<p>In the thesis, we examine the effects of alternative income redistribution schemes on the optimal pattern of allocation of resources. We also identify the sectors in the economy which are under strain when these redistribution schemes are implemented and the years in which the strains are felt most. We find that the redistribution of income between the lower and middle income groups in the rural sector leads to the maximum value of the objective function, which is a discounted sum of gross outputs. Alternatively, the redistribution of income between the upper and middle income groups in the urban sector consistently leads to low values of the objective function.</p> <p>We also conduct tests to determine how sensitive these results are to changes in the values of the parameters assumed. The results regarding the relative desirabilities of various redistribution schemes are found to be rather insensitive to changes in the values of the social discount rate and the savings rate. A higher availability of foreign aid increases the desirability of urban redistribution schemes. Modest requirements of post-terminal growth lead to infeasibilities for most redistribution schemes, as well as the reference solution, which assumes the status quo distribution of income. The only feasible redistribution schemes are those which redistribute incomes between the upper and middle classes, and the middle and lower classes in the rural sector. This leads us to recommend rural redistribution as not only a desirable policy, but as a necessary prerequisite to obtaining modest growth rates in the post-plan period.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2006. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 116-124). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

This research examines the effects of democratization and political performance on the functional distribution of income in Argentina and Brazil from the end of their authoritarian periods to the present. The existing literature tends to focus on the impacts of democratization and political performance on the economic growth of the country as a whole or on changes to per capita income. This analysis focuses on the equality of economic development in less developed countries because growth is not necessarily distributed equally and poverty and inequality are both endemic to many less developed countries and also negatively impact development as a whole as well as the consolidation of democracy. To examine the effects of democratization and political performance on the shape of economic development, this thesis utilizes the Polity IV index as a measure of democracy, Relative Political Extraction as a proxy for political performance, and labor's share of national income as a measure of income inequality. Theoretically, a more democratic regime should enact policies that allow for a more equitable distribution of income because democratization increases popular representation and makes the provision of public goods preferable to the provision of private goods. Similarly, a regime with higher political capacity should be better equipped to enact whatever policies and development strategies it chooses, thereby reducing income inequality if the regime deems equitable development a priority. The main finding of this research is that political performance has had a significant impact on the shape of economic development in Argentina and Brazil, whereas the effect of democratization on the shape of development is less clear. A stronger, more effectively performing government will be better able to deliver equitable development regardless of its level of democracy than will a poorly performing government of any type.

Rising inequalities between and within income categories (especially labour and capital) haveemerged as an increasing concern particularly in the last two decades. One of the main reasons for this has been a sharp decline in the wage share in many countries. A declining wage share refers to a decrease in the size of the total wage bill relative to either national income or net value addition (NVA). India is an important example of this situation. Trends at the level of aggregate statistics show that the wage bill has not kept up with productivity increases. This has led to a sharp decline in the wage share, leaving researchers the task of explaining the causes (and consequences) of this decline. The research contributes towards this task by critically examining one of the main avenues ofresearch that has been used in order to explain the causes of a declining wage share in India. This refers to the hypothesis according to which this trend is the outcome of increased capital intensity of employment, or more generally labour-saving investments. The study examines the relevance of this hypothesis for dynamics taking place at a disaggregated level of analysis in Indian industrial manufacturing. In order to do this, three main questions are addressed. The first is whether a declining wage share is a necessary outcome of labour-saving investments in production, or whether other factors are also important in mediating this relationship. The second is the conditions affecting the degree to which a declining wage share also involves increased income inequalities within the labour income category, and in some cases, declining real incomes for workers. The third is the relevance of drawing upon a demand and supply framework for the treatment of the question of causality in the analysis. The study answers the questions by drawing on two very different case studies. The first is thePimpri Chinchwad Industrial Township (PCIT), located in the outskirts of Pune (State ofMaharashtra, western India). The production processes characterising many of the factoriesoperating in this area are capital intensive. The second is the art metalware industry in Moradabad (State of Uttar Pradesh, northern India). The production processes taking place in the majority of units in this area are labour-intensive. The findings suggest that the factors contributing to a declining wage share cannot be analysed without at the same time examining the distributional set-ups within which technological changes take place, and how these arrangements are changing. Firstly, many of the factors contributing towards a declining wage share are not directly caused by changes in technology, and hence skill requirements, in production. This includes the weakness (and further weakening) of the mechanisms linking wages to productivity at the firm and sectoral level. Secondly, a declining wage share also involves changing income inequalities within the labour income category. The sources of these inequalities are not only linked to differentials in skills. Thirdly, this is happening in the context of speedy changes in the economy, including changing needs. This makes the links between wages and productivity an important requirement for the labour income category to be able to benefit from increased productivity, not only as workers through the wage system, but also as consumers. Lastly, many of the variables that emerge as important in the analysis cannot be subsumed under a demand and supply framework. One of the implications for the treatment of the issue of causality is the need to move away from seeking causal links in the traditional ‘cause and effect’ framework, to questions about how certain trends come about. This also has consequences for the normative side of the debate.

