This dissertation argues that public opinion regarding the acceptability and desirability of income differences is affected by actual income inequality. Cross-national survey evidence is combined with laboratory and survey experiments to show that estimates regarding appropriate income differences depend on (perceptions of) real income differences. When income inequality changes, public opinion "habituates" by adjusting expectations for fair levels of inequality in the same direction as the factual change. The adjustment occurs because humans are subject to status quo bias and have a motivated tendency to believe in a just world. In the context of increasing inequality in developed democracies over the last 40 years, the implication is that normative expectations for appropriate levels of inequality have adjusted up. This habituation process helps explain why increases in inequality have not been accompanied by increased demands for redistribution and why cross-national variation in income inequality is not clearly linked to public opposition to such inequality. / Government

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The United States currently provides a health care system that is neither efficient nor equitable. Despite outspending the world on health care, over three-fourths of developed countries produce better health outcomes (Auerbach et al., 2000). Simultaneously, the "Ecological School of Thought" has documented the large impact that social, economic, and environmental circumstances play in health outcomes. Unfortunately, these 'ecological" studies are frequently conducted without theoretical justification, and rely solely on a cross-sectional research design and a myriad of unrelated variables. This study represents an important step towards the development of a true theory of "ecology". More specifically, we argue that the adversity associated with socio-economic disadvantage, social disorganization, and a lack of health care resources, leads to adverse health outcomes, represented by sentinel health events. This research employs both a cross-sectional (2000) and longitudinal designs (1990 - 2000) to assess the antecedents of sentinel health events in 309 United States counties. Structural Equation Modeling was the statistical technique employed in the study. Findings revealed that socioeconomic disadvantage remains a primary contributor to sentinel health. Indeed the economic growth between 1990 and 2000 was associated with increased rates of sentinel health events. Social disorganization was identified as a primary contributor to sentinel health events at a specific time point (2000), but was not significant over time (1990 -2000). Conversely, the inadequacy of health care resources was non-significant in the cross-sectional model (2000), but significant in the longitudinal model (1990 -2000). In both models, racial characteristics were fundamentally linked to ecological predictors of health We found support for the notion that sentinel health events would be reduced through economic equity and the development of healthy environments where community ties are reinforced. Less support is found for saturating given geographical areas with health care resources in order to reduce sentinel health events. Future research should be directed by the theoretical advancements made by this study. More specifically, future studies should examine independent cross-level effects, that is, through the inclusion of behavior variables as mediating factors for ecological constructs.

Despite the growing body of research in related disciplines, including economics, management, politics, psychology, and sociology, marketing research has largely overlooked the downstream consequences of economic inequality, despite its undeniable impact on individuals' consumption decisions and experiences. This dissertation endeavors to bridge this knowledge gap by uncovering two novel consumer consequences of economic inequality. To accomplish this, it draws upon a diverse range of data sources, including individual-level experimental and survey data, as well as aggregate-level transaction and census data. Additionally, it examines economic inequality across multiple levels, encompassing communities, counties, states, and countries, and operationalizes it both as objective and perceived economic inequality. In Essay 1, I investigate how economic inequality in a consumer's region affects their access to peer-to-peer (P2P) services. Across diverse types of P2P services, I find convergent evidence that increased economic inequality in a consumer's region reduces providers' willingness to serve them, ultimately resulting in their diminished access to P2P services. This adverse effect of economic inequality can be attributed to providers perceiving consumers from more unequal regions as less trustworthy. This perception leads them to perceive heightened financial risks associated with serving these consumers. Moreover, this negative impact of economic inequality attenuates when providers perceive greater interpersonal similarity with consumers from unequal regions. In Essay 2, I explore how economic inequality within one's society affects their education decisions