Search

Most people in the United States agree they want some income inequality but debate exactly how much is fair. High‐status people generally prefer more inequality than low‐status individuals. Here we examine how much preferences for inequality are (or are not) driven by self‐interest. Past work has generally investigated this idea in two ways: The first is by stratifying preferences by income, and the second is by randomly assigning financial status within lab‐constructed scenarios. In this paper, we develop a method that combines both experimental control and the social experience of inequality—a simulated society experiment. Across two experiments (N = 138, observations = 690), participants voted on the distribution of rewards—first behind a veil of ignorance, and then when they were randomly assigned a status within a game of chance. Status varied repeatedly across five rounds, allowing us to measure dynamic preferences. Under the veil of ignorance, people preferred inequality favoring the top status. When the veil of ignorance disappeared, self‐interest immediately influenced inequality preferences. Those who randomly landed in top positions were satisfied with the status quo established under the veil of ignorance, whereas those who randomly landed in bottom positions wanted more equality. Yet these preferences were not stable; decisions about the optimal level of inequality changed according to changes in social status. Our results also showed that, when inequality grows in a society, preferences regarding inequality become polarized by social status. Individuals in low‐status positions, particularly, tend to demand more equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung Discussion Papers is the property of Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The problem of balancing power through institutional design--always a central concern of constitutional theory--has taken on even greater salience in current scholarship in light of contemporary concerns over economic inequality and failures of American democracy today. This paper extends these concerns into the realm of administrative law and the design of regulatory policy. I argue that in an era of increasing (and increasingly interrelated) economic and political inequality, we must design public policies not only with an eye towards their substantive merits, but also in ways that redress disparities of power. In particular, we can design policies to institutionalize the countervailing power of constituencies that are often the beneficiaries of egalitarian economic policies, yet lack the durable, longterm political influence to sustain and help implement these policies over time. This concept of "policymaking as power-building" rests on a descriptive and normative claim. Descriptively, the paper shows how historical and contemporary analyses of administrative governance indicates that regulatory institutions and policies are already involved in shaping and responding to the balance of power among civil society groups. Normatively, the paper argues that this reality should be harnessed to pro-actively design policies that mitigate power disparities, and in so doing promote greater democratic responsiveness through regulatory policy design. The paper develops this argument through case studies of power-balancing policy design in local regulatory bodies around economic development initiatives, and in federal regulation around the case of financial reform. The paper then theorizes a more general framework for designing similar power-shifting policies that are portable across substantive areas of law and policy and across federal, state, or local level administration. This framework should be of interest to policymakers, advocacy groups, and other practitioners designing regulatory policies and concerned about dangers of capture and disparate influence. This account of policymaking as power-building synthesizes literatures in law, social science, and political theory to offer a more institutionally-rich account of power and the interactions between constituencies on the one hand and policymaking institutions on the other. It also extends the current debates on power and public law, law and inequality, and administrative and local government law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I estimate the impact of unproductive activities on economic growth, labour productivity and income inequality in the United States from 1947 to 2011. Productive activities directly create value, while unproductive activities do not. I develop a new methodology to compute the growth of productive and unproductive activities in terms of flows of income and stocks of fixed assets using input-output matrices and national income accounts. A core feature of my methodology is the notion that the commodification of knowledge and information gives rise to 'information rents'. Information rents are, as I demonstrate, a determinant factor of growth and distribution. I find that unproductive activities have a net positive effect on economic growth and labour productivity, but at the price of increasing income inequality. Unproductive activities that rely on information rents, in particular, have increased income inequality and slowed down value-added growth despite their positive contribution to labour productivity. Information rents have drawn too much value from productive activities and benefitted the top income earners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the debate regarding trends in consumption inequality in the United States. We present a new measure of consumption inequality based on the redesigned 1999-2011 PSID. We impute consumption to the families observed before 1999 using the more comprehensive consumption data available from 1999 onward. One advantage of this procedure is in sample verification of the quality of the imputation procedure; another is that it yields a long time series (1967-2010). Consumption inequality was stable in the 1970s, as was income inequality. It increased significantly after 1980. The Great Recession was