The role of inequality in development has been the subject of long-standing debates in academic and policy circles. Notwithstanding disagreements about exactly how the two are linked, conventional wisdom agrees that inequality is an objective 'fact' that can be measured free from ideological considerations. New data detect trends towards higher inequality, weaker economic positions for those at the bottom, and a concentration of wealth at the very top of the distribution in most regions. Inequality studies as currently practiced are ill-equipped to accommodate the empirical changes and the resulting theoretical implications. Putting an end to over half a century of mainstream consensus assuming that inequality would automatically recede with developmental progress, the discipline needs rethinking. My thesis proposes a new research agenda for studying inequality that is not only able to integrate these empirical developments, but which also challenges what has been taken for granted: that inequality just is, independently of context, time and observer. Instead, it proposes that along with its objective existence, inequality is a relational phenomenon subjectively experienced relative to a particular context. In five interconnected Sections, my dissertation challenges conventional views of how inequality looks, how it is seen, and what can be done about it, especially in developing countries. The study focuses on the ways in which inequality is perceived, and how it is perpetuated. After an introduction to the subject in Section I, Section II investigates how inadequate measurement perpetuates inequality, proposing a new indicator that shows that inequality is largely defined in the extreme ends of the income distribution. Section III examines the reproduction of inequality at the bottom, contrasting minimum wage policies over recent decades in Mexico with those of other countries in Latin America. In light of a political economy resistant to change, Section IV scrutinizes Mexican elites, exploring how inequality is perceived from the very top of the income distribution, how this affects policy-making and, subsequently, measured inequality levels. Section V concludes by outlining the theoretical and practical implications of my findings.

Este estudo demonstra, a partir de uma abordagem etnográfica, o processo de inserção e permanência de trabalhadores no mercado de trabalho informal; as formas de exploração, dominação e precarização do trabalho e suas conseqüências sobre as condições de saúde, trabalho e vida dos trabalhadores, a partir de quatro grupos abordados mais diretamente: os vendedores ambulantes; os catadores de materiais de reciclagem; os colhedores de laranja; e os pescadores de lagosta. A pesquisa revela as estratégias de resistência desenvolvidas pelos agentes informais no cotidiano de trabalho, bem como as formas de organização adotada por eles para tentar reverter a situação de pobreza e exploração. O posicionamento das várias instituições sociais e políticas em particular os sindicatos, as cooperativas e as Organizações Não-Governamentais (ONGs), os movimentos sociais e, principalmente, o Estado frente ao contexto da economia informal, é destacado neste estudo. O objetivo principal é analisar a articulação do trabalho informal e sua importância no modo de produção capitalista. Tal entendimento possibilita combater as reais causas do desemprego, da informalidade e da desigualdade social e econômica. Faz-se a crítica aos princípios do empreendedorismo, da autonomia e do cooperativismo como alternativas ao desemprego. As várias formas de trabalho na informalidade, como o trabalho autônomo; o trabalho por conta-própria; o trabalho temporário; e o trabalho terceirizado, encobrem o caráter subordinado do trabalho informal aos setores dinâmicos da economia e, consequentemente, ao processo de acumulação capitalista. A falta de um contrato de trabalho, ou de um contrato que proteja totalmente o trabalhador, é considerada uma afronta à cidadania social. Sendo assim, o trabalhador informal deixa de ser visto como cidadão ou como sujeito de direitos. Esse problema se torna importante na medida em que analisamos o tipo de economia, o modelo de desenvolvimento e o papel do Estado como responsável pelas políticas públicas de educação; de saúde; de emprego; e de segurança, entre outras medidas voltadas a esse segmento da população. Pensamos num modelo de desenvolvimento em que sejam considerados os interesses sociais e a defesa do meio ambiente. A prioridade devem ser os investimentos na educação, em primeiro lugar. Com uma educação básica e fundamental de qualidade, podemos vislumbrar uma possibilidade de desenvolvimento com inclusão social. Os direitos de cidadania, nesse caso, se traduzem em ter acesso à educação, aos serviços de saúde, ao trabalho decente e à segurança, entre outras necessidades, para todos. / This study demonstrates, through an ethnographic approach, the process of insertion and permanence of workers in the informal labor market the forms of exploitation, domination, and precarization of work and their consequences with regard to the health, working, and living conditions of the workers considering most directly the following four groups: