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1 – 10 of 969The purpose of this paper is to first develop indicators for how total inequality, measured through the ANalysis Of GIni (ANOGI) framework, is mapped onto each group – i.e…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to first develop indicators for how total inequality, measured through the ANalysis Of GIni (ANOGI) framework, is mapped onto each group – i.e. indicators for each group's share of total inequality. Second, to develop indicators for the sensitivity of total inequality and its structure to changes in the composition of the population. Specifically, to develop indicators for how the Gini index and its ANOGI components react to (1) changes in the population-share of each group, (2) migration between groups, (3) changes in group incomes and (4) income transfers between groups.
Design/methodology/approach
First, the expressions for these indicators are derived analytically. Following this, the indicators are applied to labour-market data from Brazil, contrasting the results to others available in the literature.
Findings
The indicators described above are presented and their characteristics discussed. Empirically, it is illustrated how labour formalisation in Brazil was an inequality-reducing process between 2002 and 2011, contrary to previous incorrect measurements of the phenomenon based on income-source decompositions for Latin American countries.
Originality/value
Indicators for how total inequality reacts to changes in group sizes and income were unavailable for the ANOGI framework, which this article provides. The empirical illustration shows how this leads to a reassessment of important inequality dynamics, using the example of labour formalisation in Brazil. Contrary to the existing literature, it is shown how this was a progressive development, with key implications for social and labour-market policy. This framework can be used to assess the impact of diverse processes in the ANOGI methodology.
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Kamila Fialová and Martina Mysíková
The authors aim to demonstrate the impact of allowing for unequal intra-household distribution of resources on income poverty and income inequality.
Abstract
Purpose
The authors aim to demonstrate the impact of allowing for unequal intra-household distribution of resources on income poverty and income inequality.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper applies a collective consumption model to study the intra-household distribution of resources in Visegrád countries (V4). It utilises subjective financial satisfaction as a proxy for indirect utility from individual consumption to estimate the indifference scales within couples instead of the traditional equivalence scale. The European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) 2013 and 2018 data are applied.
Findings
This study’s results indicate substantial economies of scale from living in a couple that are generally higher than implied by the commonly applied equivalence scale. The sharing rule estimates suggest that at the mean of distribution factors, women receive a consumption share between 0.4 and 0.6; however, some of the results are close to an equal sharing of 0.5. The female consumption share rises with her contribution to household income. Regarding income poverty and inequality, the authors show that both these measures might be underestimated in the traditional approach to equal sharing of resources.
Originality/value
The authors add to the empirics by estimating indifference scales for Czechia (CZ), Hungary (HU), Poland (PL) and Slovakia (SK), countries that have not been involved in previous research.
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Oluyemi Theophilus Adeosun and Kayode Ebenezer Owolabi
This paper aims to shed light on gender inequality in Nigeria exploring new available data. It makes a case for attention to women empowerment and likely economic outcomes. The…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to shed light on gender inequality in Nigeria exploring new available data. It makes a case for attention to women empowerment and likely economic outcomes. The general objective of the research work is to ascertain the direction of gender inequality and show the pattern of inequality. Also, sectoral trends are obtained by analyzing and examining income inequality in Nigeria.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper obtained data from the Living Standard Measurement Survey Wave 3, published 2017 with emphasis on the earnings that accrued to both male and female. The study employed the ordinary least square (OLS) method to show the relationship between the mean income and other parameters such as the sector of employment, marital status and education level. Theil’s entropy index was used to measure the within and between inequality that exist in the economy and across regions and sectors while adopting the overcrowding theory.
Findings
The result shows that gender inequality is more pronounced across the region, location and in some sectors of employment than the others. Geographical area has a higher effect on earnings disparity but is more pronounced among females. Also, the result showed that gender within inequality was high in the regions, education, location, and marital status while a higher level of education contributes to high wages for women. However, married women are more deprived.
Originality/value
This study has further revealed the need to bridge the gap gender inequality has caused in Nigeria, especially related to income, education and geographical location, with a focus on both opportunities and outcomes.
The purpose of this paper is to estimate tax evasion and its impact on progressivity, redistribution and the measurement of inequality, using microdata from the Spanish income tax…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to estimate tax evasion and its impact on progressivity, redistribution and the measurement of inequality, using microdata from the Spanish income tax for 2001-2004.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach follows Feldman and Slemrod (2007) by exploiting the relation of charitable donations with the composition of income but introduces two methodological innovations, which could be useful for further studies: correction for sample selection with a Heckman two-step setting and the calculation of different evasion rates for top incomes with an interaction term.