associated with a decline in consumption inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The form of political polarization where citizens develop strongly negative attitudes toward out-party members and policies has become increasingly prominent across many democracies. Economic hardship and social inequality, as well as intergroup and racial conflict, have been identified as important contributing factors to this phenomenon known as “affective polarization.” Research shows that partisan animosities are exacerbated when these interests and identities become aligned with existing party cleavages. In this paper, we use a model of cultural evolution to study how these forces combine to generate and maintain affective political polarization. We show that economic events can drive both affective polarization and the sorting of group identities along party lines, which, in turn, can magnify the effects of underlying inequality between those groups. But, on a more optimistic note, we show that sufficiently high levels of wealth redistribution through the provision of public goods can counteract this feedback and limit the rise of polarization. We test some of our key theoretical predictions using survey data on intergroup polarization, sorting of racial groups, and affective polarization in the United States over the past 50 y. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine wealth dynamics through the Great Recession along a dimension previously not studied, religious affiliation. Specifically, this paper analyzes wealth differentials and relative wealth losses among religious groups at the mean and along the wealth distribution before and after the Great Recession.Design/methodology/approach Drawing on data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and including a wide array of control variables, the paper analyzes the impact of religious affiliation groups on wealth pre- and post-Recession, using OLS, generalized least squares and quantile regression models.Findings The findings show that wealth differentials among religious groups exist both before and after the Recession and that wealth disparities are greater for people at the low end of the wealth distribution, who lost disproportionately more wealth across religious groups.Social implications The results suggest that the Great Recession further increased wealth inequality yet along another dimension, religious affiliation. These findings imply that in order to decrease wealth inequality and minimize other harmful effects of adverse macroeconomic events, religious institutions may provide education on financial management strategies, especially to those at the low end of the wealth distribution.Originality/value This paper is the first of its kind to build upon two bodies of literature: the research on religion and wealth and the research on wealth losses and the Great Recession. It is also the first paper to explore the religion–wealth relationship after the Great Recession and along the wealth distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper starts with a review of a few selected papers on the magnitude, and trends in income inequality in the United States as a nation, at the state level, and internationally. Some of the potential determinants of income inequality in the United Sates are identified and briefly discussed as well. The paper then explores the relationship between industrial composition in the United States and income inequality. The primary finding is that there appears to be an association between the changes in the US manufacturing and services sectors and income inequality but not completely in the manner hypothesized in past research. Further increasing the size of the construction sector may provide the greatest reductions in income inequality. The paper concludes with a summary of the estimation results and some thoughts on the policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of manufacturing employment decline on the socioeconomic outcomes within and between black and white Americans since 1960. The analysis shows that manufacturing decline had a negative impact on blacks in terms of their wages, employment, marriage rates, house values, poverty rates, death rates, single parenthood, teen motherhood, child poverty, and child mortality. In addition, the decline in manufacturing increased inequality within the black community for wages and other outcomes. Similar patterns are found for whites, but to a lesser degree—leading to larger gaps between whites and blacks in wages, marriage patterns, poverty, single-parenthood, and death rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constraints arise naturally in many scientific experiments/studies such as in, epidemiology, biology, toxicology, etc. and often researchers ignore such information when analyzing their data and use standard methods such as the analysis of variance (ANOVA). Such methods may not only result in a loss of power and efficiency in costs of experimentation but also may result poor interpretation of the data. In this paper we discuss constrained statistical inference in the context of linear mixed effects models that arise naturally in many applications, such as in repeated measurements designs, familial studies and others. We introduce a novel methodology that is broadly applicable for a variety of constraints on the parameters. Since in many applications sample sizes are small and/or the data are not necessarily normally distributed and furthermore error variances need not be homoscedastic (i.e. heterogeneity in the data) we use an empirical best linear unbiased predictor (EBLUP) type residual based bootstrap methodology for deriving critical values of the proposed test. Our simulation studies suggest that the proposed procedure maintains the desired nominal Type I error while competing well with other tests in terms of power. We illustrate the proposed methodology by re-analyzing a clinical trial data on blood mercury level. The methodology introduced in this paper can be easily extended to other settings such as nonlinear and