#1
April 8th, 2017, 05:39 PM
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IGIDR Working Papers
My father is searching for IGIDR Working Paper: The Problem of Inequality. He said me to also searching for these papers. So is there anybody who can provide link to download IGIDR Working Paper: The Problem of Inequality?
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#2
April 9th, 2017, 11:02 AM
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Re: IGIDR Working Papers
As you are searching for IGIDR Working Paper: The Problem of Inequality, so here I am providing following Working Papers: IGIDR Working Paper: The Problem of Inequality NO : WP-2016-029 AUTHOR : S. Mahendra Dev TITLE : The Problem of Inequality Inequality is the most discussed development problem all over the world. Development can’t be discussed without talking about inequality. The paper addresses two questions: (a) What are the dimensions and trends in inequality at global level and India? (b) How do we tackle rising inequalities at policy level? 1. INTRODUCTION Inequality has been an important issue in development debates. Development can not be discussed without talking about inequality. Theories of income distribution have been in the literature of economics from before Adam Smith to the present day. Ricardo characterises income distribution as the principal problem of economics (Sandmo, 2015). Several philosophers and economists have discussed about inequality2 . In recent years, rising income inequality has attracted the attention of IMF, World Bank, OECD and Davos meetings. Arab Spring and Brexit also brought this issue to the limelight. The number of billionairs is increasing throughout the world with larger share in income and wealth. With the release of the book by French economist Thomas Piketty (2014), there has been more debate on inequality in several parts of the world. European economists have written more about inequality than American economists although inequality is rising in the US3 First time at global level, a goal on inequality is included in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Goal 10 of SDGs is about reduction in inequality within and among countries. Target 1 of Goal 10 says “ By 2030, progressively achieve and sustain income growth of the bottom 40 per cent of the population at a rate higher than the national average”. Target 2 tries to achieve much more ambitious one: “By 2030, empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status”. There are two main arguments for reduction in inequlity. One is ethical or philosophical argument that equity is important for its own sake (intrinsic value). Second one is reduction in inequality is required for sustainability of growth (instrumental value). The related one is that even if one is concerned only with poverty, inequality can’t be ignored as rise in inequality would adversely affect poverty reduction. 2. DIMENSIONS OF INEQUALITY AT GLOBAL LEVEL Dabla-Norris et al (2015) study from IMF examines trends in inequality of income and opportunities at global level. The main conclusions of the study on levels and trends are the following: (1) Global inequality is high and ranges from 0.55 to 0.70 depending on the measure used; (2) Inequalities have widened within countries. They have increased substantially in most of the advanced countries. Although inequality remained stable for the group of emerging market developing countries (EMDCs), there are large disparities in levels and trends across countries. Inequality increased in Asia and Eastern Europe while it declined in Latin America although levels are higher in the latter set of countries; (3) In advanced countries, inequality is primarily driven by the growing income share of the top 10 per cent which has income close to nine times to that of the bottom 10 per cent. However, in the case of EMDCs, the rise in inequality is primarily due to shift in incomes from middle class to upper class (e.g. China and South Africa). Gini coefficient in wealth is almost double to that of income in many countries; (4) Inequality in health outcome and access to health care is high in developing countries. On the other hand, one notices declining inequality in education in EMDCs. Disparities in access to financial services between advanced countries and EMDCs are high. A recent World Bank study (2016) examines latest trends in inequalities in income/consumption across the world. Some of the conclusions of the study are the following: (a) Global inequality in per capita income steadily increased from the year 1820 to the 1990s5. However, Gini index in recent years fell from 66.8 in 2008 to 62.5 in 2013. This decline in global inequality was due to convergence in average incomes due to rising incomes in populous countries such as China and India. This led to reduction in between country inequality. But within country inequality rose over time; (b) Income/consumption surveys based data shows that inequality increased in 42 countries while it declined in 39 countries for the long period 1993-2008 (Table 1). The populous countries where inequality rose include Bangladesh (5 points), China (7 points) and Indonesia (5 points). In the more recent short period (2008-13), inequality declined in 41 countries while it increased in 19 countries (Table 1); (c) The report offers some lessons on the decline in inequality in Brazil (5.5 points), Cambodia (11 points), Mali (6.9 points), Peru (7.1) and Tanzania (2.7 points) in the recent period (2008-13). Inequality and Growth : Kuznets inverted U shape, U shape and Kuznets Waves The story of inequality and growth can be started from Kuznets inverted U shape which shows that inequality increases initially and later falls with economic growth. Piketty’s work on the US and Europe is well known (Piketty, 2014). The main merit of his book is the massive collection of historical data for several countries. In the 18th and 19th centuries western European society was highly unequal. But inequality declined and stabilized during 1910-70. Again income inequality has been rising since then. In contrast to Kuznets inverted U shape curve, Picketty’s data indicated U shaped curve. From this history, Piketty develops a grand theory of capital and inequality. IGIDR Working Paper: The Problem of Inequality igidr.ac.in/pdf/publication/WP-2016-029.pdf |
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