<p>This study is concerned with the contradiction in liberal-democratic society between the persistence of group inequalities on the one hand, and the firm commitment to individualism on the other. Individualism requires that group inequalities be absent, and that "particularistic policies" be avoided. Consequently, liberal governments tend to either ignore the issue of group inequality or abandon the liberal framework in order to deal with it. By examining the communal structure in pre-liberal societies, and the nature of modernday support for particularism, it has been found that the norm of universalism is to be preferred. The Indians in Canada have been used as an example illustrating the effects of a particularistic policy when applied in a liberal context. An analysis of the Indian case suggests that legal group differentiation does not reduce group inequality even within a liberal framework. The argument is advanced that a "liberal" solution to this problem is possible. Since liberal theory has been mute on this point, a solution is worked out by exploring what is consistent with classical liberal foundations as laid down by John Locke. In general, group differentiation may be practised (sic) in a qualified way provided it remains the exception, and is not established as a new norm.</p> / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

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This paper investigates economic inequality and voter turnout in a sample of 21 industrialized democracies using a pooled time series model of elections from 1970 to 1999. The findings demonstrate a connection between inequality and voter turnout wherein increases in inequality lead to reductions in voter turnout. The ramifications for democratic accountability and representative democracy are discussed.

This dissertation is an empirical investigation into the distributive effects of overand under-education, defined as market outcomes such that some workers possess skills over or below those required at their jobs respectively. This type of market failure can arise in assignment and search equilibrium settings, as well as in the presence of asymmetric information regarding workers' performance on the job. The existence of permanent and sizable mismatch rates means that returns to education are depressed for over-educated workers and in ated for under-qualified workers. Thus, irreversible decisions to invest in human capital are made in a context of uncertainty regarding the exact outcomes that might arise. As in the Todaro model, where individuals decide whether to migrate to cities based on the expected values of the available alternatives, workers might decide it is worthwhile to keep investing in education even if the probability of finding appropriate employment is falling. The three chapters of the dissertation are entitled: Skill Mismatch and Earnings: A Panel analysis of the U.S. Labor Market," Earnings Inequality and Skill Mismatch in the U.S: 1973-2003," and Employment and Distribution Effects of Changes in the Minimum Wage." Skill Mismatch and Earnings: A Panel analysis of the U.S. Labor Market This chapter examines the effect on earnings induced by a mismatch between workers' skills and the skills actually required on the job. It uses the Current Population Survey (CPS) for the period 1983-2002. The special re-interview methodology of the CPS is used to create a large panel, so that individual heterogeneity can be controlled for. Skill requirements are estimated by the median education level for each 3-digit occupation in the 1980 census occupational classification. The analysis, including the determination of skill requirements, is conducted for males and females separately. Cross-sectional analysis confirms the findings in the recent literature. Returns to required schooling are higher than the returns to attained education in standard earnings regressions. Also, for workers with similar educational attainment, over-education reduces earnings and under-education increases them. Contrary to what other studies have found, we conclude that these results are confirmed after controlling for individual fixed effects. The chapter also investigates which groups are more exposed to mismatch. I use standard probit analysis with over-education and under-education as the respective dependent variables. Women, service sector, and non-unionized workers appear to have higher probabilities of mismatch. Earnings Inequality and Skill Mismatch This chapter shows that skill mismatch is a significant source of inequality in real earnings in the U.S. and that a substantial fraction of the increase in wage dispersion during the period 1973-2002 was due to the increase in mismatch rates and mismatch premia. Standard human capital earnings regressions that do not decompose the education variable into required, surplus, and deficit years provide biased estimates of the relative importance of education in explaining earnings inequality. In 2000-2002 surplus and deficit qualifications taken together accounted for 4:3 and 4:6 percent of the variance in earnings, or around 15 percent of the total explained variance. The dramatic increase in over-education rates and premia accounts for around 11 and 32 percent of the increase in the coeffcient of variation of log earnings during the 30 years under analysis for males and females respectively. Residual inequality is slightly diminished when the estimating equation allows the prices of surplus, required and deficit qualifications to differ but the well-studied increasing trend of within-group inequality remains otherwise unchanged. Changes in the composition of the labor force are found to be important predictors of increasing residual inequality even when skill mismatch is taken into account. The Distributive Effects of the Minimum Wage: an Effciency Wage Model with Skill Mismatch (co-authored with Peter Skott) This chapter analyzes the effect of changes in the real value of the minimum wage on the wage distribution. Changes in the minimum wage and other labor market institutions affect workers in all groups and empirically appear to be good complement to standard supply and demand arguments in explaining overall inequality. We use an effciency wage model but allow for mismatch between jobs and workers. This framework yields predictions not only on the skill premium but also on the extent of inequality within groups. To keep matters as simple as possible, we assume that high-skill workers can get two types of jobs (good and bad), whereas low-skill workers have only one type of employment opportunity (bad). As long as some matches of high-skill workers and bad jobs are sustained in equilibrium, changes in the exogenous variables will affect not only wages and employment rates but also the degree of mismatch. Thus, this paper shows that `over-education' can be generated endogenously in effciency wage models and that a fall in the real value of the minimum wage can (i) reduce total employment, (ii) lead to a simultaneous decline in both the relative employment and the relative wage of low-skill workers, and (iii) produce a rise in within-group as well as between-group inequality. Evidence from the US suggests that these theoretical results are empirically relevant.

