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The reduction of income inequality and the ways to fight against it are source of debate among scientific communities and policymakers. Rents from natural resources that African countries are endowed with remain one way to cope with income inequality, but its influence on income inequality is mixed. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to explore the direct and indirect transmission mechanisms through which natural resources rents can affect income inequality in sub-Saharan Africa.

This study obtained data on income inequality from the Standardised World Income Inequality Data database, natural resources rents from World Bank’s Development Indicators and education from United Nations Development Programme for the period 1990–2018. It was analysed using system generalised method of moments.

The results of this study showed that natural resources rents solely increased income inequality, but its interaction with education significantly reduced income inequality.

These findings suggest that the reduction of income inequality by natural resources rents passes through a good education system in sub-Saharan African countries.

In previous studies, authors analysed the role of education in the relationship between natural resources rents and income inequality by inserting the two variables separately in the model. But in this paper, the author analysed the role of education in the relationship between natural resources rents and income inequality by using the interaction of natural resources rents and education.

This study provides the critical masses (thresholds) at which the positive incidence of finance and economic growth will be dampened by the negative effects of income inequality and poverty on energy consumption in Sub-Saharan Africa for policy direction.

The study employed the two steps systems GMM estimator for 41 countries in Africa from 2005–2020.

The study found that for finance to maintain a positive effect on energy consumption per capita, the critical thresholds for the income inequality indicators (Atkinson coefficient, Gini index and the Palma ratio) should not exceed 0.681, 0.582 and 5.991, respectively. Similarly, for economic growth (GDP per capita growth) to maintain a positive effect on energy consumption per capita, the critical thresholds for the income inequality indicators (Atkinson coefficient, Gini index and the Palma ratio) should not exceed 0.669, 0.568 and 6.110, respectively. On the poverty level in Sub-Saharan Africa, the study reports that the poverty headcount ratios (hc$144ppp2011, hc$186ppp2011 and hc$250ppp2005) should not exceed 7.342, 28.278 and 129.332, respectively for financial development to maintain a positive effect on energy consumption per capita. The study also confirms the positive nexus between access to finance (financial development) and energy consumption per capita, with the attending adverse effect on CO₂ emissions inescapable. The findings of this study make it evidently clear, for policy recommendation that finance is at the micro-foundation of economic growth, income inequality and poverty alleviation. However, a maximum threshold of income inequality and poverty headcount ratios as indicated in this study must be maintained to attain the full positive ramifications of financial development and economic growth on energy consumption in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The originality of this study is found in the computation of the threshold and net effects of poverty and income inequality in economic growth through the conditional and unconditional effects of finance.

This study aims to calculate the inequity in out of pocket expenditures and utilization of laboratory tests in Iran. Equal access to health services is an important part of human rights in health care. Out-of-pocket payment is a part of financial access to health care. In this study, the authors tried to find inequity in out-of-pocket payments and utilization of medical laboratory tests (MLTs) as a part of human rights in Iran in 2016.

Gini and concentration indices were calculated for this purpose, and regression models were estimated to show the relationship between different factors and utilization and out-of-pocket.

The average out-of-pocket payment for all of the households was US$1.56 (urban areas: 1.97 and rural areas: 1.31). Moreover, the average utilization of MLTs was 0.079 (urban areas: 0.0908 and rural areas: 0.0753). Gini and concentration indices for out-of-pocket payments were 0.522 and 0.0701, respectively.

Out-of-pocket and utilization were low in lower in less developed regions of ease and southeast regions of the country and were related to access to health insurance, income and wealth deciles.

This study aims to explore the nexus of equality and efficiency by considering public hospitals' development dynamics, capacity and technology indicators.

Data was collected from the Ministry of Health Public Hospital Almanacs from 2014 to 2017. The Gini index (GI) is used to estimate the inequality of distribution of hospital performance indicators. A bias-corrected efficiency analysis is calculated to obtain efficiency scores of public hospitals for the year 2017. A path analysis is then constructed to better identify patterns of causation among a set of development, equality and efficiency variables.

A redefined path model highlights that development dynamics, equality and efficiency are causally related and health technology (path coefficient = 0.57; t = 19.07; p < 0.01) and health services utilization (path coefficient = 0.24; t = 8; p < 0.01) effects public hospital efficiency. The final path model fit well (X²/df = 50.99/8 = 6; RMSEA = 0.089; NFI = 0.95; CFI = 0.96; GFI = 0.98; AGFI = 0.94). Study findings indicate high inequalities in distribution of health technologies (GI > 0.85), number of surgical operations (GI > 0.70) and number of inpatients (GI > 0.60) among public hospitals for the years 2014–2017.

Study results highlight that, hospital managers should prioritize equal distribution of health technology and health services utilization indicators to better orchestrate equity-efficiency trade-off in their operations.

This study aims to contribute to the analysis of the impact of financial control or “financial fair play” (FFP) regulations on the financial performance of the Spanish professional football league (LaLiga) by examining the moderating role of club size. The authors argue that introducing FFP positively impacted the financial performance of small clubs but increased the economic gap between large and small clubs.

A 12-year dataset covering 22 football clubs is used to test the hypotheses. Panel regression models are estimated for eight measures of financial performance indicators, comprising three financial dimensions: profitability, liquidity and solvency. The Gini index is applied to clubs' economic and sports variables to determine the degree of economic imbalance between the largest and smallest clubs.

