The impact of trade liberalisation on poverty and inequality: Evidence from CGE models

In this paper we carry out a systematic review of the evidence from CGE models regarding the effect of trade liberalisation on income inequality and poverty in developing countries. The evidence suggests quite strongly that trade liberalisation tends to reduce poverty, but is more likely to increase inequality than reduce it; however, the predicted effects are relatively small. Variation in the size and direction of effects can be explained by the choice of outcome measure, the fiscal response to liberalisation, the type of CGE model, and certain country characteristics – but not the method used to link the CGE model to the distribution of income.     

Globalisation and inequality in South Africa: modelling the labour market transmission

This paper draws on a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model to evaluate the extent and causes of income inequality in South Africa after 1994. In doing so the paper extends the CGE-modelling approach in South Africa by incorporating dynamics into the comparative static CGE model used by the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa. The 1995 Social Accounting Matrix for South Africa prepared by DRI-WEFA SA (Pty) Ltd. (now Global Insight Southern Africa) is used as database. The results from the paper is consistent with evidence from recent household and firm-level surveys in South Africa and supports labour market reform coupled with social security as instruments to achieve more equitable outcomes from globalisation.     

An analysis on basic income: Evidence using data from experimental projects throughout the world

Basic income was a hot issue in the recent Korean presidential election. Its pros and cons were used to scramble for the electorate's votes. However, their arguments largely relied on political rhetoric and lacked scientific facts. The problem is that politics without the backing of science is not only prone to a misguided conviction but also going to deal a blow to the future development of basic income. This study aims to narrow the gap between rhetoric and facts through evidence-based research on basic income. By employing methods of fact-finding and effect evaluation, we analyze using four aspects of assessment, namely, general information about basic income experiments; details on the experiments; development of the experiments; and the effect of the experiments. Basic income-related data are drawn from the World Bank and the Basic Income Laboratory at Stanford University. Significant results of the review are that some positive effects were identified at the micro level but any meaningful macro-level impact was impossible to confirm. To sum up, the outcomes are so erratic that it is difficult to detect any clear pattern in policy impacts. To approach basic income more scientifically, further research is urgently needed.     

Migration Narratives: Expanding Methods to Examine the Interaction of Person and Environment Among Aging Gay Men

As they age, gay and bisexual men are embedded in multiple environments and communities. This article reanalyzes data collected as part of a larger qualitative study of crystal methamphetamine use in New York City. Focusing on the migration narratives of 30 racially/ethnically diverse men, age 40 years old and older, recruited from multiple venues several key areas emerged: ostracization, lack of affirmation as well as movement activities. Interactively they transformed social practices and increased spaces to explore sexuality, build community engagements and exchange resources. This study suggests that assessment of gay men (and other marginalized groups) may be enhanced through application of migration narratives.     

Poverty,income inequality and externalised problem behaviours of children: an empirical study in Korea

The primary purpose of this study is to examine the effects of neighbourhood poverty and income inequality on children's externalised problem behaviours in Korea. For the analysis, we used the National Survey of Children and Youth data and employed a multilevel analysis method. The results show that income inequality level of a community is a significant factor in increasing children's externalised problem behaviours. When controlled for income inequality, poverty itself was not significantly related to the level of children's externalised problem behaviours. We provide social welfare practice and policy implications of the findings in the paper.     

Middle‐Class Political Activism and Middle‐Class Advantage in Relation to Public Services: A Realist Synthesis of the Evidence Base

Since the late 1960s social policy scholarship has been concerned with the distribution of the resources or benefits across social gradients. This article presents a review of the literature on one mechanism by which inequity might be produced – activism by middle‐class service‐users enabling them to capture a disproportionate share of resources. The review used the methodology of realist synthesis to bring together evidence from the UK, the USA and Scandinavian countries over the past 30 years. The aim was to construct a ‘middle‐theory’ to understand how and in which contexts collective and individual activity by middle‐class service‐users might produce inequitable resource allocation or rationing decisions that disproportionately benefit middle‐class service‐users. The article identifies four causal theories which nuance the view that it is the ‘sharp elbows’ of the middle‐classes which confer advantage on this group. It shows how advantage accrues via the interplay between service‐users, providers and the broader policy and social context.     

Socioeconomic status and the dynamics of preferences for income inequality in the United States, 1978–2016

Although considerable evidence indicates that public preferences for income inequality and redistribution vary across socioeconomic groups (i.e., occupation and income), much less is known about the temporal dynamics of these preferences. The purpose of this study is (a) to examine whether the attitudinal distance between managerial/professional workers and unskilled manual workers has changed (converged or diverged) over time and to (b) explore the reasons for and implications of the dynamics of preferences in the past several decades. Using data from the General Social Survey 1978–2016 (23 time‐points; N = 27,211), this study finds that the influence of occupational class has lost some of its significance in shaping public preferences for income inequality and that the declining effect of occupation can be explained in part by the attitudinal convergence between better‐ and less‐educated citizens. Findings suggest that proequality coalitions across educational boundaries play a remedial role in bridging the occupational divide over government redistribution in the United States.     

