Thesis (M.Cur. (Community Health Nursing))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

Distortions that affect macroeconomic outcomes are an important avenue through which we can explain differences in cross country output and productivity. In this thesis I concentrate on two types of distortions, political economy and informational distortions. In Chapter one, I build a model of intermediated corruption where interactions between government bureaucrats and those who bribe them are mediated by a third party. I show that intermediation has significant effects on the incidence of corruption and the prices entrepreneurs pay for permits. When corruption is particularly acute, measures that increase the frequency with which government bureaucrats are audited often have the undesirable result of increasing the prevalence of corruption because of intermediation. In Chapter two I explore the link between corruption and inequality by building a model in which tax collectors are corrupt. I find that as inequality increases, the frequency of corrupt transactions increases as well. I also find that where corruption is more severe, because wealthier individuals tend to pay lower taxes, inequality is higher. I perform a few quantitative experiments to better understand this linkage. Chapter three explores distortions that are caused by adverse selection in markets with search frictions. I find that when participants are concerned about the information they reveal through their interactions in the market, the distortions to liquidity are deeper and that equilibrium selection is significantly affected. I also find that markets with reputational concerns are more sensitive to outside shocks.

This dissertation investigates informal waste recycling practices in the modern urban centre of Buenos Aires, Argentina. My research sets a baseline for the living and working conditions of the approximately 9,000 informal recyclers (cartoneros) in the city, focusing on their health, socio-economic status, and access to social and material resources. The research methods included a survey (n = 397) and interviews (n = 30) with cartoneros, as well as key informant interviews and an analysis of newspaper articles addressing informal recycling in the city. My findings indicate that Buenos Aires’ cartoneros, while not the poorest of the poor, are of a relatively low socio-economic status. Their health outcomes and determinants of health are poor compared to others in the Greater Buenos Aires region, and these workers are often stigmatized and discriminated against because of their associations with waste. Cartoneros’ experiences of the city are characterized by a series of social, political, and physical exclusions, revealing a state of urban inequality in Buenos Aires. I argue that municipal agendas of neoliberal urban development are implicated in both the symbolic and physical marginalization of these workers. Cartoneros draw upon many resources in coping with the multiple vulnerabilities that they face (particularly social resources and assets derived from their labour). They also occasionally engage with urban processes of exclusion through collective action and rhetorical redefinitions of their role in society. These workers are therefore active agents in their own destinies, and potential actors for social change. The municipal government of Buenos Aires has recently implemented a formalization plan for some of the city’s cartoneros; the dissertation includes an assessment of these plans, as well as recommendations for other policy-based interventions to informal recycling practices.

Distortions that affect macroeconomic outcomes are an important avenue through which we can explain differences in cross country output and productivity. In this thesis I concentrate on two types of distortions, political economy and informational distortions. In Chapter one, I build a model of intermediated corruption where interactions between government bureaucrats and those who bribe them are mediated by a third party. I show that intermediation has significant effects on the incidence of corruption and the prices entrepreneurs pay for permits. When corruption is particularly acute, measures that increase the frequency with which government bureaucrats are audited often have the undesirable result of increasing the prevalence of corruption because of intermediation. In Chapter two I explore the link between corruption and inequality by building a model in which tax collectors are corrupt. I find that as inequality increases, the frequency of corrupt transactions increases as well. I also find that where corruption is more severe, because wealthier individuals tend to pay lower taxes, inequality is higher. I perform a few quantitative experiments to better understand this linkage. Chapter three explores distortions that are caused by adverse selection in markets with search frictions. I find that when participants are concerned about the information they reveal through their interactions in the market, the distortions to liquidity are deeper and that equilibrium selection is significantly affected. I also find that markets with reputational concerns are more sensitive to outside shocks.

