Distribution of Income

This paper aims to evaluate the relevance of different types of macroeconomic general equilibrium modelling for measuring the impact of economic policy shocks on the incidence of poverty and on the distribution of income. In the literature three approaches are identified. The first is ...

The difficulties most Latin American countries have experienced in returning to sustained growth after the world recession and debt crisis of 1982 have surprised and frustrated many observers. Concern is increasingly expressed about the social costs of this period of recession and adjustment, especially for the poorest sectors of the population. Nowhere is this concern better placed than Brazil, with roughly 45 million people living in households below the poverty line in1987. By effectively failing to adjust internal demand to the decline in external funds, Brazil set records with respect to its neighbors in per capita growth and inflation between 1982-88. Brazil, by choosing an expansionary fiscal path, traded growth in the middle years of the decade for inflation and a larger debt three years later. This study looks at the impact of that tradeoff on poverty alleviation in Brazil. Macroeconomic policy affects few people directly. Instead, macroeconomic policy operates through fact...

This chapter includes the Keynesian models of Kaldor and Pasinetti, which introduce the variations in the functional distribution of income between profits and wages, in order to explain how the warranted rate of growth may adjust to the natural growth rate, generating a growth path with full employment of labor. The first and second sections present the Kaldor and Pasinetti models. The third section presents the neoclassical extension of the Pasinetti model developed by Samuelson and Modigliani. The fourth section presents the debate about the existence of two classes in the economy. The fifth section analyses the relationship between growth, distribution and inflation. The chapter ends with the development of a kaldorian model which incorporates the government.

This original version of this book - Economics in Our Society: Principles and Applications was completed at the request of the publisher as an introduction for Australian school students studying economics. A New Zealand version was made in 1981 with Professor J.T. Ward of the University of Waikato. Then Bruce Forster adopted my original book and co-authored the Canadian version in 1986. He states that this book 'will appeal to economics and non-economics students who desire more information about their economy and its behaviour.' He also points out that 'in addition to discussing the fundamental principles that govern the operation of modern day economics, the text contains a wealth of institutional, descriptive and historical information covering various features of the Canadian economic system'. The complete chapters of this book can be found under their respective titles

It is argued that gender roles and relations determine distribution of benefits accrued from ones' participation in value chain activities. But many value chain programmes are commonly designed and implemented without taking into consideration gender roles and relations. This study analysed onion value chain to determine its impact on gender roles, relations and distribution of income in the chain. The

Few, if any, epidemics responsible for 20 million severe injuries and/or deaths each year, globally, receive less public attention than do traffic accidents truly making them a “hidden epidemic”. Worse yet, the epidemic is growing as evidenced by World Health Organization data which show deaths from traffic accidents increasing by 20 percent between 1990 and 2002. In this paper we examine how a country’s stage of development and its distribution of income affect its traffic fatality rate. In our theoretical analysis, we show that traffic fatalities should have a nonlinear relationship with a country’s level of per capita income while being a decreasing function of income equality. We test our model’s predictions by evaluating data from 79 countries between 1970 and 2000, taking into account other factors that influence traffic fatalities like the motorization rate, health care networks, education, and alcohol consumption and find strong evidence of the theoretical model’s prediction...

Piketty argues that there are long-run fundamental laws in capitalism that will necessarily concentrate the income in favor of the privileged 1 or 10% of the population. Piketty's two fundamental laws are really theoretical propositions that presume relative rigidity in the rate of return of capital and in the net savings rate. We show that such propositions are incompatible with seventy-five years of studies estimating the value of the elasticity of substitution between capital and labor, and with the theoretical models of savings optimizing behavior. We argue that Piketty's laws are wrong and that they contradict the essence of market dynamics. Economic agents optimize and neither the rate of return of capital nor the net savings rate can remain relatively stable as Piketty supposes. Using empirical estimates of the long-run elasticity of substitution between capital and labor, and analyzing the relationship between the net savings rate and the real growth rate of the economy, we show that Piketty's forecast for the second half of the twenty-first century is inadequate. We propose alternative forecasts.

one main goal of fiscal incidence analysis is to contribute to the design of good government policy. The right policy choices require information on which groups are likely to pay particular tax changes and which groups are more likely to benefit from expenditure programs. Policy makers have many questions about how to lighten the burden of taxation for lower income groups and about how to increase the effectiveness of public expenditures. Is it possible to broaden the bases of a value added tax or flatten the rate structure of income taxes without decreasing the overall progressivity of the tax system? What is the better way to target public spending to improve the condition of the poor? Incidence analysis provides some critical information to help policymakers achieve a more equitable distribution of income and to improve the effectiveness of public policy.

This paper uses qualitative analysis for assessing the impact of the globalization on distribution of income, poverty and inequality in India and arrives as different conclusions. It has been concluded that the absolute poverty in India with the increasing globalization has fallen significantly by at the same time inequity has increased. To measure globalization KOF Index has been used and for inequality Gini Index has been used. JEL Classification: D63, I30, F60, F63