street vendors, collectors of materials for recycling, orange pickers, and lobster fishermen. The study reveals the resistance strategies developed by the informal agents in their daily work routine, as well as the forms of organization that they have adopted in an attempt to overturn the situation of poverty and exploitation. Emphasized in this study is the positioning of the various social and political institutions particularly unions, cooperatives, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), social movements, and, mainly, the state in the context of the informal economy. The main objective is to analyze the role of informal work and its importance in the capitalist mode of production. This understanding will allow for combatting the real causes of unemployment, informality of labor, and social and economic inequality. A criticism is made of the principles of entrepreneurism, autonomy, and cooperativism that have been suggested as alternatives to unemployment. The various forms of informal work such as autonomous work, self-employment, temporary work, and outsourced work obfuscate the subordination of informal work to the dynamic sectors of the economy and, consequently, to the process of capitalist accumulation. The lack of a labor contract, or of a contract that completely protects the worker, is considered an affront to social citizenship. This being the case, the informal worker is not seen as a citizen or as a legal subject. This problem becomes increasingly important as we analyze the type of economy, the development model, and the role of the state as the agent responsible for public policies of education, healthcare, employment, and security, among other measures aimed at this segment of the population. A development model that takes into account social interests and the defense of the environment is proposed. Priority must be given to investment in education, in the first place. With quality primary education, it is possible to envision development with social inclusion. The rights of citizenship, in this case, translate into access to education, health services, decent work, and security among other needs for all.

The personal income taxes as well as individual welfare benefits are among the basic tools of redistribution in the Czech Republic. The diploma thesis concentrates on the qualification of the transfers realized with the help of these tools and the identification of the recipients of these transfers. The theoretical part of this work introduces both redistributing systems and analyzes possible tools of redistribution. The reader is introduced into the problems caused by both systems and also possible solutions. The systems have been dealt with separately so far. The final part of my work therefore brings among other things a different perspective on the change of the distribution of income before and after taxation and before and after receiving social transfers. Gini index and graphic representation of the effect of redistribution at the Lorenz curve are used here. The final part of my work also summarizes data on the income distribution in the Czech Republic and on the changes caused by the taxation or provision of social transfers.

nÃo hà / Esse trabalho teve por objetivo analisar a desigualdade de renda entre os municÃpios do estado do Piauà no perÃodo compreendido entre 1995 e 2007, no qual se testou, inicialmente, a validade da hipÃtese da curva de Kuznets e da convergÃncia da renda per capita. Em seguida fez-se uma anÃlise da desigualdade de renda a partir da decomposiÃÃo do Ãndice de Theil, considerando-se os fatores renda, gÃnero, raÃa, educaÃÃo e nÃvel de desenvolvimento. Concluiu-se que as condiÃÃes necessÃrias e suficientes de convergÃncia sÃo atendidas, bem como a hipÃtese do U-invertido da curva de Kuznets. Estima-se que o Piauà necessitaria de 27 anos para reduzir a desigualdade à metade entre seus municÃpios, a uma velocidade de convergÃncia de 0,2889. A desigualdade de gÃnero declinou ao longo do perÃodo e a educaÃÃo à a variÃvel que mais influencia a desigualdade no estado, seguida pela variÃvel inter-racial. O efeito da educaÃÃo sobre a desigualdade à significantemente realÃada quando a decomposiÃÃo distingue os municÃpios mais e menos desenvolvidos. / This dissertation aimed to analyze income inequality amongst the municipalities of the state of Piaui in the period 1995 â 2007 by testing, initially, the validity of the Kuznetsâ curve hypothesis and convergence of per capita income. Besides, it was analyzed a decomposition of Theil index based upon the factors: income, gender, race, education and development stage. It was concluded that the necessary and sufficient conditions of convergence are met, as well as the hypothesis of U-inverted of Kuznetsâ curve. It is estimated that the state of Piaui would need 27 years to reduce inequality in half between its municipalities, at a speed of convergence of 0.2889. Inequality due to gender declined along the period and education is the variable that most influences the income difference in the state, followed by the factor race. The effect of education on the inequality is significantly enhanced as municipalities are distinguished between those more and less developed.

