Inequality in Incomes and Access to Education: A Cross‐country Analysis (1960–95)

Abstract. In the current debate on the relationship between inequality in income distribution and growth, one of the possible links works through access to education. Starting from an optimal demand for education where, among other things, the years of education depend on family income, we derive two testable predictions in the analysis of aggregate data on school enrolments: a negative (linear) dependence of enrolment rates on the Gini concentration index on income distribution; and a positive dependence on public resources invested in education and/or on skill premium in the labour market. These predictions are tested on a (unbalanced) panel of 108 countries for the period 1960–95. The main finding of this analysis is that, once we control for the degree of development with the (log of) per capita output, financial constraints seem mainly relevant in limiting the access to secondary education. However, when considering gender differences, there is evidence that female participation in education is more conditioned by family wealth, in some cases starting from primary education. Finally, there is weak evidence that public resources spent on education raise the enrolment rates.     

Challenges to the Emiratisation process: content analysis

After the discovery of oil in 1970s, the United Arab Emirates experienced explosive growth and was able to establish a strong economy in 30 years. Since then, the country has attracted foreign direct investment, and it has maintained its growth strategy by relying on foreign skilled labourers from around the world. Consequently, Emirati nationals were predominantly recruited to and preferred the public sector. Today, as government growth stagnates, the United Arab Emirates’ government is encouraging the private sector to recruit more Emirati nationals. This paper analyzes the current Emiratisation process by looking into the barriers to it via a content analysis of business-focused newspapers published in the country. Unlike previous research, this paper prioritizes the challenges in descending order: skill standards, salary and benefits, and business hours. These challenges have impeded the recruitment of Emirati nationals into the private sector.     

Human Capital,Trade Openness and Growth in Argentina in the 20th Century

We estimate a production function that accounts for the economic performance of the country in the 20th century. We elaborate long term time series whereas most of the recent empirical studies on growth are based on cross section analysis. This approach allows us to follow the various regime changes that can be identified in the rich economic history of Argentina. To evaluate Total Factor Productivity (TFP) we initially test the classical Solow Model. We estimate the speed of convergence of TFP and obtain a non convergence result. This speed of convergence has declined since the 1930s, and we find a phenomenon of divergence in the period 1970–90. We then analyse the impact on production of additional variables recently highlighted in the endogenous growth literature such as the process of catch up of foreign technical progress, human capital and trade openness. Chow tests for this extended production function give us a strong probability of changes in the growth regimes. The estimation, that takes into consideration the break points identified, shows that the impact of trade openness and foreign technology is not stable throughout the century. In what concerns the impact of education on economic growth, we find a strong effect of primary education on growth, and a weaker effect of secondary-university education.     

Labour Policy and Determinants of Employment and Wages in a Developing Economy with Labour Shortage

Using data from a sample of 1,099 workers, this paper investigates the determinants of employment and wages for workers in the United Arab Emirates. The paper further examines the wage distribution and the decomposition of the wage gap between the public and the private sectors. Results of the study are consistent with the dual labour market theory and indicate that the labour market in the United Arab Emirates is segmented based on sectors (public versus private) and types of workers (nationals versus non‐nationals). The study concludes with a discussion of the implication of these findings for the effectiveness of labour and economic policy.     

Women's political leadership participation around the world: An institutional analysis

Understanding institutional systems is critical for the advancement of women's participation in leadership in varying contexts. A unique and global analysis of the contextual factors that affect women in political leadership, this paper extends prior research in the field. This is a cross-country study where we ask, “How are societal-level institutional forces related to women's participation in political leadership?” We collected data from 8 secondary sources on 181 countries and conducted linear regression analyses with six institutional influences: the business environment, societal development, the economic environment, physical and technological infrastructure, political freedom, and culture. Results indicate that to increase the political leadership participation of women, we need to evaluate the following: customs and trade regulations, graft, the gender gap in political empowerment, public spending on education, the economic viability of the country, access to power and the internet, political freedom, and cultural variables like performance orientation, collectivism, and power distance.     

THE MARRIED WIDOW: MARRIAGE PENALTIES MATTER!

