业股份有限公司董事长兼总裁,兼任中国黄金协会副会长,福建省黄金协会理事长,中国矿业联合会主席团主席等职,陈先生是福建省突出贡献企业家,福建省劳动模范,全国优秀科技工作者和国务院政府特殊津贴获得者,也是公益事业的热心资助者,2007年设立1000万元的"陈景河慈善教育基金会",资助与教育慈善有关的公益活动。     

城乡链接与农民合作

30年前的改革使农村土地所有权和经营权分离,并建立了两权分离架构下的家庭联产承包责任制度,以家庭为单位的小农经济体在生产要素市场化、人才城市化和资本全球化的多重压力下前途不明。农村的“原子化”倾向使社区文化和社会价值的再生产难以为继。这些困境促使我们对以城市、以资本为主体的发展方案进行反思。寻求生产者联合和农村社区文化重建的探索已经开始。这些宝贵的探索对21世纪中国的“三农”前途、对城乡关系的调整以及对重新认识和定义“发展”,具有重大的理论和实践意义。     

COMPARING ECONOMIC WELL-BEING AMONG ELDERLY AMERICANS

Income-only and income-net worth measures of elderly economic well-being are derived from a single public welfare function-optimizing model of household production and intertemporal resource allocation. These measures are estimated with data on United States elderly in 1984 from the Survey of Income and Program Participation. The income-net worth measure also incorporates independently estimated work-life expectancies and earnings replacement rates. Under both measures, minority, moderately disabled, and unmarried female elderly are the poorest sub-populations. Increasing poverty with age is found under the income-only measure, but not the income-net worth measure.     

COORDINATION INCENTIVES UNDER COMPLEMENTARY COST‐REDUCING TECHNOLOGIES*

This paper focuses on the optimal regulation regarding technology transfer and mergers in a duopoly model where two complementary technologies can be developed. On the one hand, we show that there are cases where a prohibitive policy regarding (cross) licensing agreements can be socially desirable. On the other hand, our analysis stresses that, in many cases, there are important coordination problems that cannot be overcome by means of cross‐licensing agreements and merger is the optimal policy.     

MEDICARE AND INEQUALITIES IN HEALTH OUTCOMES: THE CASE OF BREAST CANCER

This article evaluates whether expanding Medicare to cover those between ages 55 and 64 will improve the health status of these near-elderly individuals. We compare the experiences of near-elderly and elderly women with breast cancer and pay special attention to those demographic groups traditionally thought to be disadvantaged. Using unique individual-level data from the National Cancer Institute, we find that expanding Medicare does not improve the probability that a black woman will have her cancer diagnosed early. However, if she does happen to be diagnosed early, a discretE-time hazard model of survival finds that the price effects of insurance will improve her odds of survival.     

COSTS AND BENEFITS OF REDUCING AIR POLLUTANTS RELATED TO ACID RAIN

The 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments initiated a dramatic reduction in emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides by electric power plants. This paper presents the results of an integrated assessment of the benefits and costs of the program. Dramatic uncertainties characterize the estimates especially with respect to the benefits of the program, many of which were modeled explicitly. The lion's share of benefits results from reduced risk of premature mortality, especially through reduced exposure to sulfates, and these expected benefits measure several times the expected costs of the program. Significant benefits also are estimated for improvements in health morbidity, recreational visibility, and residential visibility, each of which measures approximately equal to costs. Areas that were the focus of attention in the 1980s—including effects to soils, forests, and aquatic systems—still have not been modeled comprehensively, but evidence suggests that benefits in these areas are relatively small, at least with respect to "use values" for the environmental assets that are affected.     

PERMANENT INCOME, CONVERGENCE AND INEQUALITY AMONG COUNTRIES

The literature on inequality has generally focused on the analysis of annual per capita income. This paper adopts a different approach by considering the life-cycle dimension of inequality and convergence between economies from 1960 to 2000. We analyze the present value of the set of incomes individuals obtain throughout their whole life (permanent income). On the basis of this approach, various simulations are made to determine the effect on inequality in permanent income of variables such as survival rates and the long-run growth rates in current income. The results indicate that survival rates are an important source of inequality. Inequality in permanent income is about one third higher than in current income. The implication of this finding is that if the whole life-cycle dimension is not considered, the level of inequality among economies is being underestimated.     

WAGE MOBILITY AND WAGE INEQUALITY AMONG YOUNG WORKERS

This analysis uses data from the National Longitudinal Surveys to examine wage inequality and wage mobility within the wage distribution for young high school graduates during their early years in the labor market. The analysis constructs a new index that facilitates measuring mobility changes over time. The data indicate that no strong relationship exists between wage mobility and wage inequality for young workers. Controlling for time invariant differences between individuals also indicates that between the 1970s and 1980s factors that impact mobility underwent very few changes .