Digital inequality, or the disparity in the access and use of information and communication technologies (ICT), is one of the most critical issues in the knowledge economy. This inequality prevents under-privileged people from exploring digital opportunities to enhance their life quality. Governments, business, and the public have devoted tremendous resources to address this issue, but the results are inconclusive. Theoretical understanding, complemented with theory-based empirical assessment of the phenomenon, is essential to inform effective policy-making and interventions. This dissertation explored the key factors that lead to the inequality in the access and use of ICT, particularly the high-speed Internet, between the privileged and under-privileged. I applied a belief-based perspective to understand how distinctive beliefs concerning ICT acceptance differentially influence under-privileged and privileged people¡¦s innovation decision and behavior at different stages of the implementation process. A theoretical model that drew upon the Theory of Planned Behavior, Motivation Theory, Social Learning Theory, Diffusion of Innovation, and Trust was developed to explain how cognitive, social, behavioral, and institutional factors inform digital inequality as a whole. The conceptual model and forwarded hypotheses in the dissertation were empirically tested using data collected from a large-scale field survey. The survey investigated the adoption and usage behavior of residents in the city of LaGrange, Georgia where the city government, aiming to address digital inequality, provided high-speed Internet connection and devices to residents at no cost. A complementary case study was subsequently conducted to examine a multi-stage process model in which various barriers and facilitators may prevent or promote the progress of individuals¡¦ ICT innovation. The results of this research reveal valuable insights into the differential patterns of ICT access and usage, and the key factors that cause them, for under-privileged and privileged people. The findings, in turn, suggest a segmentation and stepwise technology implementation strategy for people with different backgrounds and at different stages of their innovation processes. This dissertation makes several notable contributions for both researchers and practitioners. First, the dissertation contributes a holistic and theoretically grounded perspective that extends beyond the technology-centered view in most digital inequality studies. It also highlights the multifaceted nature of the phenomenon. As such, this research meets the challenge set forward by notable researchers to develop theoretical models capable of revealing the complexity embedded in this issue. Second, the dissertation presents a unifying theory reflected upon adoption and diffusion of innovation. Testing theories in the context of digital inequality extends and complements our existing knowledge about these related fields. Most importantly, the empirical findings derived from the rich data set identity powerful leverage points for stimulating the adoption and use of ICT among the under-privileged. With such insights, practitioners, particularly policy-makers and service providers, can formulate effective interventions to address the problem of digital inequality.

The thesis presents results from five related studies concerned with the development and application of analytical techniques for the measurement of inequality. Four of the research pieces are analytical works focusing on the methodology of inequality measurement, while the fifth is an empirical study of income mobility and inequality in Australia. The most significant work of the dissertation is concerned with the derivation of a new information-theoretic index for the measurement of inequality. The proposed index is based upon the same relationship between information theory and inequality measurement used for the construction of Generalized Entropy (GE) inequality measures and is equivalent to a technique established in the field of signal processing. The measure shares the axiomatic superiority of GE measures over other measurement techniques and exhibits an additional attractive decomposition property such that the contribution of any set of individuals towards inequality is directly observable. No existing axiomatically complete measure possesses this property and thus the new measure has a degree of dominance over other techniques such as the Gini coefficient and Theil’s entropy measures. An empirical illustration of the new index using U.S. unit record income data is provided to demonstrate the alternative decomposition technique. It is shown that persons self-described as ‘White’ or ‘Japanese’ in the U.S. census drive a greater proportion of total inequality than persons from other racial groups relative to their respective population sizes. Other theoretical work in the thesis focuses on the construction and interpretation of Lorenz curves. A new parametric functional form for estimating the Lorenz curve is presented and closed form expressions for the implicit probability density function, cumulative distribution function and Gini coefficient are derived. Furthermore the proposed Lorenz curve is shown to provide a better fit to a range of real world data than other single parameter specifications such as the Pareto formulation. In a separate chapter the issue of Lorenz curve determination is addressed by determining a convex spline to interpolate Lorenz curves from grouped data. The spline is shown to provide better estimates of the Gini coefficient than other interpolation techniques and always satisfies the regularity conditions required for a Lorenz curve. Additional work on Lorenz curves examines the link between these functions and GE inequality metrics. In the thesis it is shown that these indices may be derived as direct functions of the Lorenz curve and analytical expressions for various GE measures are given in terms of Lorenz curve parameters. These results provide a basis for studying the effect of Lorenz curve construction upon the calculation of entropy based inequality measurements. The thesis concludes with an empirical study into income inequality and mobility in Australia using the HILDA unit record and household data panel. The research shows that Australian income mobility is slightly lower than in other developed countries and that much of the observed mobility occurs at the lower end of the income distribution.