Marriage penalties are a controversial feature of many government policies. Empirical evidence of their behavioral effects is quite mixed, which is surprising because economic theory predicts that they should have an impact on the headship decision. We investigate the removal of marriage penalties from the surviving spouse pensions of the Canadian public pension system in the 1980s. These reforms provide a simple and transparent source of identification. Our results indicate that marriage penalties can have large and persistent effects on marriage decisions. We also present evidence suggesting that it is individuals with characteristics correlated with greater wealth who respond to the penalties. (JEL: J1, H2)     

Women’s career development in an Arab Middle Eastern context

This study examines women’s perspectives on requirements for enabling their access to senior leadership roles in the under-researched context of the Arab Middle East. It draws on an approach that utilizes qualitative, in-depth, semi-structured interviews with academic women working in Saudi Arabia higher education. The findings of this study reveal several culturally responsive strategies for supporting the advancement of women into leading positions within higher education. Also, the study demonstrates how women in Saudi higher education learn to resist patriarchal power structures and gender discrimination, and to develop their own strategies for negotiating those issues. In addition, the results provide evidence of the academy’s importance as an institution that works collaboratively with the government to develop women’s careers. The originality of this paper is its contribution to the limited knowledge that currently exists on women’s career development in the Arab Middle Eastern context. This study also will benefit human resource departments and human resource development practitioners with knowledge regarding the intertwining of social forces with university practices, and gender-related issues, which in turn affect women’s positions in the academy. Additionally, the study suggests that human resource development practitioners should establish policies and practices with respect to gender-related equity issues that could have a positive impact on wider national human resource development systems, and potentially open more opportunities for positive career development for women.     

Efficiency in the generation of social welfare in Mexico: A proposal in the presence of bad outputs

One of the main goals of any country is to secure the general welfare of society, entailing positive levels of education, health and income, coupled with low levels of social inequality. The following paper studies the efficient use of economic and social resources to generate social welfare in the presence of bad outputs in the states of Mexico during 2010. A two-level data envelopment analysis model was used to determine how efficient the 32 states of the Mexican Republic were, considering as model variables the socioeconomic indicators of the three dimensions of human development (education, health and income), and the data on poverty or inequity in the country. The analysis of the results reveals that only 5 of the 32 units studied were efficient in generating welfare and in reducing poverty, while the rest need to increase their welfare levels and especially reduce inequity in education and income using the economic and social resources they possess.     

人力资本形成及其对经济增长的影响——一个包含教育和健康投入的内生增长模型及其检验

已有的关于人力资本的理论研究,要么强调了教育的作用,要么侧重于健康的影响。虽然越来越多的实证研究在度量人力资本的时候,采用了教育和健康两个指标,但是尚未有研究给出人力资本的具体构成形式。本文把教育和健康看作两种资本,人力资本由教育资本和健康资本按照Cobb-Douglas生产技术组合生成。关于人力资本影响经济增长的方式有两种理论,一种认为经济增长源于人力资本的积累速度,另一种认为经济增长应该归功于人力资本存量。本文构建了一个内生增长模型,在此模型中人力资本积累速度和存量都会影响经济增长,经济增长中既有人力资本积累的功劳,也有人力资本存量的贡献。我们以这个内生模型为理论依据设定计量模型,利用1985￣2000年中国29个省、自治区、直辖市的经验数据实证分析了人力资本的积累和存量以及人力资本的形成要素教育和健康对中国经济增长的影响。     

Marital breakdown and the future of marriage

The institution of marriage is in a process of transformation. There is evidence of changing patterns of premarital sexual behaviour and cohabitation. But the single most important indicator of change is an unprecedented rise in marital breakdown in the last 25 years. In England and Wales one in three marriages are heading for dissolution and in the U.S.A. the number is nearer one in two. The adverse consequences of divorce are extensive and involve ill-health and poor functioning at work. In order to match the new aspirations of marriage a whole series of corrective measures are needed in education and preventive work.     

Are Economic Development and Education Improvement Associated with Participation in Transnational Terrorism?