In this thesis we derive various generalizations and refinements of some classical inequalities in different function spaces. We consider some of the most important inequalities namely the Hardy, Pólya-Knopp, Jensen, Minkowski and Beckenbach-Dresher inequalities. The main focus is put on the Hardy and their limit Pólya-Knopp inequalities. Indeed, we derive such inequalities even in a general Banach functionsetting. The thesis consists of three papers (A, B and C) and an introduction, which put these papers into a more general frame. This introduction has also independent interest since it shortly describe the dramatic more than 100 years of development of Hardy-type inequalities. It contains both well-known and very new ideas and results. In paper A we prove and discuss some new Hardy-type inequalities in Banach function space settings. In particular, such a result is proved and applied for a new general Hardy operator, which is introduced in this paper (this operator generalizes the usualHardy kernel operator). These results generalize and unify several classical Hardy-type inequalities. In paper B we prove some new refined Hardy-type inequalities again in Banach function space settings. The used (super quadraticity) technique is also illustrated by making refinements of some generalized forms of the Jensen, Minkowski and Beckenbach-Dresher inequalities. These results both generalize and unify several results of this type. In paper C for the case 0&lt;p≤q&lt;∞ we prove some new Pólya-Knopp inequalities in two and higher dimensions with good two-sided estimates of the sharp constants. By using this result and complementary ideas it is also proved a new multidimensional weighted Pólya-Knopp inequality with sharp constant. / In this thesis we derive various generalizations and refinements of some classical inequalities in different function spaces. We consider some of the most important inequalities namely the Hardy, Pólya-Knopp, Jensen, Minkowski and Beckenbach-Dresher inequalities. The main focus is put on the Hardy and their limit, Pólya-Knopp inequalities. Indeed, we derive such inequalities even in a general Banach function setting.  We prove and discuss some new Hardy-type inequalities in Banach function space settings. In particular, such a result is proved and applied for a new general Hardy operator. These results generalize and unify several classical Hardy-type inequalities. Next, we prove some new refined Hardy-type inequalities again in Banach function space settings. We used superquadraticity technique to prove refinements of some classical inequalities. Finally, for the case 0&lt;p≤q&lt;∞, we prove some new Pólya-Knopp inequalities in two and higher dimensions with good two-sided estimates of the sharp constants. By using this result and complementary ideas it is also proved a new multidimensional weighted Pólya-Knopp inequality with sharp constant.

