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In this essay, we argue that economic inequality is reproduced because business students uncritically accept the neoliberal myth of meritocracy. This myth advances values and beliefs suggesting that hard work and innate talent lead to equally accessible opportunities and corresponding rewards. These ideas are embedded in the narratives (e.g., stories, exercises, cases, or guest speakers) prevalent throughout the business school but remain “hidden” to students because they are implicit rather than surfaced. We explain that these narratives are attractive to students and, because they are implicit within the curriculum, they limit business students’ abilities to make the systemic changes needed to address economic inequality. In our call to action, we propose a set of tools—literary analysis, plural vocality, and historical learning—that can disrupt this attraction and enable students to critically engage with the myth of neoliberal meritocracy. It is our opinion that a more critical outlook will raise students’ awareness to economic inequality and encourage them to ameliorate this type of inequality as they move through their professional lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the first half of 2020, the difference in savings from mortgage refinancing between high- and low-income borrowers was 10 times higher than before. This was the result of two factors: high-income borrowers increased their refinancing activity more than otherwise comparable low-income borrowers and, conditional on refinancing, they captured slightly larger improvements in interest rates. Refinancing inequality increases with the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic and is characterized by an underrepresentation of low-income borrowers in the pool of applications. We estimate a difference of $5 billion in savings between the top income quintile and the rest of the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rising income inequality is taking a toll on people's subjective well-being (SWB), and many commentators have implicated the role of material possessions, and thereby marketing, in this regard. Making a more nuanced argument, this research proposes that certain material possessions—namely, favorite possessions—can mitigate the detrimental psychological effect of income inequality on SWB. In support of this proposition, experimental data from nine countries (N = 3,687) and social media posts from 138 countries (N = 31,332) converge to show that, while SWB generally declines as income inequality increases, encouraging consumers to attend to their favorite possessions can mitigate the negative effect of inequality on SWB. This is because attending to favorite possessions reduces consumers' tendency to make social comparisons related to material resources and wealth, which otherwise arise when income inequality is high. Consequently, even when they perceive high income inequality, consumers feel less deprived relative to others, which buffers their SWB. These findings have meaningful consumer welfare implications. In particular, one way consumers can feel happier with their quality of life in an unequal society is to avoid comparing their material wealth with that of others and instead attend to the material possessions most special to them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immigrants and their native-born children often face considerable wage penalties relative to natives, but less is known about whether this inequality arises through differences in educational qualifications, segregation across occupations and establishments, or unequal pay for the same work. Using linked employer–employee data from Norway, the authors ask whether immigrant–native wage disparities 1) reflect differences in detailed educational qualifications, labor market segregation, or within-job pay differences; 2) differ by immigrant generation; and 3) vary across different segments of the labor market. They find that immigrant–native wage disparities primarily reflect sorting into lower-paying jobs, and that wage disadvantages are considerably reduced across immigrant generations. When doing the same work for the same employer, immigrant-background workers, especially children of immigrants, earn similar wages to natives. Sorting into jobs seems more meritocratic for university graduates, for professionals, and in the public sector, but within-job pay differences are strikingly similar across market segments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the wage earnings of refugee immigrants in Sweden. Using administrative employer–employee data from 1990 onward, approximately 100,000 refugee immigrants who arrived between 1980 and 1996 and were granted asylum are compared to a matched sample of native-born workers. Employing recentered influence function (RIF) quantile regressions to wage earnings for the period 2011–2015, the occupational-task-based Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition approach shows that refugees perform better than natives at the median wage, controlling for individual and firm characteristics. This overperformance is attributable to female refugee immigrants. Given their characteristics, refugee immigrant females perform better than native females across all occupational tasks studied, including non-routine cognitive tasks. A notable similarity of the wage premium exists among various refugee groups, suggesting that cultural differences and the length of time spent in the host country do not have a major impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors investigate how race and political partisanship affected variations in workplace and non-workplace mobility at three COVID-19 phases—lockdown (2020), reopening (2021), and endemic COVID (2022). They theorize that structural racism compelled relatively greater workplace mobility rates in Black communities during lockdown, and reduced Black workplace mobility during reopening and endemic COVID. By contrast, they posit elite-level anti-science skepticism and its amplification resulted in Trump-voting communities experiencing relatively higher workplace and non-workplace mobility rates than non-Trump-voting areas throughout the pandemic. Regressions primarily using county-level Google Mobility Reports data support the hypotheses, conditioning on state-level fixed