generalized regression models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite increasingly sophisticated antidiscrimination laws, discrimination and inequality have proved remarkably resilient. This prompts questions about the limits of law's ability to achieve social change. One way forward is to fashion new legal tools, which impose duties to promote or achieve equality, rather than focusing on individual rights against specific perpetrators. In the past decade in Britain, such fourth generation equality laws have been developed in a distinctive format, requiring the decision-maker to "have due regard" to equality, rather than taking action to achieve such objectives. This standard has triggered a spate of judicial review cases, particularly in response to austerity measures imposing deep budgetary cuts on disadvantaged groups. This Paper's aims are two-fold. The first is to examine the judicial approach to the due regard standard in the light of recent regulatory theory. Do courts consider the due regard standard as a signal for deference, or can it be understood as an example of "reflexive law," facilitating deliberative decision-making rather than imposing external standards likely to meet with resistance from the regulated body? The Paper concludes that courts have struggled to deal with the regulatory challenges presented by the "due regard" standard, wavering between appropriate and inappropriate intervention. The second aim is an analysis of whether a deliberative standard is appropriate in the equality context. The record of judicial review cases demonstrates that such a standard risks legitimating or simply reconfiguring existing inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The paper intends to enrich the set of national contexts used so far in studies about gift-giving. It also intends to test the unique explanatory power of the dimensions of egalitarianism. Design/methodology/approach -- The study uses a survey methodology with an Israeli sample. Findings -- The results suggest that egalitarianism affects gift-giving behaviors only for females and anniversary presents. Research limitations/implications -- The research is not cross-cultural per se. Thus, further research is needed in nations that are maximally different from the USA and Israel on their cultural dimensions. Practical implications -- Strong social norms about gift-giving "protocol" may override the effect of egalitarianism attitudes on gift-giving behavior. Thus, marketers can benefit greatly from creating, nurturing, and promoting ritualistic and structured gift-giving situations. Originality/value -- The paper examines gift-giving in Israel, a culturally different setting than the USA and other developed nations. It also extends the use of gender-role attitudes, especially egalitarianism, as a predictor of gift-giving behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the measurements for inequality and poverty that requires focusing on the details while examining the overall picture, in which the U.S. can learn from Europe's research and experience. It notes that many of the conference papers focuses on alternative measures of income, evaluates its impact on inequality and poverty from the joint Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)/Universtiy of Maryland conference that was held in Paris, France. The papers highlight the impact of making changes that affects measurement while the details provides insight for the determination of the best measure to use for poverty and inequality.

Migrants are omnipresent in cosmopolitan societies. So too are steep increases in economic inequality. These changes have pushed immigration to the top of the political agenda in the U.S and many other cosmopolitan societies. In response to the migrant crisis in the U.S., conservatives seek to erect walls, restrict immigration and deport the undocumented, while liberals seek amnesty, sanctuary policies and other measures to advance human rights. Both sets of policies, however, primarily address consequences rather than underlying causes of external drivers of migration and internal dynamics of inequalities that animate populist revolts on both the left and right. In this paper, I employ an analytic framework that highlights structural factors that contribute to immigration patterns and growing inequities in the U.S. The paper examines how U.S. immigration and immigrant policy interacts with the political economy in ways that shape unequal immigrant incorporation processes and outcomes. I conclude by pointing to contemporary social movements that promote policies aimed at producing more egalitarian outcomes for migrants and citizens alike. Given that immigrants and their offspring comprise nearly one in four people in the U.S., addressing such inequities is theoretically important and a pressing political concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic theory suggests that monopoly prices hurt consumers but benefit shareholders. But in a world where individuals or households can be both consumers and shareholders, the impact of market power on inequality depends in part on the relative distribution of consumption and corporate equity ownership across individuals or households. The paper calculates this distribution for the United States, using data from the Survey of Consumer Finances and the Consumer Expenditure Survey, spanning nearly three decades from 1989 to 2016. In 2016, the top 20 per cent consumed approximately as much as the bottom 60 per cent, but had 15 times as much corporate equity. Because ownership is more skewed than consumption, increased mark-ups increase inequality. Moreover, over time, corporate equity has become even more skewed relative to consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In recent years, border control and migration-related detention have become increasingly widespread practices affecting the lives of undocumented migrants, their families, and communities at large. In spite of the concern within academia, few studies have directly witnessed the life and experiences of