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Book part
Publication date: 30 September 2014

Simon Alain Song Ntamack

Inequality is an essential factor for the alleviation of poverty. In Cameroon, most of the households derive their livelihoods from non-wage income and a better understanding of…

Abstract

Inequality is an essential factor for the alleviation of poverty. In Cameroon, most of the households derive their livelihoods from non-wage income and a better understanding of how different variables affect income inequality is a way to reduce those inequalities and improve social welfare. Studies carried out so far barely make out the determinants among non-wage earners. This study sets out to identify these determinants, using the regression-based decomposition technique and data obtained from the 2005 Employment and Informal Sector Survey (EISS) undertaken by the National Statistic Institute (INS) in Cameroon. Results show that the total inequality of an hourly active income ensues from the ratio of age/experience and unobserved individual heterogeneity among non-wage earners.

Details

Economic Well-Being and Inequality: Papers from the Fifth ECINEQ Meeting
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78350-556-2

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 23 July 2016

Massimo Di Matteo

The chapter examines the core framework of A. C. Pigou’s Theory of Unemployment (TU) with the aim of providing a rational reconstruction of his analysis of the determinants of…

Abstract

The chapter examines the core framework of A. C. Pigou’s Theory of Unemployment (TU) with the aim of providing a rational reconstruction of his analysis of the determinants of unemployment in the short period. This is accomplished without any comparison with Keynes’s criticism of TU, as often found in the previous literature.

I reconstruct Pigou’s two-sector model, which only accounted for output in the wage good sector but not in the non-wage good sector, as a complete two-sector model to reveal his implicit assumptions about the passive behaviour of non-wage earners in the non-wage good sector. I also find classical elements, most notably the wage fund doctrine and the hypothesis on profits, in Pigou’s approach, which partly explains why the model is incomplete when viewed in terms of its neoclassical elements. In the “A Rational Reconstruction of the Two-Sector Model” section, I sketch a mathematical model to make Pigou’s analysis consistent.

The chapter shows how unemployment is determined and how economic policy to deal with it is conceived in the work of a major exponent of the pre-Keynesian approach.

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Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78560-960-2

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Article
Publication date: 1 February 1975

Gilbert Benhayoun

A recent analysis of wages has shown that within the productive structure of the French economy a two‐fold process of factor substitution is under way, namely the substition of…

Abstract

A recent analysis of wages has shown that within the productive structure of the French economy a two‐fold process of factor substitution is under way, namely the substition of capital for labour and of non‐manual for manual workers. By the logic of neo‐classical distribution theory, the relative price of manual labour should be increasing as its marginal productivity rises. But computations which we have carried out for the French economy between 1949 and 1973 yield the opposite result: the relative price of labour has fallen steadily over the period. The aim of this article is to attempt to explain how much of this decreasing trend is attributable to changes in the structure of the active population and how much is due to changes in the structure of the prices of labour. For this purpose, and following the work of Phelps Brown and Sheila Hopkins, we have calculated an index reflecting the relationship between the index of manual workers' wage rates and the index of national income per head of the occupied population. This relationship represents what is usually referred to as the “wage‐income ratio”. (WIR), with the difference that, in this case, it is limited to wage rates in the private sector. Changes in the index of the WIR can be regarded as reflecting changes in the relative index of a unit of labour if it is accepted that the index of income per head of the occupied population itself can be interpreted as an index of the price of productive factors. This hypothesis is accepted by Phelps Brown and S. Hopkins: “the wage‐income ratio gives us the rate of exchange of a unit of wage‐earners' work, not against quantities of produce but against quantities of other factors”.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 2 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Book part
Publication date: 26 August 2015

Luis Beccaria, Roxana Maurizio, Gustavo Vázquez and Manuel Espro

Latin America experienced a long period of sustained growth since 2003 that positively impacted social and labor market indicators, including poverty. This paper contributes to…

Abstract

Latin America experienced a long period of sustained growth since 2003 that positively impacted social and labor market indicators, including poverty. This paper contributes to the understanding of this process as it carries out a comparative study of poverty and indigence dynamics in five Latin American countries during 2003–2012. Specifically, it extends the analysis of a previously published study by broadening the time coverage and examining indigence mobility. It analyzes the extent to which countries with different levels of poverty (extreme poverty) incidence diverge in terms of exit and entry rates, and identifies the relative importance of the frequency and impact of events associated with poverty transitions. For this, a dynamic analysis of panel data is carried out using regular household surveys. Sizeable rates of poverty and indigence movements were observed in all five countries and it was found that a large proportion of poor or indigent households experienced positive events, mainly related to the labor market; however, only a small fraction of them actually exited poverty and indigence. It appeared, therefore, that even when the economy behaved reasonably well, high levels of labor turnover and income mobility (even of a negative nature) still prevail, mainly associated with the high level of precariousness and the undeveloped system of social protection that characterize the studied countries.