through the lens of perceived education premium. Firstly, it encourages people to attend college as it amplifies the perceived education premium of college—the income gap between college graduates and high school graduates. Secondly, it motivates people to choose majors with higher earning potential but lower personal interests, as opposed to those that align more with their genuine interests but pay less. This shift towards prioritizing extrinsic motivations over intrinsic ones is driven by people's perception of a more significant education premium between majors—the income disparity between higher-paying and lower-paying majors. / Doctor of Philosophy / Economic inequality, defined as the unequal distribution of income among various groups in a society, has been on the rise globally in recent decades. Amid the growing economic inequality, researchers have been delving into its profound impacts on individuals across diverse domains, exploring its influences on their mindsets, perspectives on the world, social lives, and overall well-being. It's surprising that there has been relatively little research on how economic inequality affects people's consumption decisions and experiences, given its undeniable influence on them. In this dissertation, I explore the impacts of economic inequality on consumers' access to P2P services and education decision-making. In Essay 1, I investigate how economic inequality in a consumer's region affects their access to peer-to-peer (P2P) services. I examine whether P2P providers are equally willing to serve consumers from regions with varying levels of economic inequality. I reveal a disconcerting reality: providers are less willing to offer P2P services to consumers from more unequal regions, driven by the perception of these consumers as less trustworthy and posing a higher financial risk. These differing attitudes ultimately lead to reduced access to P2P services and region-based discrimination for consumers from regions characterized by higher economic inequality. Fortunately, these adverse outcomes can be mitigated by an increase in perceived interpersonal similarity between providers and consumers. In Essay 2, I investigate how economic inequality in one's society shapes their education decisions. I find that as economic inequality rises, people become more willing to pursue a college education because they perceive a wider income gap between well-educated individuals and those with lower levels of education. Besides college decisions, economic inequality also influences people's choice of major for a similar reason. In a society characterized by greater economic inequality, people gravitate towards majors that promise higher earning potential, even if these fields do not align closely with their personal interests. This preference is driven by their perception of a greater wage difference between higher- and lower-paying majors. These findings provide policy implications for several pressing challenges in higher education.

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As economic inequality constantly grows, understanding what drives individuals’ support for redistribution is as critical as ever. In the current dissertation, we find evidence suggesting that attitudes towards reducing economic inequality can be experienced with moral conviction (i.e., perceived as rooted in one’s core beliefs about right and wrong). This, in turn, can motivate support for redistribution. In Study 1, reducing economic inequality moral conviction scores were comparable to other highly moralized topics (e.g., euthanasia), and higher than lowly moralized topics (e.g., tattoos). In Studies 2 and 3, a greater moral conviction for reducing economic inequality (family wealth and family income, respectively) positively predicted support for redistributive government policies (such as minimum wages and tax breaks increases) – also when controlling for income, subjective socio-economic inequality and economic system justification (i.e., other critical predictors of support for redistribution). Furthermore, this relationship was mediated by empathic concern (with mixed results) and structural causal attributions. Finally, Study 4 showed how moral conviction predicted a positive evaluation of poverty reduction program – even in the face of negative evidence (i.e., description of a fictitious family misusing their welfare bonuses). Moreover, moral conviction worked as a predictor of family evaluation when positive cases were shown. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of one’s moral conviction as a motivator of support for redistributive policies - suggesting that future research should take into account addressing not only implications concerning cost and benefits, but individuals’ personal moral considerations as well.