This thesis examines the contribution of ‘ethnic’ background to the school experiences of educationally and socially disadvantaged students in the senior years of high school (n=927). To investigate the role both of ethnic identification and its interplay with institutional factors, a comparative analysis of secondary student experiences in two national settings was undertaken. The case of Turkish-background students in Australia and France suggests that the influences of ethnic identity are thoroughly transformed from one setting to the other by distinctive pedagogical structures. Streaming and severe academic judgement in France lower academic self-esteem, while creating resentment and social distance between students and teachers. By contrast, the deferral of selection and judgement in Australia allows, temporarily, for a more convivial classroom atmosphere, but fails just as surely to successfully navigate students through the curriculum and achieve academic success. The accommodations of both systems to students in ‘peripheral’ locations constitute logics of marginal integration which enable and legitimise ‘exclusion from within’. Student efforts to make meaning of school life through peer cultures which share many similarities across institutional and national boundaries emerge as what I have called strategies of marginal integration. Ethnic-minority students appear to be particularly susceptible to those logics and strategies, which reinforce their position within the system as marginal. This study therefore identifies the difficulties facing both systems as emerging from common overarching structural qualities. / (French version) Cette thèse examine, au niveau lycée, la contribution de l’origine ethnique aux expériences scolaires d’élèves désavantagés (N=927). Elle a pour objectif d’étudier les rapports entre inégalité sociale, expérience scolaire, et structure institutionnelle. Afin d’enquêter sur le rôle de l’identification ethnique et sa relation aux facteurs institutionnels, une analyse comparative a été menée dans deux pays. L’étude du cas des élèves d’origine turque en France et en Australie indique que les influences de l’ethnicité sont transformées d’un contexte à l’autre par des structures pédagogiques distinctives. En France, les filières et les jugements académiques sévères en réduisent l’estime de soi, en créant de l’aliénation et de la distance sociale entre élève et professeur. En Australie, au contraire, le différemment de la sélection et du jugement permet, de façon temporaire, une atmosphère plus conviviale en cours, mais ne réussit pas à assurer le succès académique des élèves. Les efforts des deux systèmes dans les sites périphériques constituent des logiques d’intégration marginales qui permettent l’exclusion de l’intérieure. Les efforts des élèves pour donner un sens à la vie scolaire à travers des cultures de pairs qui se ressemblent dans les deux contextes font partie des stratégies d’intégration marginale. Les élèves d’origine immigrée semblent particulièrement concernés par ces logiques et stratégies, qui renforcent leur position subordonnée dans le système. L’étude identifie alors les difficultés auxquelles sont confrontés les deux systèmes comme résultant de caractéristiques structurelles.

The thesis presents results from five related studies concerned with the development and application of analytical techniques for the measurement of inequality. Four of the research pieces are analytical works focusing on the methodology of inequality measurement, while the fifth is an empirical study of income mobility and inequality in Australia. The most significant work of the dissertation is concerned with the derivation of a new information-theoretic index for the measurement of inequality. The proposed index is based upon the same relationship between information theory and inequality measurement used for the construction of Generalized Entropy (GE) inequality measures and is equivalent to a technique established in the field of signal processing. The measure shares the axiomatic superiority of GE measures over other measurement techniques and exhibits an additional attractive decomposition property such that the contribution of any set of individuals towards inequality is directly observable. No existing axiomatically complete measure possesses this property and thus the new measure has a degree of dominance over other techniques such as the Gini coefficient and Theil’s entropy measures. An empirical illustration of the new index using U.S. unit record income data is provided to demonstrate the alternative decomposition technique. It is shown that persons self-described as ‘White’ or ‘Japanese’ in the U.S. census drive a greater proportion of total inequality than persons from other racial groups relative to their respective population sizes. Other theoretical work in the thesis focuses on the construction and interpretation of Lorenz curves. A new parametric functional form for estimating the Lorenz curve is presented and closed form expressions for the implicit probability density function, cumulative distribution function and Gini coefficient are derived. Furthermore the proposed Lorenz curve is shown to provide a better fit to a range of real world data than other single parameter specifications such as the Pareto formulation. In a separate chapter the issue of Lorenz curve determination is addressed by determining a convex spline to interpolate Lorenz curves from grouped data. The spline is shown to provide better estimates of the Gini coefficient than other interpolation techniques and always satisfies the regularity conditions required for a Lorenz curve. Additional work on Lorenz curves examines the link between these functions and GE inequality metrics. In the thesis it is shown that these indices may be derived as direct functions of the Lorenz curve and analytical expressions for various GE measures are given in terms of Lorenz curve parameters. These results provide a basis for studying the effect of Lorenz curve construction upon the calculation of entropy based inequality measurements. The thesis concludes with an empirical study into income inequality and mobility in Australia using the HILDA unit record and household data panel. The research shows that Australian income mobility is slightly lower than in other developed countries and that much of the observed mobility occurs at the lower end of the income distribution.