published_or_final_version / Community Medicine / Master / Master of Public Health

This thesis employs advanced econometric methods to understand the determinants of race inequalities in labour markets and in higher education in Brazil. It then investigates whether race diversity can be used as a policy to reduce existing inequalities in pay and college campuses. It uses data from the National Household Sample Survey PNAD of 2005 and the National Examination of Higher Education Courses (ENC/Provão) of 2003. The main methodological contributions of this thesis are: 1) extending wage models to include several variables which can explain more than 40 percent of the total variation in wages; 2) computing a proxy for parental education (this has not been possible to estimate using PNAD since 1996); 3) correcting wage equations for selection bias using a robust instrument (most studies ignore the sample selection problem by using employed males only); 4) implementing a new algorithm that combines Heckman Two-Step, complex sample weights and constrained least squares (this increases robustness of the detailed decomposition of the discrimination term). This is done in a generalized wage decomposition setting where the level of discrimination is invariant to the choice of the reference wage group. Results show an existing pay-gap and a significant level of discrimination against nonwhites even after corrections are made. Selection bias appears to underestimate the discrimination term considerably. This study also develops a theoretical framework for the study of the impact of diversity on labour productivity and on discrimination simultaneously. Results support policies which seek greater diversity in order to reduce the existing inequalities in labour markets and on higher education campuses. However, the outcome of policies aimed at increasing diversity on campuses can significantly differ depending on the existing level of diversity and the subject majors attended by students.

The NBA instituted a new policy in 2006 mandating that players wait one year after graduating high school before declaring themselves eligible for the NBA draft. Since the rule’s creation, there has been constant debate over whether this policy is beneficial for the players. One side argues the extra year of school allows players to further mature and develop prior to signing a professional contract, while the counterargument claims the extra year is a waste of time and resources for a player who will enter the draft within a year anyways. The intent of this paper is to ascertain which factors, outside of on court performance, contribute most to a player’s value in terms of salary and determine the appropriate circumstances in which it is favorable for an athlete to leave school and pursue basketball professionally.

Thesis advisor: Timothy Duket / What is the relationship between inequality and the prevalence of mobile phones in a society? It is obvious that being poor is a barrier to owning a mobile phone, but what about simply being poorer than those around you? Stories abound about the benefits mobile phones bring to the poor in developing countries. For example, in Bangladesh's Narshingdi district, mobile phones have made it possible for families who once struggled to survive, to earn more than enough to eat well and live comfortably. These isolated villagers who grow crops or raise livestock can use their village cell phone to speak directly to wholesalers and are able to get better prices for their goods in the marketplace (Ahmed, 2000). In Cote d'Ivoire coffee growers share mobile phones to follow hourly changes in coffee prices in order to sell at the most profitable time (Lopez, 2000). But how likely will these poor people be to access a mobile phone if they are significantly poorer than the “rich” in their countries. In place where there is such a disparity, does unequal income distribution make it less likely that someone will own a cell phone, or does something about the condition make adopting this technology even more widespread? As it turns out, the results of this study indicate that the higher the level of inequality in a country, the more likely someone living there is to own a cell phone. While this result seems counterintuitive, I will discuss in detail a few ways to explain it after giving some background on the subject. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2003. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