Using transnational terrorism data from 1980 to 2000, this study empirically examines the relationships between frequency of participation in transnational terrorism acts and economic development and education improvement. We find an inverse U‐shaped association between the frequency of various nationals acting as perpetrators in transnational terrorism acts and per capita income in their respective home countries. As per capita incomes increase from relatively low levels, frequencies of participation in transnational terrorism increase. However, at sufficiently higher levels of per capita income, further increase in per capita income is negatively associated with the rate of participation in transnational terrorism. Education improvement from elementary to secondary is positively correlated with frequency of participation in transnational terrorism events, whereas further improvement from secondary to tertiary level is negatively correlated with participation in transnational terrorism. We also find that citizens of countries with greater openness to international trade, lower degree of income inequality, greater economic freedom, larger proportion of population with tertiary education, and less religious prevalence participate in transnational terrorism events less frequently.     

Import Security: Assessing the Risks of Imported Food

We use data on food import violations from the FDA Operational and Administrative System for Import Support (OASIS) to address rising concerns associated with imported food, quantify import risks by product and by country of origin, and explore the usefulness of OASIS data for risk assessment. In particular, we assess whether there are significant trends in violations, whether import violations can be used to quantify risks by country and by product, and how import risks depend on economic factors of the country of origin. The results show that normalizing import violations by volume of imports provides a meaningful indicator of risk. We then use regression analysis to characterize import risks.  Using this model, we analyze import risks by product type, violation type, and economic factors of the country of origin.  We find that OASIS data are useful in quantifying food import risks, and that the rate of refusals provides a useful decision tool for risk management.  Furthermore, we find that some economic factors are significant indicators of food import risk by country.     

A Causality Analysis of Economic Growth and Union Density in European Countries

In this paper, we analyse the relationship between union density and economic growth using a Granger causality analysis and shocks analysis with vector autoregression model. We find that the Granger causality goes from the growth rate to the unionization rate in four of the 11 European countries under study. France bucks the trend: it is the only country in which union density influences economic growth, moreover in a positive way.     

对外直接投资对母国收入差距的影响效应——基于跨国面板数据的研究

本文将企业异质性理论引入内生增长模型，讨论对外直接投资（OFDI）对母国收入差距的影响机理，并基于1981~2015年85个国家（地区）的面板数据，同时运用静态模型与动态模型验证了二者间存在"倒U型"关系，即随着对外直接投资强度的提升，母国收入差距呈现先扩大再缩小的态势；OFDI一方面通过促进母国的技术进步与产业结构升级、挤出部分国内投资等渠道加剧了收入不平等程度，另一方面以推动母国的金融发展与教育拓展等方式对收入差距产生削减效果；OFDI对收入差距的影响在不同经济发展水平、不同地理区位的国家中具有异质性：当人均GDP小于5767.53美元时，对外直接投资强度显著地扩大了母国收入差距，当人均GDP超过5767.53美元时，二者之间不存在显著的线性关系；欧洲国家的OFDI与收入差距之间呈现出"倒U型"关系，美洲、亚洲国家的OFDI促进了母国收入差距的扩大，非洲国家的OFDI对收入差距无显著影响；此外，OFDI对母国收入差距的影响具有跨期效应，随着时间推移与OFDI存量增加，其间接效应的边际效果有所减弱。     

Skill Acquisition in the Informal Economy and Schooling Decisions: Evidence from Emerging Economies

Informal jobs offer skill acquisition opportunities that may facilitate a future switch to formal employment for young workers. In this sense, informal training on the job may be a viable alternative to formal schooling in an economy with a large and diverse informal sector. In this paper, I investigate if these considerations are relevant for the schooling decisions of young individuals using panel data for 17 Latin American countries and micro‐level data for Turkey. Specifically, I ask if the prevalence of informal jobs distorts schooling attainment. I concentrate on three measures of schooling outcomes: (1) secondary education enrollment rate; (2) out‐of‐school rate for lower secondary school; and (3) tertiary education graduation rate. I find that the secondary education enrollment rate is negatively correlated with the size of the informal economy, whereas the out‐of‐school rate is positively correlated. Moreover, the tertiary education graduation rates tend to fall as the informal employment opportunities increase. This means that informal training on the job may be crowding out school education in developing countries. Policies that can potentially affect the size of the informal sector should take into consideration these second‐round effects on aggregate schooling outcomes.     

