Existing studies in the past have come to the result that insurance is a luxury good. Often it is those that have wealth to protect that can afford to protect their property. This leads to the assumption that one can differentiate between a 'rich' country and a 'developing' country by the amount of insurance penetration in the industry. Using national wealth statistics, this research undertakes a multiple regression analysis to assess the relationship between non-life insurance penetration and national wealth. The reason for this choice of variable as opposed to income, is that individuals seek to protect ~ their assets thus mitigating the risk of loss or damage of these assets. This means that in order to purchase insurance, there needs to be the presence of wealth that needs protecting. The sample comprises of 45 countries at different stages of economic growth therefore, enabling a distinction to be made between developed and developing nations. The overall result of the study found that national wealth, government consumption and wealth distribution affect demand for non-life insurance products. It was seen that an increase in wealth resulted in an increase in non-life insurance penetration, but at a decreasing rate, therefore showing a wealth elasticity of demand that is less than unity. Government consumption on the other hand, has a negative impact on non-life insurance demand, hence assuming that it is as insurance substitute. For wealth distribution, the result was that there is a positive relationship between wealth inequality and non-life insurance penetration.

This thesis examines the relationship between health and income in Malawi and the KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa. The first empirical chapter considers the previously unused Second Integrated Household Survey (IHS2) to examine child mortality in Malawi. Household income and bed net use are included within the analysis presented in addition to the standard proximate determinants of population health. It is found that possessing at least some education and using bed nets significantly reduces child deaths. The second empirical chapter explores the effect of morbidity upon daily wage rates in Malawi using the IHS2. The results suggest that even relatively short periods of morbidity reduce the daily wage received by relatively large amounts. The final empirical chapter examines the impact of different types of “health shocks” upon household income in 1998 and 2004 using the KwaZulu-Natal Income Dynamics Study (KIDS) dataset. The results suggest that the effect of “health shocks” upon household income is negative in 1998 using a propensity score matching method. Direct income losses associated with shocks are also examined and indicate that for most households the effect of health shocks is generally small.

This study examines the size distribution of income and the degree of inequality in Iraq in 1971, by region, governorate and for the country as a whole, for households, individuals and socio-economic groups. It also examines changes in income distribution since 1954. The main findings are that the share of wages in national income declined from 1964 to 1971, and that wage rates in the oil, government and manufacturing sectors grew slower than did per capita income. From 1954 to 1961 there was a slight decline in inequality, but a sharp increase from 1961 to 1968. From 1968 to 1971 inequality again decreased in terms of both cash and adjusted income. In 1971, the degree of inequality was less when incomes were adjusted for such items as imputed rent and income in kind. The distribution for individuals was more equal than, that for households. There was a more unequal distribution in urban areas and the average incomes in urban are sis were greater than those of rural areas. Average incomes and the degree of inequality were higher in the Central region than in the Northern and Southern regions. Interregional comparisons of rural and urban distributions show rursil inequality to have been less than urban inequaG.ity in the Northern and Southern regions, while the reverse was true for the Central region. Both industrial and agricultural output, education and health services are concentrated in the Central region, where productivity and growth rates were highest during the 1956 to 1971 period. Highly skilled and qualified labour was also concentrated in the Central region - especially in Baghdad - where its income was, on average, one third higher than in the Southern region and one quarter higher than in the Northern region. The Kuznets hypothesis was supported by the data for the rural areas but not the urban areas or the country as a whole. In the rural areas equality was found to have been inversely related to the rate of population growth and the degree of urbanization and positively related to the primary school enrolment rate. In urban areas, equality was positively related to urbanization and population growth and to the urban literacy rate. The share of industry in GNP was inversely related to equality.

This thesis provides a quantitative investigation into the effect of new social policy instruments on income inequality. Income inequality has increased over recent decades in the developed world, and existing studies have shown that a high level of income inequality is related to many social problems such as low levels of social trust or high crime rates. The welfare state, which had played an important role in relieving poverty and income inequality, is now under pressure for reformation due to economic and sociological changes. Many new policy instruments have been introduced in the process of welfare reform, and this thesis focuses particularly on private pensions and an active labour market policy. Existing studies have examined the distributive outcome of these policy instruments but they have shown inconsistent results. In addition, the existing literature suffers from limitations, particularly in the failure to consider the interaction between new policy instruments and the pre-existing institutional design of the welfare state. The contribution of this study is to examine how new policy instruments affect income inequality by considering the interaction between new policy instruments and the institutional design of the traditional welfare state. Data are measured at country-level and consist of nineteen OECD countries between 1980 and 2010 (for the case of private pension), and twenty-one OECD countries between 1985 and 2010 (for the case of active labour market policy). The analysis is conducted mainly by multi-level analysis. Multi-level analysis can estimate the effect of time-invariant variables without unrealistic assumptions. The results suggest that an increase in private pensions (excluding mandatory private pension) is related to a decrease in income inequality among the elderly but that the impact is different according to the institutional design of the public pension system. An increase in private pensions is related to an increase in income inequality when the public pension has a low level of coverage and a high level of earnings-relatedness. In the case of an active labour market policy, the results suggest that an increase in spending on active labour market policy is related to a decrease in income inequality, but this relation goes in the opposite direction when the unemployment benefit is based on a targeted or flat-rate system. This thesis suggests that there is no trade-off between new policy instruments and the traditional welfare state if the traditional welfare state is well-designed.