海水西调的可行性及生态价值分析——一个同类工程项目的旁证

我国是水资源严重不足的国家之一,自20世纪90年代以来,"引滦入津"、"引黄济青"等引水工程相继完成,"南水北调"还在实施中。以上这些引水工程无疑是解决缺水问题的有效方式。本文提出的"海水西调",与以往引水工程大不相同,其不同之处就是所引之水为海水。海水可说是用之不竭的资源,只要经过淡化就可以成为生活、生产用水。笔者认为,海水西调是可行的,不仅投资效益可观,而且既有利于改善海洋生态,又有利于改善沙化生态环境。     

The Great Migration to the North and the “Black Metropolis” of the early twentieth century: A reevaluation of the role of Black community size

By some accounts, large Black populations in northern cities aided Blacks’ employment in occupations of the “Black Metropolis” at the start of the Great Migration. Yet, the present study, analyzing Census data, refutes these accounts. Blacks’ odds of employment in such occupations – for example, mass media and cultural expression – were often greatest in major northern cities with the smallest Black populations, consistent with the proposition that small and stable minority communities avoid intense discrimination. Overall, however, there is little evidence that Black population size substantially affected Blacks’ employment in Black Metropolis occupations.     

Dutch Women are Liberated, Migrant Women are a Problem: The Evolution of Policy Frames on Gender and Migration in the Netherlands, 1995–2005

Over the past decade, there has been a major shift in Dutch gender equality policy to an almost exclusive focus on migrant women. Simultaneously, the focus of ‘minority policies’ has shifted more and more towards gender relations. The appearance of migrant women at the top of the political agenda is remarkable. In this article we examine how this construction of migrant women as a political problem has come about, and consider its implications. As we argue, the dominant policy frames of emancipation and individual responsibility are reinforcing a dichotomy between the autochthonous ‘us’ and the allochthonous ‘them’. As the problem is increasingly defined as a cultural one, it is implicitly stated that there is no problem with the dominant culture and society. Barriers for participation are exclusively located in the migrant (Muslim) culture. In this view, Muslim migrants should first change their culture before they can fully integrate in Dutch society.     

流动：农村家庭消费观念现代化的动力——基于中西部五省的实证研究

基于2005年初在中西部五省所展开的调查，本文主要探讨了农民大批进城工作的流动经历对农村家庭消费观念的影响。分析发现：这种经历有助于推动农村家庭消费观念的现代化。而且，不同的流动经历所产生的这种影响的大小又有一定的区别。此外，流动这一单一因素对农村家庭消费观念现代化转变的影响又是有限的，要完全实现这种转变还取决于其他多种因素。     

International Trade and the Urbanization of Developing Countries: Evidence from Asia

Abstract

A grain surplus and the grain trade are closely related to the urbanization of developing countries. However, existing literature has not given adequate attention to this issue. Our paper develops a theoretical model to explain the mechanisms whereby changes in the grain surplus constrain the level of urbanization in a closed economy context and the grain trade affects the level of urbanization by acting on the grain surplus in an open economy context. A test of the theoretical model applied to some developing countries in Asia during the period 1993-2010 shows that international trade is generally negatively correlated with level of urbanization. However, cereal and non-cereal trade vary in terms of their relation to urbanization: whereas the former is positively correlated with level of urbanization, the latter is negatively correlated with it. Since the net import of cereals relaxes the constraint imposed on the level of urbanization by the domestic grain surplus, it can have a marked positive effect on the course of urbanization. Our research findings show that provided grain production or grain security is guaranteed, developing countries may adopt a policy of importing an appropriate amount of grain to increase their level of urbanization.     

Australia's disabling income support system: tracing the history of the disability pension from 1908 to today

This article is based on a historical‐comparative policy and discourse analysis of the principles underpinning the Australian disability income support system. It determines that these principles rely on a conception of disability that sustains a system of coercion and paternalism that perpetuates disability; this is referred to as disablism. The article examines the construction of disability in Australian income support across four major historical epochs spanning the period 1908–2007. Contextualisation of the policy trajectory and discourses of the contemporary disability pension regime for the time period 2008–now is also provided. The system was found to have perpetuated disablism through the generation of disability categories on the basis of normalcy and ableness as a condition of citizenship. Two major themes were found to have interacted with the ideology of disablism. The first theme – Commonwealth authority – set the tone for legitimising the regulation of disabled citizens. The second theme – conservative sanctioned paternalism and coercion – reflected the tensions between the paternalistic concern for income support provision while attempting to prevent idleness and welfare dependency. This article argues that a non‐disabling provision based on social citizenship, rather than responsible or productive citizenship, counters the tendency for authoritarian and paternal approaches.     