people confined to migration-related detention centers. In the medical and psychological fields, a considerable body of research has demonstrated the pathogenic nature of detention in terms of mental health, showing an association between length of detention and severity of distress. Nevertheless, it was limited to the assessment of individuals' clinical consequences, mainly focusing on asylum seekers. There currently exists a need to adopt an ecological perspective from which to study detained migrants' experiences as context-dependent, and influenced by power inequalities. This paper addresses this gap. Discussion: Drawing upon advances in community psychology, we illustrate an ecological framework for the study of migration-related detention contexts, and their effects on the lives of detained migrants and all people exposed to them. Making use of existing literature, Kelly's four principles (interdependence, cycling of resources, adaptation, succession) are analyzed at multiple ecological levels (personal, interpersonal, organizational, communal), highlighting implications for future research in this field. A focus on justice, as a key-dimension of analysis, is also discussed. Wellbeing is acknowledged as a multilevel, dynamic, and value-dependent phenomenon. Summary: In presenting this alternative framework, the potential for studying migration-related detention through an ecological lens is highlighted, pointing the way for future fields of study. We argue that ecological multilevel analyses, conceptualized in terms of interdependent systems and with a focus on justice, can enhance the comprehension of the dynamics at play in migration-related detention centers, providing an effective tool to address the multi-level challenges of doing research within them. Furthermore, they can contribute to the development of policies and practices concerned with health, equality, and human rights of all people exposed to migration-related detention. Consistent with these assumptions, empirical studies adopting such a framework are strongly encouraged. These studies should use mixed and multi-method culturally situated designs, based on the development of collaborative and empowering relationships with participants. Ethnographic approaches are recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Service learning (S-L) is an innovative methodology, which is extensively known worldwide. The implementation of this methodology involves classroom learning and real practice. It is based on a cooperative methodology, integrating community service and learning in a connected way. Its main strength lies in its great potential as a transformative social movement to reduce inequality. The main aim of this study was to understand and describe the field of S-L and inequality in higher education through a bibliometric analysis. A descriptive, retrospective, and cross-sectional methodology is used to describe the information obtained from the 20 references on the topic registered in the Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) databases using a mixed methodology. The quantitative and qualitative results show that most of the publications are concentrated in 2016, with the United States being the country with the largest amount of scientific production on this subject. It is also worth noting that most of the authors reported this approach as a powerful tool to develop consciousness, commitment, and responsibility toward inequality and social problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the effect of recent technical change on the labor market and explains the observed differences in wage inequality among advanced countries. In particular, we focus on the difference between the inequality in the U.S. and in continental Europe. Many studies have indicated a rise in wage inequality in the U.S. over the past three decades. On the other hand, there has been little change in wage inequality in continental Europe. By introducing human capital investment into the model by Acemoglu (Am Econ Rev 89:1259-1278, ), we show that ex ante homogeneous economies would have distinct ex post wage distribution. The strategic complementarity between human capital investment and firms' hiring strategies yields the possibility that multiple equilibria exist, which explains the difference in wage distribution between the U.S. and Europe. In addition, we show that differences in tax or education systems can explain the difference in wage distribution between the U.S. and Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Derecho del Estado is the property of Universidad Externado de Colombia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper uses General Social Survey data linked to Census data to investigate the effect of local area income and income inequality on worker well-being. Others have found a robust negative correlation between reference group income and self-reported well-being. However, in many cases the reference group is defined as a large geographic area. This paper adds to the literature in two ways. First, it considers multiple nested geographic reference groups with US data. Second, it explicitly considers income inequality in addition to the level of income. It is found that both income and income inequality are positively associated with well-being at the census tract level, but negatively associated at the county level. Further, the effect of inequality on well-being decreases as income increases at the census tract and county level, while it increases at the state level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Principles of health equity require that all people have equal opportunity to develop and maintain their health, yet in the face of widespread and presumptively inequitable health disparities, the law has done little. This paper argues that health equity demands the use of coercive legal mechanisms in certain circumstances given the existence of current disparities and the evidence of effectiveness of direct regulation as compared to its alternatives. Moreover, the paper argues that Healthy