Findings
Evasion in capital incomes was significant throughout these years. Financial incomes were reported at around 50-70 per cent of their real value, with the lowest estimates corresponding to the top decile. Revenues from fixed capital display similarly low compliance rates for the top 10 per cent. Tax evasion in self-employment incomes (direct assessment) is estimated at 20 per cent for 2001. Mostly because of a composition effect, this means that fraud was higher at the top of the income distribution, thus having a regressive impact. Inequality statistics and top income concentration estimates should, therefore, be revised upwards.
Originality/value
This is the first paper to estimate the distributive impacts of tax evasion in Spain, and one of very few internationally.
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Oscar Claveria and Petar Sorić
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the adjustment of government redistributive policies in Scandinavian and Mediterranean countries following changes in income inequality…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the adjustment of government redistributive policies in Scandinavian and Mediterranean countries following changes in income inequality over the period 1980–2021.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors first modelled the time-varying dynamics between income inequality and redistribution and then used a non-linear framework to test for the existence of asymmetries and cointegration in their long-run relationship. The authors used two complementary measures of inequality – the share of total income accruing to top percentile income holders and the ratio of the share of total income accruing to top decile income holders divided by that accumulated by the bottom 50% – and computed redistribution as the difference between the two inequality indicators before and after taxes and transfers.
Findings
The authors found that the sign of the relationship between income inequality and redistribution is mostly positive and time-varying. Overall, the authors also found evidence that the impact of increases in inequality on redistributive measures is higher than that of decreases. Finally, the authors obtained a significant long-run relationship between both variables in all countries except Denmark and Spain. These results hold for both Scandinavian and Mediterranean countries.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to account for the potential existence of non-linearities and to examine the asymmetries in the adjustment of redistributive policies to increases in income inequality using alternative income inequality metrics.
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Leila Vali, Fatemeh Ataollahi, Mohammadreza Amiresmaili, Nouzar Nakhaee and Maryam Okhovati
One of the priorities of the health system is community health promotion. In this regards, proper development of programs and plans is needed to create a responsive system which…
Abstract
Purpose
One of the priorities of the health system is community health promotion. In this regards, proper development of programs and plans is needed to create a responsive system which leads to health promotion. The aim of this study was to identify the requirements for developing non-communicable disease (NCDs) programs based on CIPP (context, input, process and product) model.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a qualitative study. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 40 experienced informants in the field of NCDs. The interviewees were selected bases on pre-determined criteria which then were completed by snowball sampling. Analysis was carried out using a content analysis approach that led to identifying program development requirements in four dimensions of context, input, process and product.
Findings
Twenty-nine requirements of developing program were categorized in four domains of context, input, process and product. These requirements comprised of pilot studies, the existence of appropriate needs assessment, evidence-based programs, promoting organizational culture, adequacy of resources, identification of stakeholders and comprehensive cooperation and existence of an appropriate evaluation system.
Research limitations/implications
Since this study was performed through a qualitative method, it is possible, some prerequisites of program development may not be encountered. But the extreme effort has been made to perceive diversity and different aspects.
Originality/value
The first study was in the field of appropriate requirements for program development in the context of a centralized health system in a developing country.
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Jubitza Mariana Franciskovic and Francesc Miralles
The main objective of the research is to examine whether the possession and the consumption of the service of a mobile telephone by the families of rural zones has improved their…
Abstract
Purpose
The main objective of the research is to examine whether the possession and the consumption of the service of a mobile telephone by the families of rural zones has improved their wellbeing in the last 10 years (2007–2016).
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative analysis of panel data is proposed in order to analyze the effect of the use of the mobile telephone in rural zones by region of Peru during the last 10 years and capture the unobservable heterogeneity during the said period. In this manner, it is hoped to investigate the effect of the increased use of said technology in Peru.
Findings
The results obtained show that the increase in the acquisitions of mobile telephones in rural zones has had a positive impact on the wellbeing of households. Continuous business innovation driven by citizens’ needs and the greater accessibility of mobile telephones are the main reasons based on the Peruvian context under study.
Originality/value
In Peru, there has been an explosive increase in users of mobile telephones in the last 10 years. The use of this technology may be arriving in rural households before other basic services, provoking individual and social changes and creating new employment and income opportunities. This would support the recent recognition of the mobile telephone as an essential tool for development, especially in underdeveloped countries.