Este estudo demonstra, a partir de uma abordagem etnográfica, o processo de inserção e permanência de trabalhadores no mercado de trabalho informal; as formas de exploração, dominação e precarização do trabalho e suas conseqüências sobre as condições de saúde, trabalho e vida dos trabalhadores, a partir de quatro grupos abordados mais diretamente: os vendedores ambulantes; os catadores de materiais de reciclagem; os colhedores de laranja; e os pescadores de lagosta. A pesquisa revela as estratégias de resistência desenvolvidas pelos agentes informais no cotidiano de trabalho, bem como as formas de organização adotada por eles para tentar reverter a situação de pobreza e exploração. O posicionamento das várias instituições sociais e políticas em particular os sindicatos, as cooperativas e as Organizações Não-Governamentais (ONGs), os movimentos sociais e, principalmente, o Estado frente ao contexto da economia informal, é destacado neste estudo. O objetivo principal é analisar a articulação do trabalho informal e sua importância no modo de produção capitalista. Tal entendimento possibilita combater as reais causas do desemprego, da informalidade e da desigualdade social e econômica. Faz-se a crítica aos princípios do empreendedorismo, da autonomia e do cooperativismo como alternativas ao desemprego. As várias formas de trabalho na informalidade, como o trabalho autônomo; o trabalho por conta-própria; o trabalho temporário; e o trabalho terceirizado, encobrem o caráter subordinado do trabalho informal aos setores dinâmicos da economia e, consequentemente, ao processo de acumulação capitalista. A falta de um contrato de trabalho, ou de um contrato que proteja totalmente o trabalhador, é considerada uma afronta à cidadania social. Sendo assim, o trabalhador informal deixa de ser visto como cidadão ou como sujeito de direitos. Esse problema se torna importante na medida em que analisamos o tipo de economia, o modelo de desenvolvimento e o papel do Estado como responsável pelas políticas públicas de educação; de saúde; de emprego; e de segurança, entre outras medidas voltadas a esse segmento da população. Pensamos num modelo de desenvolvimento em que sejam considerados os interesses sociais e a defesa do meio ambiente. A prioridade devem ser os investimentos na educação, em primeiro lugar. Com uma educação básica e fundamental de qualidade, podemos vislumbrar uma possibilidade de desenvolvimento com inclusão social. Os direitos de cidadania, nesse caso, se traduzem em ter acesso à educação, aos serviços de saúde, ao trabalho decente e à segurança, entre outras necessidades, para todos. / This study demonstrates, through an ethnographic approach, the process of insertion and permanence of workers in the informal labor market the forms of exploitation, domination, and precarization of work and their consequences with regard to the health, working, and living conditions of the workers considering most directly the following four groups: street vendors, collectors of materials for recycling, orange pickers, and lobster fishermen. The study reveals the resistance strategies developed by the informal agents in their daily work routine, as well as the forms of organization that they have adopted in an attempt to overturn the situation of poverty and exploitation. Emphasized in this study is the positioning of the various social and political institutions particularly unions, cooperatives, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), social movements, and, mainly, the state in the context of the informal economy. The main objective is to analyze the role of informal work and its importance in the capitalist mode of production. This understanding will allow for combatting the real causes of unemployment, informality of labor, and social and economic inequality. A criticism is made of the principles of entrepreneurism, autonomy, and cooperativism that have been suggested as alternatives to unemployment. The various forms of informal work such as autonomous work, self-employment, temporary work, and outsourced work obfuscate the subordination of informal work to the dynamic sectors of the economy and, consequently, to the process of capitalist accumulation. The lack of a labor contract, or of a contract that completely protects the worker, is considered an affront to social citizenship. This being the case, the informal worker is not seen as a citizen or as a legal subject. This problem becomes increasingly important as we analyze the type of economy, the development model, and the role of the state as the agent responsible for public policies of education, healthcare, employment, and security, among other measures aimed at this segment of the population. A development model that takes into account social interests and the defense of the environment is proposed. Priority must be given to investment in education, in the first place. With quality primary education, it is possible to envision development with social inclusion. The rights of citizenship, in this case, translate into access to education, health services, decent work, and security among other needs for all.