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-10T10:50:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 SANDRA SARNO RODRIGUES SANTOS.pdf: 3093659 bytes, checksum: 64cd685d615dba517a4972e7f5664cc7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-06-27 / The urbanization of the Brazilian city, from the second half of the twentieth century, is a centre of cities polarizator of political, economic, cultural, in the regional and national levels. Underlines that, the cities assume the role of command of the organization of geographical area and urban, especially those cities. The disorderly growth of Brazilian cities, especially metropolitan regions is the result of a lack of urban planning, the huge socio-economic inequality between social classes. Currently, the metropolitan regions face various problems such as housing deficit, urban public transport, education, health and violence, even Goiânia, a city planned escape this reality. The metropolitan regions thus becoming areas of social tension, or even the creation and deployment of metropolitan areas by the Federal Government and state governments then passed to the imposition of same, was not able to resolve these problems. In the case of the creation of the Metropolitan Region of Goiânia - RMG, according to the interviewees was the worsening quality of life of their residents, resulting from increased housing deficit, the inefficiency of public transport to meet increasing demand and violence. Among the solutions given by respondents to resolve or alleviate the problems of RMG out the urban planning and management shared. / A urbanização da cidade brasileira, a partir da segunda metade do século XX, faz das cidades um centro polarizador da vida política, econômica, cultural, no contexto regional e nacional. Destaca que, as cidades assumem o papel de comando da organização do espaço geográfico e urbano, em especial as metrópoles. O crescimento desordenado das cidades brasileiras, sobretudo das regiões metropolitanas é fruto da ausência de um planejamento urbano, da imensa desigualdade sócio-econômica entre as classes sociais. Na atualidade, as regiões metropolitanas enfrentam vários problemas como o déficit habitacional, transporte coletivo urbano, educação, saúde e violência, nem mesmo Goiânia, uma cidade planejada foge desta realidade. As regiões metropolitanas tornam assim áreas de tensão social, nem mesmo a criação e a implantação das regiões metropolitanas pelo Governo Federal e posteriormente repassado aos governos estaduais a instituição das mesmas, não foi capaz de solucionar esses problemas. No caso da criação da Região Metropolitana de Goiânia RMG, segundo os entrevistados houve o agravamento da qualidade de vida de seus moradores, decorrente do aumento do déficit habitacional, a ineficiência do transporte coletivo para atender a demanda crescente e a violência. Entre as soluções sugeridas pelos entrevistados para resolver ou amenizar os problemas da RMG sobressaíram o planejamento urbano e a gestão compartilhada.

Plusieurs chercheurs considèrent qu’il existe un modèle québécois quant aux politiques sociales et économiques. Mais qu’en est-il sur le plan de la réduction des inégalités? Plus spécifiquement, est-ce que les citoyens du Québec perçoivent différemment les inégalités et sont-ils favorables lorsque l’État intervient pour les réduire? Et comment la presse québécoise réagit-elle vis-à-vis de cet enjeu? Ce mémoire se penche sur ces questions et vise à déterminer si le Québec se distingue de l’Ontario relativement à la perception des inégalités socio-économiques et à leur représentation médiatique. Deux types de données sont analysés : 1) une enquête de l’ISSP de 1992 portant sur les attitudes des Canadiens face aux inégalités socio-économiques 2) la couverture médiatique de l’élaboration d’une loi sur l’équité salariale visant la réduction d’une inégalité. Ces sources de données permettent d’étudier les différences de perceptions et de représentation des inégalités selon deux approches distinctes, mais complémentaires. De plus, dans une perspective comparative, le Québec est comparé à l’Ontario au cours des deux analyses. Les résultats de cette recherche montrent que sur le plan des perceptions et des attitudes, les deux provinces se ressemblaient quant à l’importance attribuée à la performance et au niveau d’études et de responsabilités pour déterminer le salaire d’un individu. De plus, les Québécois et les Ontariens allouaient un niveau d’importance similaire au réseau de contacts pour réussir dans la vie. Par contre, les Québécois étaient plus favorables à l’intervention étatique pour réduire les inégalités économiques et attribuaient davantage d’importance aux besoins familiaux pour déterminer ce qu’une personne devrait gagner. De manière marginalement significative, les Québécois considéraient dans une moindre mesure que les Ontariens, que les attributs personnels dont le sexe ou la religion affectaient les chances de réussite. L'analyse de contenu des quatre journaux a permis de constater à la fois des ressemblances et des divergences entre les deux provinces. Les deux couvertures médiatiques traitaient sensiblement des mêmes thèmes et rapportaient des sources similaires. Toutefois, il y avait trois différences majeures. Les journaux québécois se sont montrés moins favorables à la Loi sur l’équité salariale que dans la province voisine et ils ont davantage mentionné les conséquences économiques de la loi. Par ailleurs, les causes de l’iniquité salariale rapportées dans les articles au Québec concernaient davantage les différences de capital humain que la