An empirical analysis of monetary and multidimensional poverty: evidence from a household survey in Pakistan

ABSTRACT

The present study computes multidimensional poverty and compares it with unidimensional estimates of poverty for the district of Mandi Bahuddin in the Punjab province of Pakistan for the years 2010 and 2014. By employing the Foster, Greer and Thorbecke (FGT) and Alkire-Foster Methods, the incidence, severity and depth of unidimensional and multidimensionality poverty was estimated. We found an increase in absolute and relative poverty levels in 2014 as compared to 2010. The multidimensional poverty in terms of household assets has also increased over time. However, the relative proportion of educational and health poverty towards MPI remains higher, thereby calling for a holistic approach to identify multidimensional poverty in the social sector. A comprehensive policy dossier needs to be framed for designing effective poverty alleviation and social welfare programmes in the Punjab, Pakistan.     

Currency devaluation and trade balance: Evidence from the US services trade

This study aims to revisit the effectiveness of using currency devaluation as a policy tool to improve trade balance by estimating the exchange rate elasticities of services trade between the US and rest of the world with quarterly disaggregated services trade data from 1999 to 2015. Empirical results reveal that the impacts of currency devaluation on individual services trade are mixed and largely depend on the nature of services. Using currency devaluation to raise export services trade and reduce import services trade seems to be more effective in the long-run but not in the short-run. It is interesting to note that some individual services trades are insensitive to exchange rate changes. The estimates also reveal that most categories of services trade are income elastic and economic growth plays a key role in determining the imports and exports of services trade.     

International-domestic linkages in a developing-country context: the case of the Rohingyas in Bangladesh

ABSTRACT

Since 1978, the Rohingya have been fleeing Myanmar and taking refuge in Bangladesh. The state of Bangladesh is not a signatory to the Geneva Convention and does not recognize refugee rights, but the initial experiences with the Rohingya refugee population led the government to create a temporary and ad hoc domestic policy advisory and refugee management system, which eventually became highly politicized. There was also some degree of slow “externalization” of policy advice through the involvement of international organizations from 2006–2007 onward, mainly through the participation of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and International Organization for Migration (IOM). Over 2017–2018, there was a massive influx of refugees from Myanmar to Bangladesh. The domestic advisory and refugee management system lacked the capacity to manage the crisis and had to quickly and greatly externalize policy advice and refugee management. The UNHCR and IOM came in with a host of international organizational networks and coordinated with each other and the state through a multi-sectoral approach to manage the crisis. This externalization led to the systematization and institutionalization of the state’s domestic advisory system. However the effect of externalization on politicization is equivocal; on the one hand it decreased politicization of the domestic policy advisory system, but on the other hand, it created new levels of politicization.     

Swimming against the tide: why Sweden supports increased labour mobility within and from outside the EU

While the free movement of labour in the EU is generally depicted as a positive feature of the single market, it was also controversial in the debate on EU enlargement. Actors opposing enlargement argued that large waves of migrants from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) would ‘swamp’ Western labour markets, leading to so-called social tourism and increasing xenophobia. Contrary to the developments in other countries, Sweden was one of the only three Member States to immediately open its doors to citizens from the EU accession countries of 2004 and 2007. Sweden has also been one of the few EU countries to actively promote greater liberalisation of labour migration policy for third-country nationals (TCNs) within the EU, and the new Swedish Immigration Law of 2008 dramatically liberalised the TCN labour migration policy and made it more employer-driven. We argue that in order to understand why Sweden has supported increased labour mobility within and from outside of the EU, we need to complement existing explanations by analysing the preferences of the political parties. A two-dimensional analysis focusing on economy and culture provides an understanding of why so-called unholy coalitions of parties in support of liberal labour policies have emerged in Sweden during the 2000s. The article ends with a discussion of lessons learned from the Swedish case and wider implications for rights-based mobility in the EU.     

Being well and doing well: on the importance of income for health

Income is robustly associated with health status. Higher income is associated with lower mortality and morbidity, both cross-nationally and within societies. This relationship is not just confined to low levels of income, but extends well beyond median levels of income in society with diminishing marginal returns to health status with additional increments in income. Drawing upon the absolute and relative interpretations of income and conceptualising them simul-taneously at the individual and community level, we develop a typology of income–health relationships and discuss the distinctiveness of, and connections between, each type. We conclude that a multilevel conceptual and methodological framework is most appropriate to understand the income–health relationship.