Η παρούσα διατριβή μελετά λεπτομερώς, για το διάστημα 1998 – 2007, τα επίπεδα, τη δομή και τη διαχρονική εξέλιξη της φτώχειας και της ανισότητας στην Ελλάδα, καθώς και τη σχετική θέση της Ελλάδας στα πλαίσια της ΕΕ. Χρησιμοποιήθηκαν τα στοιχεία των Ερευνών Οικογενειακών Προϋπολογισμών (ΕΟΠ) του 1998/99 και 2004/05 της ΕΣΥΕ και των Ερευνών Εισοδήματος και Συνθηκών Διαβίωσης (EU SILC) των ετών 2004-2007 της EUROSTAT. Μονάδα ανάλυσης είναι το μέλος του πληθυσμού και χρησιμοποιούνται οι κατανομές της ισοδύναμης συνολικής δαπάνης και ισοδύναμου συνολικού εισοδήματος κατά κεφαλή, λαμβάνοντας υπόψη το μέγεθος και τη σύνθεση του νοικοκυριού (χρήση κλιμάκων ισοδυναμίας). Βασικό συμπέρασμα της διατριβής είναι ότι η φτώχεια και ανισότητα μειώθηκε δραματικά μεταξύ 1998 και 2004, όπου η Ελληνική κοινωνία αύξησε την ευημερία των μελών της, ιδίως αυτών που βρισκόντουσαν στο κάτω άκρο της κατανομής του εισοδήματος. Η παραπάνω ανάλυση υποδεικνύει ότι η είσοδος της Ελλάδας στο ενιαίο νόμισμα ωφέλησε κατά πολύ την Ελληνική οικονομία και το σύνολο του πληθυσμού. Το διάστημα 2004-2007 η κατάσταση φαίνεται να χειροτερεύει ελαφρά, όπου οι μικρές αυξήσεις που καταγράφονται αποτελούν τα πρώτα σημάδια της οικονομικής κρίσης που ακολούθησε μετά το τέλος της εξεταζόμενης περιόδου. Ιδιαίτερα ανησυχητικό είναι ότι η Ελλάδα βρίσκεται συνέχεια στις χειρότερες πέντε θέσεις της κατάταξης των Ευρωπαϊκών χωρών, τόσο ως προς τα επίπεδα φτώχειας όσο και της ανισότητας, ενώ, διαχρονικά χειροτερεύει η θέση της στη συνολική κατάταξη. Τα αποτελέσματα της διατριβής επιβεβαιώνουν αποτελέσματα προηγούμενων μελετών ότι η ανισότητα στην Ελλάδα πηγάζει κυρίως από τις διαφορές περισσότερο εντός παρά ανάμεσα στις πληθυσμιακές ομάδες. Αυτό οδηγεί στη διαμόρφωση πολιτικών που στόχο έχουν τη μείωση της εσωτερικής ανισότητας στις διάφορες πληθυσμιακές ομάδες, ξεκινώντας από αυτές είτε με τη μεγαλύτερη ανισότητα είτε από αυτές που συνεισφέρουν σημαντικά στη συνολική ανισότητα. Ιδιαίτερο ενδιαφέρον για τη μελέτη της φτώχειας και της ανισότητας προκαλεί η χρήση της τεχνικής bootstrap και ο στατιστικός έλεγχος των διαστημάτων εμπιστοσύνης των μέσων όρων που χρησιμοποιεί η παρούσα διατριβή για την επιβεβαίωση της σημαντικότητας των μειώσεων που παρατηρήθηκαν στους δείκτες φτώχειας και ανισότητας μεταξύ 1998 και 2004, τουλάχιστον για τρεις πληθυσμιακές ομάδες, στις οικογένειες με αρχηγό συνταξιούχο του ΟΓΑ, στις οικογένειες με μέλη στον αγροτικό τομέα και στις οικογένειες με τρία ή περισσότερα παιδιά. Η προσομοίωση σεναρίων αύξησης των ενεργειακών τιμών υπέδειξαν τη σπουδαιότητα ελέγχου των ενεργειακών τιμών, ιδιαίτερα στα καύσιμα κίνησης και θέρμανσης, καθώς ακόμα και μικρές αυξήσεις της τάξης του 10% προκαλούν μεγάλη δυσχέρεια σε αρκετά άτομα, ενώ οι πραγματικές αυξήσεις είναι σε αρκετές περιόδους πολύ μεγαλύτερες. Η προσομοίωση σεναρίων αναδιανομής, αντίστοιχα, υπέδειξε ότι υπάρχουν σενάρια αναδιανομής με μηδενικό δημοσιονομικό κόστος που δεν προβλέπεται να προκαλέσουν ιδιαίτερες κοινωνικές αναταραχές και βελτιώνουν την υπάρχουσα κατάσταση της φτώχειας και της ανισότητας. / This doctoral dissertation explores in detail, for the years 1998 – 2007, the levels, the structure and the evolution over time of poverty and inequality in Greece, and the relative position of Greece inside EE. household income and expenditure data from the last two Household