This thesis consists of four empirical essays. The first essay evaluates the impact on crime of a large scale experimental scheme in which all state monopoly alcohol stores in selected Swedish counties kept open on Saturdays. We show that the experiment significantly raised both alcohol sales and crime. The effect is confined to Saturdays and tentative evidence indicates a displacement of crime from weekdays to Saturdays. The experiment had no significant impact on crime over the entire week. The second essay examines the effect of income inequality on health for newly arrived refugees. The results reveal no statistically significant effect of income inequality on the risk of being hospitalized. This finding holds for most population subgroups and when separating between different types of diagnoses. The conclusions do not change when we consider long-term exposure to inequality. Our estimates are precise enough to rule out large effects of income inequality on health. The third essay examines the effect of relative income differences on criminal behavior. There is a positive effect on the propensity to commit property crime. The effect is small and mainly driven by past offenders, low educated and young individuals. I only find weak evidence that relative income differences increases the likelihood to commit violent crime. The empirical analysis further reveals that differences in gross labor earnings are more strongly related to crime than disparities in disposable income. The fourth essay describes the patterns of intergenerational transmission of education among immigrant mothers and their daughters. The results show that the persistence is slightly lower among immigrants compared to natives, and that the relationship is weaker among those who start out disadvantaged. I find large variations across different immigrant groups, but these differences are partly explained by the fact that groups belong to different parts of the educational distribution.

Income inequality and its relationship to long-term GDP per capita growth has been researched for decades since the development of the Kuznet’s Curve. Theoretical and empirical research has shown mixed results including positive, negative, non-existent, or statistically insignificant relationships. Empirical research on income inequality and economic growth in the United States has also shown mixed results. In addition to using existing data, this paper uses originally-constructed Gini Coefficients from 2005 to 2009. A statistically significant negative correlation between income inequality, and both short-term growth and long-term growth is found in the analysis of this data. Finally, this paper attempts to justify a causal relationship between income inequality and long-term growth.

En este trabajo se analiza la desigualdad de oportunidad en ingreso de los jóvenes argentinos. Para la medición de este fenómeno se utiliza información de las encuestas permanentes de hogares realizadas en el país desde el 2004 hasta la actualidad. Se considera el sesgo de selección por co-residencia y dentro del empleo de la muestra, y se lo intenta corregir empleando un modelo de selección múltiple. Para medir el grado de desigualdad de oportunidad se utiliza la metodología presentada en Bourguignon, Ferreira y Menéndez (2007). Los resultados sugieren que mientras la desigualdad de ingresos ha disminuido no parece haber un patrón claro en la desigualdad de oportunidades. / This paper studies inequality of opportunity on earnings among young argentines. It aims to contribute to measure this phenomenon and it uses information from household surveys conducted in Argentina from 2004 to the present. Sample selection into employment and coresidence selection is dealt with a multiple selection model. We consider some econometrics methods implemented by Bourguignon, Ferreira y Menéndez (2007) to measure the degree of inequality of opportunity. The results suggest that while income inequality has decreased there seems no clear pattern of inequality of opportunity.