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Yara Ahmed, Racha Ramadan and Mohamed Fathi Sakr
This paper aims to evaluate the progressivity of health-care financing in Egypt by assessing all five financing sources individually and then combining them to analyze the equity…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to evaluate the progressivity of health-care financing in Egypt by assessing all five financing sources individually and then combining them to analyze the equity of the whole financing system.
Design/methodology/approach
Lorenz dominance analysis and Kakwani progressivity index were applied on data from 2010/2011 Household Income, Expenditure, and Consumption Survey and the National Health Accounts 2011 using Stata to evaluate the progressivity of each source of health-care finance and the financing system overall.
Findings
The data show that Egypt’s health-care system, which is largely financed by out-of-pocket (OOP) payments, is slightly regressive, with an overall Kakwani index of −0.079. The overall regressive effect was the result of three regressive sources (OOP payments, an earmarked cigarette tax and direct taxes), one proportional finance source (social health insurance) and two slightly progressive sources (indirect taxes and private health insurance). This shows that the burden of financing health care falls more on the poor. These results signal the need for reform of health-care financing in Egypt to reduce dependence on OOP payments to achieve more equitable financing.
Originality/value
The paper seeks to augment the literature on health-care financing in Egypt by calculating specific progressivity estimates for all five sources of financing the Egyptian health-care system and analyzing the overall equity of this financing system. It will, therefore, provide a benchmark for monitoring the equity of finance in the Egyptian health-care system in future studies and allow one to assess the impact of implemented financing reforms in the future on the level of progressivity of health system financing.
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This paper aims to explore the drivers behind the accuracy of self-reported home valuations in the Warsaw (Poland) housing market.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the drivers behind the accuracy of self-reported home valuations in the Warsaw (Poland) housing market.
Design/methodology/approach
In order to achieve the research goal, firstly, unique data on subjective residential property values estimated by their owners were compared with market-justified ones. The latter was calculated using geographically weighted regression, which allowed for taking into account spatially heterogeneous buyers' housing preferences. An ordered logit model was then used to identify the factors influencing the probability of the occurrence of bias towards over or undervaluation.
Findings
The results of the study revealed that, on average, homeowners overvalued their properties by only 1.94%, and the fraction of interviewees estimating their properties accurately ranges from 20% to 68%, depending on the size of the margin of error adopted. The drivers of the valuation bias variation were the physical, locational and neighbourhood attributes of the property as well as the personal characteristics of the respondents, for which their age and employment situation played a key role.
Originality/value
In contrast to previous studies, this is the first to examine drivers behind the accuracy of self-reported home valuations in a Central and Eastern Europe country. In addition, this work is the first to consider heterogeneous housing preferences when calculating objective property values.
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Jason Lim Chiu, Nelson C. Bool and Candy Lim Chiu
This paper aims to assess the direct effects of antecedents of initial trust, the mediating effect of trust and the moderating effect of demographic variables on non-adopters’…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to assess the direct effects of antecedents of initial trust, the mediating effect of trust and the moderating effect of demographic variables on non-adopters’ behavioral intention to use mobile banking.
Design/methodology/approach
The study tested the models of theory of reasoned action and theory of planned behavior to evaluate potential antecedents of trust (diffusion of trust, infrastructure quality, perceived costs, privacy and security) moderators (demographic variables) and mediators (initial trust) that will influence behavioral intention to use mobile banking. The Hayes’ Process Macro developed by Andrew F. Hayes (2013) was used as a statistical analysis in SPSS to estimates the path coefficients using multiple regression. The tool provides insights on the direct and indirect effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable through the existence of moderating variables and mediation variables.
Findings
The results show that the non-adopters of mobile banking asserted that the antecedents of initial trust played a significant influence on behavioral intention to use online banking services.
Originality/value
There is a dearth of literature addressing mobile banking in the Philippines. The first initial trust formation in internet banking using computer workstations and laptops in the Philippines was conducted by Chiu et al. (2016). This research fills in the gap by expanding and formulating a deeper understanding of the antecedents of initial trust that influence consumer behavioral intention that might be responsible for the slow diffusion of mobile banking services in the country. The results from this study will help financial institutions create a beneficial connection with consumers while alleviating the fears of non-adopters and enhancing their understanding of the benefits of mobile banking.
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