Giovanni Andrea Cornia (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- August 2004
- ISBN:
- 9780199271412
- eISBN:
- 9780191601255
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199271410.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental
Based on an extensive review of relevant literature and an econometric analysis of inequality indexes, this book provides the first systematic analysis of the changes in within‐country income ...
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Based on an extensive review of relevant literature and an econometric analysis of inequality indexes, this book provides the first systematic analysis of the changes in within‐country income inequality over the last 20 years. Within‐country income inequality has risen since the early 1980s in most of the OECD, in all transitional countries, and in many developing countries; more recently, inequality has also risen in India and nations affected by the Asian crisis. Altogether, over the last 20 years, inequality worsened in 70% of the 73 countries analysed in the book, with the Gini index rising by more than five points in half of them. Mainstream theory focussing on rises in wage differentials by skill caused by North–South trade, migration, or on technological change, poorly explains the recent rise in income inequality. Likewise, while the traditional causes of income polarization—landownership inequality (high land concentration), unequal access to education, the urban bias (rural–urban inequality), the ‘curse of natural resources’—still account for much of the cross‐country variation in income inequality, they too cannot explain its recent rise. The book suggests that the recent rise in income inequality was caused to a considerable extent by a policy‐driven worsening in factorial income distribution, wage spread, and spatial inequality; in this regard, it discusses the distributive impact of reforms in trade and financial liberalization, taxation, public expenditure, safety nets, and labour markets. The volume represents one of the first attempts to analyse systematically the relation between policy changes inspired by liberalization and globalization and income inequality. It suggests that capital account liberalization appears to have had on average the strongest disequalizing effect, followed by domestic financial liberalization, labour market deregulation, and tax reform. Trade liberalization had unclear effects, while public expenditure reform often had positive effects. The book is arranged in four parts: I, Income Distribution Trends, Theories and Policies (2 chapters); II, Traditional Causes of Inequality: Still Relevant for Explaining its Rise in the 1980s–90s? (3 chapters); III, Recent Factors Influencing the Distribution of Income (6 chapters); and IV. Country Case Studies (5 chapters on India, Venezuela, Turkey, South Africa, and Thailand).Less
Based on an extensive review of relevant literature and an econometric analysis of inequality indexes, this book provides the first systematic analysis of the changes in within‐country income inequality over the last 20 years. Within‐country income inequality has risen since the early 1980s in most of the OECD, in all transitional countries, and in many developing countries; more recently, inequality has also risen in India and nations affected by the Asian crisis. Altogether, over the last 20 years, inequality worsened in 70% of the 73 countries analysed in the book, with the Gini index rising by more than five points in half of them. Mainstream theory focussing on rises in wage differentials by skill caused by North–South trade, migration, or on technological change, poorly explains the recent rise in income inequality. Likewise, while the traditional causes of income polarization—landownership inequality (high land concentration), unequal access to education, the urban bias (rural–urban inequality), the ‘curse of natural resources’—still account for much of the cross‐country variation in income inequality, they too cannot explain its recent rise. The book suggests that the recent rise in income inequality was caused to a considerable extent by a policy‐driven worsening in factorial income distribution, wage spread, and spatial inequality; in this regard, it discusses the distributive impact of reforms in trade and financial liberalization, taxation, public expenditure, safety nets, and labour markets. The volume represents one of the first attempts to analyse systematically the relation between policy changes inspired by liberalization and globalization and income inequality. It suggests that capital account liberalization appears to have had on average the strongest disequalizing effect, followed by domestic financial liberalization, labour market deregulation, and tax reform. Trade liberalization had unclear effects, while public expenditure reform often had positive effects. The book is arranged in four parts: I, Income Distribution Trends, Theories and Policies (2 chapters); II, Traditional Causes of Inequality: Still Relevant for Explaining its Rise in the 1980s–90s? (3 chapters); III, Recent Factors Influencing the Distribution of Income (6 chapters); and IV. Country Case Studies (5 chapters on India, Venezuela, Turkey, South Africa, and Thailand).
Marcus DuBois King
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780197552636
- eISBN:
- 9780197554616
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780197552636.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Middle Eastern Politics
Recognizing that water has been intrinsic to Middle Eastern civilization since at least the times of Mesopotamian civilization, the chapter frames 7 contemporary case studies by regional experts that ...
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Recognizing that water has been intrinsic to Middle Eastern civilization since at least the times of Mesopotamian civilization, the chapter frames 7 contemporary case studies by regional experts that shed new light on important political and hydrological trends. Taken as a whole, the case studies illustrate that while regional water conflict has diverse roots, the time is ripe for reconceptualization of how basic assumptions of water’s role are challenged by an essentially new hydropolitics. The chapter argues that policymakers must act promptly to mitigate conflict in the face of political shocks, inequalities and rapidly dwindling water supplies that are explored in greater depth by the volume’s authors.Less
Recognizing that water has been intrinsic to Middle Eastern civilization since at least the times of Mesopotamian civilization, the chapter frames 7 contemporary case studies by regional experts that shed new light on important political and hydrological trends. Taken as a whole, the case studies illustrate that while regional water conflict has diverse roots, the time is ripe for reconceptualization of how basic assumptions of water’s role are challenged by an essentially new hydropolitics. The chapter argues that policymakers must act promptly to mitigate conflict in the face of political shocks, inequalities and rapidly dwindling water supplies that are explored in greater depth by the volume’s authors.