People 2020, which is the nation's "master blueprint for health" and explicitly seeks to achieve health equity, has not fully incorporated the principles of health equity in the formulation of its objectives and indicators because it fails to recognize the varying distributive effects of policies that could achieve population health targets. To truly incorporate the principles of health equity, Healthy People 2020 should advocate for those demonstrably effective coercive legal mechanisms that would both achieve its population health objectives and reduce health disparities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the economic impact of the second great immigration wave (1945-2000) on the US economy. Our analysis relies on a computable general equilibrium model combining the major interactions between immigrants and natives (labor market impact, fiscal impact, capital deepening, endogenous education, endogenous inequality). Contrary to recent studies, we show that immigration induced important net gains and small redistributive effects among natives. According to our simulations, the postwar US immigration is beneficial for all natives cohorts and all skill groups. Nevertheless, the gains would have been larger if the US had conducted a more selective immigration policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we argue that government spending played a significant role in stimulating the wave of innovation that hit the U.S. economy in the late 1970s and in the 1980s, as well as the simultaneous increase in inequality and in education attainments. Since the late 1970s U.S. policymakers began targeting commercial innovations more directly and explicitly. We focus on the shift in the composition of public demand toward high-tech goods, which, by increasing the market-size of innovative firms, functions as a de facto innovation policy tool. We build a quality-ladders non-scale growth model with heterogeneous industries and endogenous supply of skills, and show that an increase in the technological content of public spending stimulates R&D, raises the wage of skilled workers, and, at the same time, stimulates human capital accumulation. A calibrated version of the model suggests that government policy explains between 12% and 15% of the observed increase in wage inequality in the period 1976-1991. (JEL: E62, J31, O33, O41) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does economic inequality affect redistributive policy? This paper turns to U.S. county data on land inequality over the period 1890 to 1930 to help address this fundamental question in political economy. Redistributive policy was primarily decided at the local level during this period, making county-level data particularly informative. Examining within-state variation also reduces the potential impact of latent institutional and political variables. The paper also uses a variety of identification strategies, including historic variables as well as county weather and crop characteristics, as instruments for land inequality. The evidence consistently suggests that greater inequality is significantly associated with less redistribution. This negative relationship is especially large in heavily rural counties, where concentrated landownership implied that landed elites also controlled the majority of economic production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This symposium issue of Administrative Theory & Praxis considers the role of social equity in public administration and policy. Our paper's contribution to this volume is to discuss the evolution, essence, and emergence of social equity within our field. Our analysis of evolution calls attention to foundational contributions that stem from Rawls, Minnowbrook I, and the New Public Administration. Next, we examine both the empirical and normative dimensions of the essence of social equity, which has been influenced largely by the Standing Panel on Social Equity within the National Academy of Public Administration. Finally, we conclude with a discussion of the future emergence of social equity, which we argue should focus on expanded, global examples, measurement, and integration into our public administration curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reviews recent developments in the literature on wage inequality with a particular focus on why inequality growth has been particularly concentrated in the top end of the wage distribution over the last 15 years. Several possible institutional and demand-side explanations are discussed for the secular growth in wage inequality in the United States and other advanced industrialized countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comments on the paper "Education Reform and Content: The Long View," E. D. Hirsch Jr. Difference between K-12 education and higher education in the U.S. in terms of change; Factors being blamed for the failure of American education; Role of the political-ideological agenda of equality in curriculum reform; Comment on the educational reforms in the U.S.

There is much work on the relationships between crime, unemployment and inequality. At the turn of the millennium, 2.1 million people in the U.S. were in prison or jail, rising to 6.3 million if we include those on probation or parole. A key finding is that introducing criminal activity into otherwise standard models of the labor market can significantly affect the predictions of these models. The first section of this paper presents the worker's problem taking wages as given. This provides a natural extension to the textbook job search model to incorporate crime. Section II analyzes wage setting. This shows how various types of equilibria with different crime rates can arise for different parameter values, and how sometimes multiple equilibria coexist, with different amounts of crime, inequality and unemployment. This paper has developed a search equilibrium framework that can be used to analyze the interrelations between crime, unemployment and inequality. The model is essential to analyze feedbacks that can lead to multiplicity.