O modelo de financiamento do sistema previdenciário brasileiro é o de repartição simples, bastante sensível a mudanças estruturais de caráter econômico. Algumas dessas mudanças estruturais que afetaram a previdência, tiveram origem na Constituição de 1988, no crescente envelhecimento da população, no aumento da informalidade de vínculo trabalhista e em problemas políticos e administrativos no regime de previdência. Tais mudanças levaram a previdência a apresentar déficits elevados a partir de meados dos anos 90. Verificou-se que alguns princípios previdenciários como solidariedade, redistribuição e eqüidade não foram respeitados. Observou-se a existência de distorções no valor de aposentadorias e pensões, privilegiando poucos e evidenciando a existência de problemas no modelo de repartição simples. Este trabalho teve como objetivo principal verificar se o rendimento das aposentadorias e pensões contribuiu para aumentar a desigualdade da distribuição de renda no Brasil. Utilizou-se a metodologia de decomposição do índice de Gini, que consiste em determinar a contribuição de cada parcela do rendimento para a desigualdade total, utilizando-se os dados da Pesquisa Nacional de Amostras Domiciliares (PNAD) de 1981 a 2001. Através dos estratos de rendimento domiciliar per capita agregados, verifica-se que a participação do estrato no rendimento de aposentadorias e pensões é, em geral, maior do que a sua participação no rendimento de todos os trabalhos. Nota-se também que a razão de concentração de aposentadorias e pensões, ao longo do período analisado, é superior à razão de concentração do rendimento do trabalho principal em nove dos dezesseis anos analisados. No período de 1998 a 2001 a razão de concentração de aposentadorias e pensões é superior ao índice de Gini e à razão de concentração do rendimento de trabalho principal. Observou-se que, ao longo do período analisado, aumentou a participação de aposentadorias e pensões na renda total, e a sua razão de concentração cresceu. O rendimento de aposentadorias e pensões contribuiu com a segunda maior parcela na formação do índice de Gini. Essa participação teve significativo aumento a partir de 1993. Os resultados permitem concluir que a parcela de rendimento das aposentadorias e pensões contribuiu para aumentar a desigualdade da distribuição da renda no Brasil em seis dos dezesseis anos analisados. Observa-se que de 1998 a 2001 essa contribuição tem-se intensificado. A persistência dessa situação é insustentável para o país, porque inviabilizará a Previdência Social, devido ao déficit crescente que onera as contas públicas e também porque não é justificável que rendimentos diretamente controlados pelo Estado, como as aposentadorias e pensões, contribuam para aumentar a desigualdade da distribuição da renda no país. Isso mostra que existe necessidade de reforma do sistema previdenciário brasileiro. / The financing model of the Brazilian social security system is that of simple partition, quite sensitive to economic structural changes. Some of the structural changes which affected social security were originated in the 1988 Constitution, in the increasing population aging, in the rise of employment relationship informality, and in political as well as administrative problems concerning the social security system. Such changes led social security to present high deficits from middle 1990s on. It was verified that some principles for social security, such as solidarity, re-distribution, and equality, were not respected. The existence of distortions in retirement and pension values were observed, giving privilege to few people and evidencing the existence of problems in the model of simple partition. The present work aimed primarily at verifying whether the retirement pension income contributed to increase the inequality in the income distribution in Brazil. The methodology employed was that of decomposition of Gini's index, which consists in determining the contribution of each income part to the total inequality, using data provided by Household Samples of National Research from 1981 until 2001. By means of aggregated per capita household income layers it was verified that the participation of the layer in the pension income is, in general, higher than its participation in the income of all works. It may be observed that the retirement and pension concentration ratio, along the period analyzed, is higher than the main work income concentration ratio in nine of the sixteen years under analysis. In the period that ranges from 1998 until 2001, the retirement and pension concentration ratio is higher than Gini's index and the main work concentration ratio. It was observed that, along the period analyzed, the participation of pensions in the total income increased, and its concentration ratio had a rise. The retirement pension income was the second highest part in the formation of Gini's index. Such participation had a significant raise from 1993 on. Based on the results, the conclusion drawn is that the retirement pension income part contributed to increase the inequality of income distribution in Brazil in six of the sixteen years analyzed. The persistence of such situation is unsustainable for the country, since it will make Social Security unfeasible due to the increasing deficit which burdens public accounts and also because it is unjustifiable that incomes that are directly controlled by the Sate, like retirements and pensions, may contribute to the increase of inequality in the income distribution in the country. This shows that there is a need for change in the Brazilian social security system.

This paper analyses the structure of the European income inequality by a decompo-sition in a within- and between-component. It illustrates a replication of the work of Beblo and Knaus (Rev Income Wealth 47(3):301-333, 2001) and decomposes the income inequality for the EU-28 in 2014 by using data from the European Survey on Income and Living Conditions. The Theil index is applied to additively decom-pose the sources of inequality into a within- and between-component by countries, country groups and demographic groups. This is done by using equivalised dispos-able household income and income before transfers and taxes. The results show that inequality, with regard to disposable income, is highest for households with house-hold heads older than 59 years and lowest for households with children. Moreover, high income countries have lower inequality, higher social expenditures and show a stronger relative reduction of income inequality after transfers and taxes than low income countries. On country group level, Social-Democratic countries have the lowest income inequality and redistribute most, while the opposite holds true for Baltic countries.