Understanding and enhancing productivity has been at the heart of sustainable growth goals of developing countries. Policy makers and multilateral agencies have inquired about what role the government can play in this regard. The empirical evidence at the micro level however, is surprisingly limited. This dissertation contributes to this literature by undertaking a firm and product level study of productivity. It estimates a causal effect of a typical industrial policy measure on total factor productivity and other firm outcomes. It also forwards a micro level explanation of the low productivity of capital despite its shortage in developing countries. We find that typical policy incentives like tax holiday and cheap loans targeted at firms in certain sectors and locations have negatively affected total factor productivity due to entry of less productive firms and diversification. We find that human capital, power and road infrastructure positively determine the productivity of capital. The dissertation goes on to examine gender pay inequality by constructing a new measure from gender disaggregated labour share in value added. This measure is comparable across time and across countries. We also undertake a causal analysis of what determines gender pay inequality. We find that although gender pay inequality has been declining it is still substantial. In addition in some middle income countries income have to triple for gender pay gap to close.

There is considerable evidence that health and development are better, on average, in countries with greater income equality. However, much of the research has focussed on average health and wellbeing; it is less clear how this benefit is distributed across society – do people from advantaged and disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds benefit equally? Further, there has been little research on the relationship between income inequality and child health. This thesis aimed to explore how the social gradient in child health and development varies in relation to income inequality in high income countries. I used two approaches to answer the question: Does everyone do better in more equal countries? I conducted a critical review of previous literature comparing social gradients in health and wellbeing. I also conducted original analysis using a comparative cohort study. I compared social gradients in health and development among children aged 4-6, using 7 cohort studies from 6 countries (US, UK, Australia, Canada, Netherlands, Sweden). I reviewed approaches to comparing data between studies and across countries, and harmonised the samples and variables to facilitate comparisons. The studies in the critical review varied considerably, but there was substantial evidence that health and wellbeing are better for everyone in more equal countries (with the most disadvantaged benefitting the most). In the comparative cohort analysis, there was some evidence that social gradients are steeper in more equal countries (inequalities are greater), and some evidence that everyone does better. However, there were many inconsistencies and comparisons were challenging due to measurement differences between the cohorts. The observation that social gradients are shallower in some countries than others shows that such inequalities can be prevented. There is growing evidence that people from all social backgrounds would benefit if countries had greater income equality.

The Eora, GTAP and WIOD multiregional input-output (MRIO) databases calculate different national level CO2 consumption-based accounts (CBA). If these outcomes are to be used as evidence in climate policy, analysts need to be confident as to the accuracy of the databases and to understand why the results differ. This thesis explores the different data sources, database structures and construction techniques used to build Eora, GTAP and WIOD. Analytical techniques, such as matrix difference statistics, structural decomposition analysis and structural path decomposition are used to quantify the nature of the difference and determine the cause of outcome difference. To make meaningful comparisons between the three MRIO databases, each is mapped to a consistent classification system comprising 40 countries and 17 sectors. The effect of this aggregation is shown to be fairly minimal, giving confidence that the aggregated versions of each database reflect the full-sized versions. This study finds that the main cause of difference in the CO2 CBA as calculated by different MRIO databases lies in the different emissions extension vectors used. Not only is the global emissions total different, but the distribution of emissions by industrial and the household sector differs depending on whether the particular database takes the territorial or residence principle to emissions allocation. The effect of differing global totals can be observed in the national CO2 CBA calculated for the same country being different in each database. The effect of the territorial or residence principle is evident when results are compared at the supply chain level. At this level of detail, it is also possible to quantify the effect of differing construction techniques used to populate data in the economic matrices. The thesis concludes by making recommendations as to how future MRIO databases could be constructed in an accurate and consistent manner and how they should be used in policy in light of the findings.

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In the first chapter of this thesis, I develop a model that combines intrahousehold bargaining with competition on the marriage market - once married, spouses bargain over the allocation of total household income. They have the option of divorce and subsequent remarriage; the value of this outside option is determined endogenously on the marriage market. I use this model to analyse the educational choice. When more women than men obtain a university degree, men without degrees benefit; university educated men, however, are not able to translate this change on the marriage market into a significantly larger share of household income. Hence, men's incentive to invest in education decreases if women's educational attainment increases. Even without assuming any heterogeneity in tastes between men and women, equilibria arise in which men and women decide to become educated at different rates. The second chapter shows empirically, that a woman's propensity to separate from her partner depends positively on male wage inequality on her local marriage market - the more heterogeneous potential future mates are in terms of earnings power, the more likely a woman is to end her relationship. This effect is strongest for couples, where one has a college education but the other one does not. The effect is robust to the inclusion of a variety of controls on the individual level, as well as state and time fixed effects and state specific time trends. The third chapter (co-authored with Julio Robledo) develops a two period family decision making model in which spouse bargain over the allocation of individual time and consumption. If inter-temporally binding contracts are not feasible, household time allocation might be inefficient. We compare two threat point specifications, and show that the threat point specification can influence spouses time allocation, not only the distribution of private consumption.