This paper documents changing inequality in employer-provided fringe benefits in the United States using much more comprehensive data than previously available. Inequality growth in broader measures of compensation slightly exceeds wage inequality growth over the 1981–1997 period. Employer costs due to paid leave, pensions, and health insurance fell for low wage labor and rose for high wage labor over this period. The findings suggest income effects as a contributory factor in the relative decline of fringe benefits among low wage workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I investigate the impact of recent immigration on males' earnings distributions in the major regions of the United States. I use six counterfactual scenarios to describe alternative regional skill distributions and wage structures for the population of natives and long-term immigrants in the absence of recent immigration. I find that immigration over the last three decades can account for a substantial portion of the variation in inequality across the regions. Recent immigration has contributed moderately to national growth in males' earnings inequality, primarily by changing the composition of the population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the relationship between inequality and crime using data from urban counties. The behavior of property and violent crime are quite different. Inequality has no effect on property crime but a strong and robust impact on violent crime, with an elasticity above 0.5. By contrast, poverty and police activity have significant effects on property crime, but little on violent crime. Property crime is well explained by the economic theory of crime, while violent crime is better explained by strain and social disorganization theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Economic inequality in the United States is extreme, but little is known about the national origin of affluent households. Households in the top one percent by total wealth own vastly disproportionate quantities of household assets and have correspondingly high levels of economic, social, and political influence. The overrepresentation of white natives (i.e., those born in the U.S.) among high-wealth households is well-documented, but changing migration dynamics suggest that a growing portion of top households may be immigrants. Methods: Because no single survey dataset contains top wealth holders and data about country of origin, this paper uses two publicly-available data sets: the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) and the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). Multiple imputation is used to impute country of birth from the SIPP into the SCF. Descriptive statistics are used to demonstrate reliability of the method, to estimate the prevalence of immigrants among top wealth holders, and to document patterns of asset ownership among affluent immigrants. Results: Significant numbers of top wealth holders who are usually classified as white natives may be immigrants. Many top wealth holders appear to be European and Canadian immigrants, and increasing numbers of top wealth holders are likely from Asia and Latin America as well. Results suggest that of those in the top one percent of wealth holders, approximately 3% are European and Canadian immigrants, .5% are from Mexico or Cuban, and 1.7% are from Asia (especially Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mainland China, and India). Ownership of key assets varies considerably across affluent immigrant groups. Conclusion: Although the percentage of top wealth holders who are immigrants is relatively small, these percentages represent large numbers of households with considerable resources and corresponding social and political influence. Evidence that the propensity to allocate wealth to real and financial assets varies across immigrant groups suggests that wealth ownership is more global than previous research suggests and that immigrant groups are likely to become more prevalent in top wealth positions in the U.S. As the representation of immigrants in top wealth positions grows, their economic, social, and political influence is likely to increase as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the relationship between alternative metropolitan land use patterns, including those characterized as 'sprawl,' and Black residential segregation. Previous studies have explored this question using limited attributes and empirical measures of both land use and segregation. This econometric study advances the understanding of that relationship in several ways. First, the paper defines land use as a countervailing, multi-dimensional, phenomenon. Metropolitan areas do not generally exhibit high-sprawl (or low-sprawl) characteristics across multiple measures; rather, they typically exhibit some combination, or 'configuration,' of low-sprawl and high-sprawl attributes. Second, the paper examines the relationship between such configurations and several of the segregation dimensions suggested by Massey and Denton (1988). Third, the paper analyzes results using the 2010 decennial Census. This study explores the contribution and transmission of countervailing spatial land use patterns to changes in Black segregation levels, and the implications of such changes for land use policies and regulations. These complex effects bring new precision and insights to the analysis of racial inequality in an age of rapid demographic change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The majority of mainstream economists believe that globalization and trade liberalization have had a minor role in increasing U.S. wage inequality. A minority argues that capital mobility and outsourcing indicate a larger effect. This paper first surveys these views, and then argues that how we understand the policy consequences of trade liberalization helps determine the character our analysis of the issue itself. Thus, a shift in policy perspective, to consider the "equity costs" of trade liberalization in terms of eroded U.S. labor market institutions, produces a larger framework for analyzing the consequences of globalization and trade liberalization than is available in traditional comparative advantage efficiency reasoning. From this wider perspective, trade liberalization has likely had a greater impact on U.S. wage inequality than even the minority mainstream position allows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing earnings inequality has received considerable attention from economists. The broad consensus is that the main reason earnings inequality has increased in the U.S. over the past two decades is technical change, leading to an increased relative demand for skilled workers. The specific change in technology most often cited is improvements in computer technology. The paper argues that a different type of technological change, the shift from mass to flexible production, has been a more important cause of increasing inequality. Flexible production increases the relative demand for skilled, highly paid workers and decreases the demand for unskilled, low-wage workers, thereby creating greater earnings inequality. Two types of evidence are emphasized, the timing of the changes and the experience across countries. Increasing inequality began before the rise of personal computers, but at about the same time as the shift to flexible production. In addition, earnings inequality has increased the most in the U.S. and Great Britain, the two countries where the global shift to flexible production has been most dramatic.