discrimination systémique vécue par les femmes, contrairement à ce qui est apparu dans les deux médias en Ontario. Le résultat le plus important de ce mémoire est que la couverture médiatique québécoise ne concorde pas avec l’opinion publique qui était favorable à l’intervention étatique pour réduire les inégalités. Ceci rappelle que les médias ne sont pas le simple reflet de la réalité ni de l'opinion publique. Ils présentent différentes facettes de la réalité à l'intérieur de certains paramètres, dont la structure organisationnelle dans laquelle ils se trouvent. / Many researchers consider that a Quebec model exists for social and economic policies, yet, how does this translate on the level of inequality reduction? More specifically, do Quebec citizens perceive inequalities differently than Ontario and are they quite favorable to government intervention to reduce them? What about Quebec’s press, do they react differently towards this issue? In this thesis, I investigate whether Quebec differs from Ontario in terms of perceptions about and attitudes towards social-economic inequalities. In order to answer this question, two data sources were used: 1) a 1992 ISSP public opinion poll 2) newspaper media coverage of the elaboration of a pay equity law aimed at reducing an inequality. These two data serve as lenses through which to consider differences in perceptions and representation and although distinct, they are complementary. I focus on the cases of Quebec and Ontario. The survey analysis revealed that perceptions and attitudes regarding the importance of performance, education levels, and responsibilities were similar in the two provinces in determining a person’s salary. Moreover, Quebeckers and Ontarians attributed similar levels of importance to social networks to succeed in life. This being said, Quebeckers gave higher levels of support to state intervention to reduce inequalities and granted greater importance to family needs in determining how much a person should earn. A marginally significant result also revealed that Quebeckers considered personal characteristics such as sex and religion less important in determining a person's chances of succeeding in life. The content analysis of four newspapers revealed that Quebeckers and Ontarians shared similarities: both media coverage had similar main themes and sources. However, there are three main differences. Quebec media was less favourable to the pay equity law than its Ontario counterpart and it more frequently mentioned the economic consequences of the law. Additionally, numerous explanations of pay iniquity brought forward by the Quebec press had more to do with differences in human capital than in systemic discrimination towards women, a situation not present in the neighboring province. The core findings of this thesis is that Quebec media representation was quite different from public opinion which was favorable to government intervention to reduce inequalities. This reminds us that the media is not a direct reflection of reality nor of public opinion It frames certain aspects of reality within given parameters notably the organizational structure within which it operates.

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Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA (DVS) / The South African government has earmarked infrastructure development as a key driver of the economy. The infrastructure sectors of energy, water and transport have received large Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) loans to fund new projects, repairs and maintenance. The DBSA loan approvals to municipalities for the period 2012-2013 was R2.3 billion. Loans to 'under-resourced' municipalities totalled R927 million for the same period. Key infrastructure sectors included electricity (R466 million), roads and drainage (R678 million), community facilities (R735 million) and water and sanitation (R1.2 billion). The DBSA is owned by the South African state and its relationship with municipalities is legislated and regulated through the Constitution and an Act of Parliament. One of the post-apartheid roles of the DBSA is to support the infrastructure development agenda of the State through a complexed network of infrastructure projects in the key infrastructure sectors of water and sanitation, education, housing, health and housing. It does so through project, technical and development finance support to municipalities. The underlying rationale for the relationship between municipalities and the DBSA is to forward the States' agenda of providing equal access to basic services and develop infrastructure to support its social and economic development agenda. While the DBSA does provide infrastructure grants and facilitates intergovernmental transfers to municipalities, it also provides infrastructure loans to municipalities for both capital expenditure and large-scale infrastructure projects. The premise of development banks is to provide development finance for infrastructure projects at low interest. The DBSA specifically as a state-owned bank has an overall agenda to develop the infrastructure of poorer municipalities whose credit-worthiness will not allow it to qualify for commercial loans.