Beyond Piketty: A new perspective on poverty and inequality in India

The socio-economic literature has focused much on how overall inequality in income distribution (frequently measured by the Gini coefficient) undermines the “trickle down” effect. In other words, the higher the inequality in the income distribution, the lower is the growth elasticity of poverty. However, with the publication of Piketty’s magnum opus (2014), and a subsequent study by Chancel and Piketty (2017) of evolution of income inequality in India since 1922, the focus has shifted to the income disparity between the richest 1% (or 0.01%) and the bottom 50%. Their central argument is that the rapid growth of income at the top end of millionaires and billionaires is a by-product of growth. The present study extends this argument by linking it to poverty indices in India. Based on the India Human Development Survey 2005–12 – a nationwide panel survey-we examine the links between poverty and income inequality, especially in the upper tail relative to the bottom 50%, state affluence (measured in per capita income) and their interaction or their joint effect. Another feature of our research is that we analyse their effects on the FGT class of poverty indices. The results are similar in as much as direction of association is concerned but the elasticities vary with the poverty index. The growth elasticities are negative and significant for all poverty indices. In all three cases, the disparity between the income share of the top 1% and share of the bottom 50% is associated with greater poverty. These elasticities are much higher than the (absolute) income elasticities except in the case of the poverty gap. The largest increase occurs in the poverty gap squared – a 1% greater income disparity is associated with a 1.24% higher value of this index. Thus the consequences of even a small increase in the income disparity are alarming for the poorest.     

Middle School Children's Perceptions on Welfare and Poverty: An Exploratory, Qualitative Study

This study was undertaken to determine how middle school children assess the effects of welfare reform on their daily lives. The study consisted of thirty interviews with children and their mothers recruited from a middle school in a large, metropolitan area. From the children's perspective, multiple jobs and evening/night hours interfered with the child-parent relationship. Other consequences included grades going down and not getting to school on time. All the children stated that mothers should work, but most children felt mothers should only work when their children are in school. Welfare and poverty were issues about which children were teased at school.     

Japan's “New Homeless”

Since the mid-1990s, homelessness has become a major issue of public discussion in Japan, and is often viewed as a new social problem facing Japanese society. The issue of homelessness contrasts images of the absence of poverty and homelessness in postwar Japan, often explained based on the unique features of Japanese-style employment and welfare, containing poverty and unemployment. This paper contrasts these views with a perspective on the continuity of poverty, and homelessness in postwar Japan. Specifically, I discuss the characteristics of homelessness in Tokyo, how they relate to the structure of the economy and employment practices, and how the problems of today's homeless are accommodated in the welfare system. I argue that the homeless cast light on patterns of loss of employment, housing, and means of subsistence, characteristic to Japan's economy and welfare system, and contribute to a new understanding of the dynamics of poverty in contemporary Japan.     

浅析新时期我国人口较少民族的扶贫开发对策

改革开放以来,我国人口较少民族在各方面得到了巨大的发展,然而,由于粗放式发展、自然环境、历史等方面的原因,我国人口较少民族少数地区仍至今存在着不同程度的贫困问题,影响了小康社会的全面实现。本文即围绕我国人口较少民族的部分特殊性,以科学发展观为指导,探讨在新的历史时期我国人口较少民族的扶贫开发对策。     

关于建立我国社会信用制度体系若干问题的探讨

市场经济是一种契约经济或信用经济,但由于我国社会主义市场经济正处于发育阶段,企业信用制度还没有真正建立起来,一些失信行为出现在国民经济各个领域,当务之急是要切实加快社会信用制度体系建设,这直接关系到能否降低交易费用,提高市场效率,直接关系到市场经济能否长期繁荣。从信用管理立法工作、加强对信用行业进行相应的管理和监督等四个方面提出建立、健全我国社会信用制度体系的建议。     

Inference for the measurement of poverty in the presence of a stochastic weighting variable

Empirical applications of poverty measurement often have to deal with a stochastic weighting variable such as household size. Within the framework of a bivariate distribution function defined over income and weight, I derive the limiting distributions of the decomposable poverty measures and of the ordinates of stochastic dominance curves. The poverty line is allowed to depend on the income distribution. It is shown how the results can be used to test hypotheses concerning changes in poverty. The inference procedures are briefly illustrated using Belgian data. An erratum to this article can be found at     

关于完善学分制管理的几点思考

学分制是一种先进的教学管理体制。在教学管理上推行学分制 ,有利于发挥学生个性 ,拓宽学生的知识面 ,提高学生综合素质。但在目前我国高校的学分制教学管理中还存在不少问题。本文就如何改革和完善学分制教学管理提出了几点具体措施。     

商业银行非财务信用风险分析

传统的信用风险评估方法仅仅从贷款企业角度来评价商业银行所面临的信用风险,而且评价企业信用风险时,也集中在贷款企业的财务风险评价上,忽略了银行本身存、贷款结构和风险状况对信用风险的影响,造成了评估主体缺位。作为对众多文献的补充,从贷款企业非财务风险因素、银行风险因素和宏观经济环境风险因素三个方面进行了信用风险因素分析,完善了商业银行信用风险评估指标体系。     

政府信用缺失的原因分析

政府信用是整个社会信用体系的基石和源泉,起着表率和示范作用。当前政府存在的信用缺失问题,不仅已直接影响了政府的形象和公共管理的效能,而且也成为企业信用、个人信用缺失的重要原因。按照近代西方的社会契约理论,政府信用缺失的主要原因是权力异化的倾向和政治体制自身的因素。     

对欠发达地区农村信用社运行效率的分析

农村信用社改革及其运行效率是当前中国金融界的一个重要课题,农村信用社运行效率的高低依赖于改革的主导力量及其模式的具体选择。中国农村信用社已经历了多次在政府主导下进行的反反复复的体制性变迁,产权制度及治理结构问题未能得到有效解决,其运行效率较低。结合在江西若干县(区)的调查,对欠发达地区农村信用社运行效率进行了分析,并提出了提升农村信用社运行效率的对策建议。