Bequest patterns to children are important in intergenerational models of the distribution of income and wealth. Economies that feature primogeniture will have a greater degree of inequality than those featuring equal division. This paper presents evidence on estate division among children by sex, birth order, family size, estate size, and asset composition. The results presented here are preference-generated not tax-induced due to the tax characteristics within the sampling region. It is shown that equal sharing among children is the rule, a result that casts doubt upon the "altruist" model of inheritance as advanced by Becker and Tomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Earlier studies by Liu on Quality of Life (QOL) indicators have pointed out the problems of concentration and interregional inequality among the fifty states in U.S.A. Noting that the interregional inequality problem has been gradually alleviated over the past two decades, this paper attempts to provide some rudimentary explanations about this converging phenomenon through a labor market adjusting process towards social, economic and spatial equilibrium. Published state data and QOL indicators developed by Liu for 1960, 1970 and 1978 tend to support the hypothesis that investment in human resources, especially through improved elementary and secondary education, would enhance social mobility which would in turn improve labor and capital productivity. The reduced regional inequality in economic QOL seemed to be more a response than a cause when compared to that in social QOL, because variations in educational expenditures were found to be more significantly related to the social QOL indicators than to the economic ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tolbert H. Kennedy was an administrator and professor at Washington State University. 1944-1965. During that time this university reached rank three on the all-time list of schools producing doctoral-level black sociologists. Only the University of Chicago and Ohio State were more successful than Washington State in that respect. This paper contends Kennedy's is humanitarian interest in practical race relations, conditioned by his southern upbringing, led him to work privately in the production of potential leaders who would press for human equality. In so doing he showed teaching to be a relationship which enables teacher and learner to he mutually fulfilled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food insecurity (FI) is a pressing concern among university students in the United States, and the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this issue. Providing food assistance for university students has become more challenging due to pandemic-related consequences and interventions. This study aims to (1) analyze social inequalities in FI among university students in a large public university during the pandemic, (2) investigate the association of their utilization of campus, community, and federal food assistance programs (FAPs) and FI, and (3) understand the barriers students face in accessing FAPs. Survey questionnaires were distributed to students to gather their socio-demographics, FI, and usage of FAPs. Logistic regression was utilized to assess the relationship between students' FI and their use of FAPs. Among the surveyed students (n = 282), 33.7% reported experiencing FI. Higher FI rates were observed among socially vulnerable student groups, for example, non-Hispanic Black (62.5%) and Hispanic students (38.7%), compared with non-Hispanic White students (32.1%). FAPs had a limited influence on students' FI due to low utilization. The primary barriers to FAPs were insufficient information, ineligibility, and social stigma. The findings suggest it is crucial to reduce barriers to using FAPs and develop targeted interventions for marginalized students to address inequalities in FI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crime rates in the United States have declined to historical lows since the early 1990s. Prison and jail incarceration rates as well as community correctional populations have increased greatly since the mid-1970s. Both of these developments have disproportionately impacted poor and minority communities. In this paper, we document these trends. We then assess whether the crime declines can be attributed to the massive expansion of the US criminal justice system. We argue that the crime rate is certainly lower as a result of this expansion and in the early 1990s was likely a third lower than what it would have been absent changes in sentencing practices in the 1980s. However, there is little evidence that further stiffening of sentences during the 1990s-a period when prison and other correctional populations expanded rapidly-have had an impact. Hence, the growth in criminal justice populations since 1990s has exacerbated socioeconomic inequality in the United States without generating much benefit in terms of lower crime rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we attempt to provide an economic explanation for the adoption of bill co-sponsorship by the US House of Representatives in 1967. We demonstrate empirically that key features of legislative production prior to 1967 (when House members' support for a bill was indicated by introduction of duplicate bills) and post-1967 (when political support for a bill is indicated by co-sponsorship) are strikingly similar. Specifically, the raw number of supporters of a bill, whether indicated by duplicate bills or by co-sponsorship, is not nearly as critical to advancement of that bill through the House of Representatives as is the political power of the individual who introduces it and those who support it. The relative sizes of these