The aim of this study is to determine regional income level and disparities in CEECs and Turkey in a comparison of new 26 NUTS-II regions for Turkey with 49 NUTS-II regions of CEECs in the period of 1995 and 2001 by using the indicator of GDP per capita in terms of purchasing power standard. In this study, furthermore, those questions have been discussed: whether the EU is a chance for reducing regional inequalities and growth of the regional wealth in Turkey, and whether Turkey is another thread for the EU regional policy in the future on the enlargement process for the EU. In this study, it is also examined regional income level and disparities in the EU-15, the EU-25, the EU-27, and the EU-28 in case accession of Turkey to the Union. The analyses are carried out for 207 NUTS-II regions of the EU-15, for the EU-25 (248 NUTS-II), for the EU-27 (262 NUTS-II) and for the EU-28 (288 NUTS-II) in terms of the latest available data of GDP per capita in PPS for 2001. The regional income disparities are discussed by using the most well known measures of regional inequality / i.e., Maximum to Minimum Ratio (MMR), Coefficient of Variation (CV), Relative Mean Deviation (Rw) and Theil Index (T). In case accession of Turkey to the EU, her NUTS-II regions would take an advantage of benefit assistance of the EU regional policy instruments along with the CEECs&rsquo / whereas, the seven NUTS-II regions of current three member states would continue to benefit of this assistance, i.e. 3 NUTS-II regions of Greece, 3 for Portugal and only one NUTS-II region for Spain. In the accession-period of Turkey, which will start accession-negotiations with the EU on 3 October 2005, she should adjust her regional policy and regional development projects in light with the EU regional policy and its financial instruments in order to utilize that advantage.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:33:11Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MACHADO_Paulo_2013.pdf: 4615685 bytes, checksum: 3203bb2b83b9849e4543d2b317b5330a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-03-22 / This research has focused to the recent dynamics of rural Brazil where activities related to non-agricultural occupations have shown an increasing importance face to agricultural occupations, in terms of absorption of labor as the production yields. This work is performed at region level characterized by the states that compound the Legal Amazon. This research takes into account issues related to education level, job category, types of activities, and income. In order to be found in non-agricultural activities better conditions relating to income, higher levels of education, less income discrepancies between genders, besides the fact that the sum of total income in the non-agricultural sector is almost the same to those provided by the agricultural sector. The work also proposes to conduct an analysis of a number of cities classified according to their income distribution through the well known Gini coefficient, in order to find evidence of the importance of non-agricultural activities face to the agricultural counties. This fact is observed in different cities since the average income of individuals allocated to the non-agricultural sector has less variation compared to those involved in the agricultural sector. / A presente pesquisa tem seu foco voltado à recente dinâmica do meio rural brasileiro onde as atividades relacionadas ao setor não agrícola têm apresentado crescente importância frente às agrícolas, tanto em termos de absorção da mão de obra quanto nos rendimentos oferecidos. No trabalho é realizada uma caracterização da região que compõe a Amazônia Legal, levando em consideração questões referentes ao nível de instrução, categorias e posições do emprego, aos tipos de atividades, além dos rendimentos obtidos pela população analisada. De maneira geral, foram encontradas nas atividades não agrícolas melhores condições relativas aos rendimentos, melhores níveis de instrução, rendimentos menos discrepantes entre os gêneros, além do fato de a soma dos rendimentos totais no setor não agrícola se encontrarem praticamente iguais àqueles fornecidos pelo setor agrícola. O trabalho também se propõe a realizar uma análise de um conjunto de municípios classificados segundo sua distribuição de renda por meio do índice de Gini, a fim de se encontrarem indícios da importância das atividades não agrícolas frente às agrícolas nos municípios melhores classificados por esse índice. Fato esse observado nos diferentes municípios, uma vez que os rendimentos médios dos indivíduos alocados no setor não agrícola apresentam menor variação em comparação aos envolvidos no setor agrícola.