This dissertation contains three essays on the political economy and economic development in Iran. In the first paper, I investigate the political resource curse. The comprehensive literature on the relationship between democracy and income counts oil-rich countries in Middle East as outliers: the abundance of funds for the states and the absence of effective tax systems hold back the formation of democracy. But democracy is more than a purely political system. Sustainable democracy requires a set of social norms and intra-citizen relationships that is called social capital. Emphasizing the importance of the formation of social capital on the democratization of a society, I use female labor force participation as a proxy for social capital. Using survival analysis, I show that oil revenue delays the formation of the social capital required for the democracy. In the second paper, I inspect the trend and patterns of group-based inequality in Iran. Inequality among groups can be a source of conflict and instability. Iran is a habitat of ethnic diversity and experiences stable peaceful relationships among its ethnicities, while its neighbors experience many ethnic conflicts. In this study, we compute three measures of group-based inequality for the following outcomes: education, assets, income, and expenditure per capita. The groups are defined based on gender, ethnicity/language (Persian, Azeri, and other ethnic minorities), and region (urban versus rural and capital city versus other places). The data are 23 years of annual Household Expenditure and Income Surveys (HEIS) from 1990 through 2012. Inequality between groups based on religion (Muslim, non-Muslim) and citizenship (Iranian, Non-Iranian) is also studied, using the 2006 census. The analysis of the trend of horizontal inequality reveals substantial reduction in between-group inequalities over the 1990–2012 period. On the other hand, gender based income inequality remains high. The implications and underlying reasons for these results are discussed. The third paper studies one the most serious recent problems facing Iran’s economy: the economic cost of the recent US and UN sanctions. This paper measures the economic cost of the U.N. trade and financial sanctions on Iran’s economy. While there is a substantial literature studying how sanctions impact the economies of target states, the aggregate economic cost of sanctions remains underexplored. This study provides a new measure of the cost of sanctions at the aggregate level, defined as the gap between Iran’s actual GDP and what it would have been without sanctions. Using the synthetic control method of analysis, I replicate Iran’s GDP without sanctions. I demonstrate that, while previous sanctions had a negligible impact, Iran’s GDP fell markedly following the financial sanctions of 2010. / PHD

Income inequality in Florida is higher than in many states and has been getting worse over time. Inequality has been argued as responsible for a wide-ranging array of economic and social problems, including suppression of lower- and middle-income growth, social fragmentation and separatism, urban sprawl, poor health and mental illnesses, violence, and shortened life expectancy. What explains variance in Florida county income inequality as measured by the GINI coefficient? Bivariate and multivariate weighted least square regressions are conducted for the years 2000 and 2016, and for the change between 2000 and 2016. Three variables achieve statistical significance in all three multivariate models: poverty rate and population density have a positive effect as does educational attainment (although that variable is negative in the 2000 model). Income per capita has a statistically significant positive relationship with inequality in the 2000 model and in the change model. Unemployment rate is statistically significant in the 2016 model and in the change model but has a positive association with the GINI index in the former and a negative association in the latter. Several variables were statistically significant in just one model: cost-burdened housing with a positive relationship to inequality and percentage of minorities with a negative relationship in 2016; and county tax rate with a positive association with inequality in the change model. Conclusions are drawn regarding policy that might be implemented to mitigate worsening inequality in the Sunshine State.

Malaysia’s preferential policies have reduced the educational attainment gap between ethnic groups. However, we know less about their effects on ethnic differences in academic achievement. With this point in mind, the overall goal of this study is to examine inter-ethnic differences in mathematics and science achievement based on the cohort of eighth grade (Form 2) Malaysian students who participated in the Third International Mathematics and Sciences Study Repeat Project (TIMMS-R). It sought to determine the extent to which theoretical propositions of the structural and cultural perspectives developed to explain achievement differences in the United States are applicable in Malaysia. Malaysia is an interesting setting for the purpose of the present study for three reasons. First, the interethnic differences in educational outcomes were historically linked to occupational structure and class-and ethnicity-based residential segregation during the Brisish colonial rule. Second, Malaysia is one of the few countries (i.e. Fiji, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Uganda, India, and New Zealand) that have strong public policies to rectify the historical ethnic inequalities in access to education. However, the difference between Malaysia and these countries seems to be in the relative status of the formerly disadvantaged ethnic group in question. Finally, as a new member of the New Industrialized Countries (NICs), Malaysia is in the process of making the transition from an agricultural economy to an indutrialized nation. As such, the importance of mathematics and science education increases along with socioeconomic and technological advance and the discrepancies in mathematics and science achievement can have important implications on socioeconomic disparity among ethnic groups. The primary contribution of this dissertation is that it holistically examines how individual, family and school characteristics affect mathematics and science achievement of the eighth graders in Malaysia. The multilevel modeling analyses showed that Non-Malay students performed significantly better in mathematics achievement than Malay students, even after controlling for family and school characteristics as well as students’ perceived importance of mathematics and educational expectations. Overall, the results suggest that the structural and cultural perspectives work differently for Malay and Non-Malay students.

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