effects are highly consistent over time. In effect, this finding means that the underlying factors of importance in the House's legislative production function did not change significantly when bill co-sponsorship was adopted. This suggests that the change in operating procedure may have been driven by an intra-chamber struggle to control the legislative outcomes. We present empirical evidence that is highly consistent with this hypothesis-adoption of bill co-sponsorship in 1967 coincides exactly with the post-World War II peak in a concentration ratio of legislation passed in the US House of Representatives. Prior to the 90th Congress, there was a more-or-less steady increase in concentration of legislation passed by the five busiest committees that peaked at over 0.4 in the 90th Congress and then declined precipitously to under 0.15 by the 93rd Congress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic inequality is soaring and the consensus in some circles is that corporations' myopic focus on profits is largely to blame. At first glance a stakeholder approach would seem an appealing solution: surely if the purpose of corporations was not wealth maximization for shareholders, but rather to create value for all constituents--thus including employees, customers, suppliers, and communities--we would make strides towards combatting inequality, the theory goes. Corporations themselves, through their powerful lobbying group, the Business Roundtable, recently disclaimed shareholder primacy and embraced stakeholder theory. However, far from successfully redressing inequality, a stakeholder approach is unlikely to achieve meaningful redistribution of power and resources to weaker constituents and would likely work in the opposite direction. We suggest that a stakeholder approach gives corporate executives both a sword and a shield with which to preserve their advantageous status quo. First, executives can justify stepped up lobbying efforts as part of their mandate to consider the interests of all constituents, capturing the agenda with respect to distributing more power and resources to weaker constituents. Second, because a switch to a stakeholder approach would appear as a significant change--despite not actually accomplishing meaningful redistribution--it would require significant political capital to be adopted, and once adopted would occupy an outsized portion of legislative and regulatory space, depleting energy and resources necessary to pass reform that is more likely to actually impact inequality. In fact, in reviewing the likely drivers of inequality, we find that key factors include higher concentration leading to the shrinking of the labor share and increased monopsony in labor markets, the gradual weakening of worker protections from labor market institutions, and giving up on progressive taxation as a redistributive mechanism. Broadening corporate purpose alone would do next to nothing to impact these fields, so to address rampant economic inequality corporate scholars will need to eschew the academic silo and reach across disciplines to identify more effective policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trade plays an increasingly important role in the global food system, which is projected to be strained by population growth, economic development, and climate change. For this reason, there has been a surge of interest in the water resources embodied in international trade, referred to as 'global virtual water trade.' In this paper, we present a comprehensive assessment of virtual water flows within the United States (U.S.), a country with global importance as a major agricultural producer and trade power. This is the first study of domestic virtual water flows based upon intranational food transfer empirical data and it provides insight into how the properties of virtual water transfers vary across scales. We find that the volume of virtual water flows within the U.S. is equivalent to 51% of international flows, which is slightly higher than the U.S. food value and mass shares, due to the fact that water-intensive meat commodities comprise a much larger fraction of food transfers within the U.S.. The U.S. virtual water flow network is more social, homogeneous, and equitable than the global virtual water trade network, although it is still not perfectly equitable. Importantly, a core group of U.S. States is central to the network structure, indicating that both domestic and international trade may be vulnerable to disruptive climate or economic shocks in these U.S. States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structural social inequality is a difficult sociological concept to transmit to undergraduate students. These students tend to be naive regarding structured inequality. As introductory students, their unshakeable fervent belief is that everyone can succeed and improve their social class if they try hard enough. Thus, these students often conclude that structural barriers do not exist and that those in the lower social class are simply lazy and do not try hard enough to improve their situation. It should not be surprising that students cling to such beliefs as they are reflective of attitudes held by the general public regarding the reasons for poverty in the U.S. The in-class exercise presented in this paper was developed to combat the belief that structural barriers do not exist. This exercise allows students to experience inequality first-hand. Students are asked if anything about the quiz seemed familiar to the previous discussion. Of course, by now, most have figured out that the four groups stood for four social classes. Many students, but rarely those assigned to the ten-minute group, complain that the quiz was not really fair.