Details

Measurement of Poverty, Deprivation, and Economic Mobility
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78560-386-0

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Article
Publication date: 1 February 1988

Anthony Clunies Ross

The assignment of targets to instruments in developing countries cannot satisfactorily follow any simple universal rule. Which approach is appropriate is influenced by whether the…

273

Abstract

The assignment of targets to instruments in developing countries cannot satisfactorily follow any simple universal rule. Which approach is appropriate is influenced by whether the economy is dominated by primary exports, by the importance of the domestic bond market and bank credit, by the extent of existing restriction in foreign exchange and financial markets, by the presence or absence of persistent high inflation, and by the existence or non‐existence of an active international market in the country's currency. Eighteen observations and maxims on stabilisation policy are tentatively drawn (pp. 64–8) from the material reviewed, and the maxims are partly summarised (pp. 69–71) in a schematic assignment, with variations, of targets to instruments.

Details

Journal of Economic Studies, vol. 15 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-3585

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Article
Publication date: 1 October 1996

Roy H. Grieve

The recent publication of a sixth edition of Dornbusch and Fischer’s (D&F’s) Macroeconomics will be of interest to many teachers of macro theory. D&F’s text must currently be one…

1588

Abstract

The recent publication of a sixth edition of Dornbusch and Fischer’s (D&F’s) Macroeconomics will be of interest to many teachers of macro theory. D&F’s text must currently be one of the most widely used intermediate‐level guides to macroeconomics; as the authors themselves tell us, the book has been translated into many languages and is in use around the world “from Canada to Argentina and Australia, all over Europe, in India, Indonesia and Japan, from China and Albania to Russia”. The undogmatic “middle‐of‐the‐road” approach, together with the careful and clear presentation characteristic of this user‐friendly textbook, has won it many friends.

Details

Journal of Economic Studies, vol. 23 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-3585

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 January 2024

Edmond Berisha, Rangan Gupta and Orkideh Gharehgozli

The primary focus of this study is to examine the distributional consequences of the widespread increase in prices. The fundamental question the study aims to address is whether…

Abstract

Purpose

The primary focus of this study is to examine the distributional consequences of the widespread increase in prices. The fundamental question the study aims to address is whether the dynamics of income distribution due to higher inflation differ in the short term compared to the long run.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors estimated a panel-data model (fixed effects) using inequality and inflation data available at a high frequency, i.e. on a quarterly basis for over 30 years, and found evidence that inflation causes rapid swings in income distribution.

Findings

The authors’ contribution to the literature lies in providing evidence that inflation rapidly causes swings in income distribution, even after controlling for the state of the economy. The authors also demonstrate that the magnitude and direction of the effect of inflation on income inequality depend on whether the initial inflation rate is below or above the Federal Reserve’s target of 2%.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the authors are the first to emphasize that the targets set by central banks can drive the strength and direction of the relationship between inflation and income inequality.

Details

Journal of Economic Studies, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-3585

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 June 2009

Hung T. Pham and Barry Reilly

This paper seeks to complement earlier studies on ethnic minority underdevelopment in Vietnam by empirically examining the ethnic wage gap for the wage employed in the Vietnamese…

1512

Abstract

Purpose

This paper seeks to complement earlier studies on ethnic minority underdevelopment in Vietnam by empirically examining the ethnic wage gap for the wage employed in the Vietnamese labour market, using data from a large‐scale household survey conducted in 2002.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper uses the “index number” decomposition method suggested by Oaxaca to decompose the ethnic wage gap into treatment and endowment effects at both the mean and selected quantiles of the conditional wage distribution.

Findings

The results confirm the existence of an ethnic wage gap in the labour market, though the gap is found to be substantially narrower than the ethnic gap detected using household living standard measures for Vietnam. Decomposition results reveal that the ethnic wage gap is largely attributable to differentials in the returns to endowments, a finding invariant whether the mean or selected quantiles of the conditional wage distribution are examined.

Research limitations/implications

In the absence of feasible alternatives, the paper uses an ad hoc procedure to correct for selectivity into wage employment for the quantile regression models. In addition, due to data constraints with regard to earnings, the paper does not examine the ethnic wage gap for the self‐employed.

Originality/value

The paper is the first to analyse the ethnic wage gap in the Vietnam labour market and one of the few to examine ethnic pay differentials at selected points of the conditional wage distribution using quantile regression analysis.

Details

International Journal of Manpower, vol. 30 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-7720

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 30 September 2014

Abstract

Details

Economic Well-Being and Inequality: Papers from the Fifth ECINEQ Meeting
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78350-556-2

Book part
Publication date: 29 July 2009

Glenn Johnson, Kirk Johnson and Marianne Johnson

The notes reproduced here were taken by Glenn Johnson in Lloyd Mints’ course on Money and Banking at the University of Chicago in the fall of 1946. Several additional sets of…

Abstract

The notes reproduced here were taken by Glenn Johnson in Lloyd Mints’ course on Money and Banking at the University of Chicago in the fall of 1946. Several additional sets of course notes taken by Glenn Johnson have been published in the archival volumes of Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology. These included notes from Frank Knight's course on economic theory (Volume 24C) and Albert L. Meyer's course entitled elements of modern economics (appearing in this volume). A brief biography of Glenn Johnson is provided in Volume 24C, along with notes from his course on Agricultural Economics Methodology taught at Michigan State University.

Details

Documents from Glenn Johnson and F. Taylor Ostrander
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84855-661-4

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