The results show that FFP significantly and positively impacted the profitability of small clubs and the solvency of medium-sized clubs but has not impacted the largest clubs' financial performance. After these regulations, economic inequality in Spanish LaLiga increased.

The authors find evidence that club size moderates the effect of FFP on financial performance. The moderating role of club size may explain the mixed results found in previous research. The authors’ findings contribute to improving the literature on the impact of FFP on the financial performance of European football clubs.

This study investigates how working-age Asian immigrants' educational attainment and professional abilities when arriving in the United States have evolved over the past 4 decades and draws inferences on the impact of the US employment based visa policies.

Using data from the 1980, 1990 and 2000 census and American Community Survey for 2001 to 2019, the study adopts multivariate regression and regression discontinuity design to investigate the trends in educational and occupation selection among Asian immigrants and the association with policy changes in the H1B visa program.

The findings suggest that new Asian immigrants were more positively selected for education than non-Asian immigrants and US natives and this pattern of positive selection increased over time. Newly arrived South Asian and East Asian immigrants had the highest share of highly educated professionals than Southeast Asians and US-born persons. I infer that the enactment and changes in the H1-B program might have contributed to the changing patterns of the educational and occupational selection among East and South Asian Immigrants. The results also shed light on how Asian immigrants' skill selection might be related to the size of Asian diasporas in the US and sending countries' income, inequality and education level.

The story of changing the skill profile (educational and occupational profile) of newly arrived Asian immigrants during 1980–2019 can provide valuable policy implications. US immigration policies are routinely criticized for being inefficient and outdated. The economic prosperity of Asian countries over time also provides an excellent opportunity to test the theories pertaining to how sending countries' income, inequality and education level of the population are associated with Asian migrants' education and occupation when arriving in the US. This study can provide insightful perspectives for policymakers and business decision-makers to adapt to the changing demographics of Asian migrant workers. The most recent reports on Asian immigrants in the US highlighted the aggregated trends of migration flow and education. Still, none have provided a longitudinal and nuanced review of Asian immigrants' educational and occupational selection into the US.

The purpose of this research is to evaluate corruption in the context of India, spanning the period between 1988 and 2021. Additionally, it aims to provide an in-depth comprehension of the factors that drive its prevalence and to propose policy directives for addressing these underlying issues.

The study instead of relying on perception-based measures, takes a distinct approach by formulating a corruption index derived from reported instances, thus ensuring a more objective assessment. Furthermore, we employ stochastic frontier analysis to tackle the issue of under-reporting within the corruption index based on reported cases. Subsequently, an auto regressive distributed lag (ARDL) methodology is applied to ascertain the principal drivers of corruption, encompassing both long and short factors.

This study reveals that corruption in India is notably influenced by economic growth and income inequality. Conversely, government effectiveness and globalization display a tendency to mitigate corruption. However, our rigorous analysis demonstrates that financial development does not wield a substantial influence in our study. Moreover, our inquiry uncovers a nonlinear relationship between economic growth and corruption. Additionally, we ascertain that the long run and short run impacts of corruption remain relatively stable across both models utilized in our study.

This study differs from previous research in the subsequent manners. Primarily, we employed an objective measure to formulate the corruption index, coupled with addressing the underreporting issues via stochastic frontier analysis. Moreover, this study pioneers the identification of a non-linear relationship between corruption and economic growth within the Indian context, a facet unexplored in previous investigations.

This study aims to examine the impact of fiscal space and governance quality on inclusive growth in African countries.

In total, 28 African countries were analyzed from 2000 to 2020 using the generalized method of moment regression method. An inclusive growth index was developed using the principal component analysis (PCA) method. The PCA-derived index incorporates factors such as poverty, income inequality, economic participation and per capita income.

The main findings suggest that fiscal space availability (de facto fiscal space and fiscal balance) promotes inclusive growth. The study also showed that lagged inclusive growth, digitalization and governance indicators positively influence inclusive growth. The study concludes that fiscal space availability fosters inclusive growth, but this effect is mediated by governance quality in Africa.

Several studies examined the role of fiscal policy on inclusive growth. However, it is crucial to assess the fiscal space, that is, the financial capacity of the government to implement its fiscal policy without harming its financial stability. This paper, therefore, contributes to the existing literature by using de facto fiscal space indicator to comprehend fiscal dynamics contributing to inclusive growth. In addition, the paper uniquely constructs an inclusive growth index by including poverty severity, which considers both the incidence and depth of poverty and inequality in society.

Previous studies focused predominantly on wage dispersion within men’ sports teams. This study aims to reveal how the relationship between wage dispersion and team performance applies for women’s sport.

The sample comprises 168 observations of four consecutive National Basketball Association (NBA) and Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) regular seasons (2018–2021). Eight econometric models are performed for comparing the leagues.

The findings indicate that the wage dispersion within the squads affects the women’s and men’s basketball teams differently. Cohesiveness theory is applicable for WNBA teams, while NBA teams follow the tournament theory.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper which inspects the relationship between wage dispersion and team performance using data from women’s sports. Further research may examine whether the differences found in sports also apply in different labor markets.