From Soviet to Europe: Returns to Education Puzzle in Bulgaria

This article makes a systematic presentation of returns to education in Bulgaria, a country that has witnessed a number of dramatic structural changes over the last two decades. It examines the headway of returns to education for Bulgaria in two observed economic regimes — from communism to EU membership. The findings show a steady increase in returns to education for both men and women until 2003. The average returns to one additional year of education rose from 1.1 per cent in 1986 to 5.1 per cent in 2003 for men and from 2.1 to 5.9 per cent for women. Quantile regression estimations between 1986 and 2003 evince that the most prominent increase in the wage premium occurred at the top end of the distribution, where the rate of returns to education increased in particular for women — from a negative and insignificant sign in 1986 to 7 per cent in 2003. However, this increasing trend in returns to education seems to take an inverted U‐shape in 2007, the year when the country joined the EU, which poses a new puzzle to be resolved. To this end, the current article introduces possible explanations for such a puzzle and sheds lights on a number of insightful policy implications.     

财政分权、经济增长和波动

现有的文献假定我国的财政分权改革能够像其他国家那样对经济增长起到促进作用,但与现有的经验证据是矛盾的。并且,现有的研究也没有准确揭示财政分权的多种效果以及作用机制。本文利用1986￣2004年间中国省级面板数据,对财政分权和经济增长、经济波动之间的关系进行了检验。发现从整个时间跨度来说,财政分权确实促进了中国经济的增长,但在不同时间区域内其影响有所差异,在1994年前它对经济增长并无促进作用,而1994年后对经济增长的促进作用十分显著。同时,我们发现财政分权是导致经济波动的重要原因。在分权的体制下,固定资产投资和外商直接投资也表现出类似的增长效应和波动效应,特别是固定资产投资加剧了地区差距。针对这些证据的一个共同解释就是,目前我国的财政分权其实是一种不完整和不规范的分权,如果要在保持分权的增长效应的同时,弱化其波动效应,实现我国经济的持续稳定发展,那么最关键的就是实行公共财政体制,并在这一新体制下实现合理分权。     

Physicians and economics: a commentary

This article discusses the physician in the United States in relationship to economics. Because economics forms the basis of most of the debate concerning health care in this country, it is important to look at the physician's background, position, and future as they relate to this important area. Eight economic encounters met by the physician are considered: the physician's relationships with knowledge, patients, peers, hospitals, medical technology, malpractice, managed care, and the future. The purpose is to encourage discussion and introspection and to suggest possible future avenues of education and training to address more completely the economic necessities that now are so closely entwined with the profession.     

The breakdown in rural communities—Can we stop it?

Urban and suburban growth in the United States has had a significant impact upon land use, real estate speculation, property taxation and the agricultural sector of the country. Highly productive agricultural lands are being converted to non-agricultural uses; the costs of providing public services are increasing; large quantities of potentially productive farmland are lying idle between rural subdivisions; and the sale of land in remote rural areas of the country for ‘investment’ and second home purposes creates stress in rural communities, undermines the economic viability of agriculture and limits the amount of productive farmland available for food production. This study provides a planning strategy to regulate and monitor this rural-to-urban conversion process.     

Marriage,Labor Supply,and Home Production

We develop a search model of marriage where men and women draw utility from private consumption and leisure, and from a non‐market good that is produced in the home using time resources. We condition individual decisions on wages, education, and an index of family attitudes. A match‐specific, stochastic bliss shock induces variation in matching given wages, education, and family values, and triggers renegotiation and divorce. Using BHPS (1991–2008) data, we take as given changes in wages, education, and family values by gender, and study their impact on marriage decisions and intrahousehold resource allocation. The model allows to evaluate how much of the observed gender differences in labor supply results from wages, education, and family attitudes. We find that family attitudes are a strong determinant of comparative advantages in home production of men and women, whereas education complementarities induce assortative mating through preferences.