Budget Surveys (HBS) conducted in 1998/99 and 2004/05 by the National Statistical Service of Greece (NSSG) and household income data from Community Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU SILC) survey for the years 2004 -2007 conducted by EUROSTAT are used. The individual is the unit of analysis and distributions of total equivalence expenditure and total equivalence income per capita, take into account the size and the composition of the households using “family equivalence scales”. This dissertation concludes that poverty and inequality reduced dramatically between 1998 and 2004, where Greek society and especially people in the lower edge of the distribution of income (or/and expenditure) experienced an increased prosperity. This analysis indicates that the entry in Eurozone benefited well Greek economy and the entire population. Between the years 2004 and 2007, the situation seems a little worsened, where small increments are reported THAT can be the first signs of the oncoming economic crisis that followed the end of this period. In general, Greece is constantly in the last five places of the ranking of European countries, in terms both of poverty and inequality levels, while its position worsened during that period. The dissertation results confirm results from previous studies indicating that inequality in Greece rise mainly from inequalities within rather than between population subgroups. This leads to form politics targeting the elimination of inequality within population subgroups, starting from the groups with greater internal inequality or from the groups that contribute the most in overall inequality. Of great interest in the study of poverty and inequality is the use of bootstrap technique and the statistical test of confidence intervals of means that this dissertation uses for the verification of the significance of the decrements observed in poverty and inequality indices between 1998 and 2004, at least for three population groups, the households that have at least one member with income from agricultural occupation, the households with three or more children, and the households whose head gets a pension from the Agricultural Insurance Organisation (OGA). The simulation of scenarios of increased energy prices indicates the importance of controlling energy prices, especially for gasoline and heating oil, since even small increments of 10% of their prices cause great difficulties in people with incomes around poverty line, whilst actual increments in energy prices are much larger in several periods of time. The simulation of different scenarios of income redistribution indicates, respectively, that there are redistribution scenarios with zero fiscal cost, well targeted and not expected to cause considerable social unrest.

The standard Keynesian view predicts that equalization of the income distribution leads to an increase in aggregate consumption. We revisit the analysis carried out by the seminal empirical contributions which test such a hypothesis using modern econometric methods and the most comprehensive dataset existing on income distribution measures. Our results indicate that there is no substantive empirical evidence of an effect of income inequality on aggregate consumption. (authors' abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series