effects and county-level urbanity, COVID job-type sorting, demographics, and socioeconomics. The county-level results are complemented by outcomes from novel individual-level COVID lockdown survey data, helping connect the proposed individual-level mechanisms to the county-level findings. The authors conclude that work mobility during COVID was racialized and politicized, offering empirical insights into how systematic disadvantages can lead to increased and unequal precarity during periods of acute economic or social crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current research proposes and tests a novel model explaining how job insecurity shapes well-being and has consequences for stratification and inequality. I draw on evolutionary life history theory, which proposes that growing up in a poorer versus wealthier environment impacts the sense of control people feel when exposed to threat in adulthood. I integrate this perspective with transactional stress theory to propose that job insecurity has a disproportionately negative effect on employees from poorer backgrounds, leading to lower engagement and higher emotional exhaustion among such employees, while those from wealthier backgrounds are buffered against these effects. These responses to job insecurity, in turn, amplify job loss risk for employees from poorer backgrounds, regardless of employees' current job or financial situation. A preregistered, multisource, five-wave longitudinal study conducted at the height of the COVID-19 crisis in India found support for these predictions. A follow-up quasi-experiment conducted in India and the United States replicated the effects on engagement and exhaustion. The impact of job insecurity on well-being is stratified and acts as a mechanism that reproduces childhood inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent and detailed data point to a polarization of wages with regard to the distribution of skills, particularly in developed countries over the past three decades, requiring the literature to address modelling approaches focused on automating different types of tasks. In the DTC literature, the technological-knowledge bias leads to an increase in the wage of skilled workers relative to unskilled workers. Motivated by this literature, this paper considers three types of workers (skilled, medium-skilled and unskilled) but retain the economic mechanisms that produce the results. Thus, wage inequality continues to result from the technological-knowledge bias, which, in the face of automation dynamics, reveals that medium-skilled workers are the relatively most penalized, generating wage polarization. Furthermore, as in the directed technical change literature, the relative supply of skilled workers continues to affect the skill premium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the saving practices of members of the Nueva Vizcaya State University Tricycle Operators and Drivers Association (NVSU TODA), utilizing a quantitative approach to reveal factors influencing saving behaviors and associated challenges. Contrary to expectations, age doesn't consistently affect saving habits, but it does show a significant positive link with money management behavior and a notable negative association with the use of savings. Gender differences, family size, education, and daily income distribution present unique challenges, with gender significantly linked to how savings are used and affected by external factors. Internal factors like disciplined financial practices and specific goals play a significant role in shaping saving behaviors. Spending patterns highlight clear priorities, especially in food expenses. External factors, such as limited influence from peers and irregular access to formal financial services, call for community-specific actions. Family support emerges as a positive influencer. Barriers to saving include economic inequality, inflation, and low income. The correlation results provide valuable insights showing the complex relationships between demographic factors and saving behaviors among NVSU TODA members. Recommendations target TODA associations, students, teachers, the community, future researchers, and the government, aiming to enhance financial literacy and address challenges. This study offers practical implications for tailored interventions aimed at improving financial well-being within this specific community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the theory of information imperfections to examine the relationship between income inequality and financial development in a dual financial system comprising traditional finance and microfinance. It uses panel data for 97 developing countries over a period characterized by declining income inequality from 2000 to 2017. Traditional finance is measured through domestic credit relative to GDP and the IMF Financial Development Index. Microfinance is measured through the size of microfinance gross loan portfolio relative to GDP and the number of active microfinance borrowers to the total population. Controlling for various measures of macroeconomic and socioeconomic variables and using different econometric specifications including a random-effects linear regression model with endogenous sample selection, the results show that microfinance consistently predicts a lower income inequality measured by the Gini coefficient, while traditional finance shows no impact. The findings of this paper draw clear policy implications regarding the role of microfinance as a tool for income equality in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Background/Aims: With polarizing income disparities, this study investigated the prevalence and trends of liver disease in a U.S. population‐based sample based on income‐to‐poverty ratio (IPR). Methods: This cross‐sectional study analysed survey data from the 1999–2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey with highest (HIG), middle‐income (MIG), and lowest income (LIG) groups defined as IPR ≤ 1, 1 < IPR <5, and IPR ≥ 5, respectively. Results: We analysed 59,204 adult participants with 48.2% male, 39.7% aged 18–39, 36.2% 40–59, and 24.1% ≥60 years. The weighted prevalence of hepatitis C (HCV), B (HBV) infection, non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), alcohol‐associated liver disease (ALD), and advanced fibrosis in LIG were 3.9% (n = 276), 7.4% (n = 527), 33.2% (n = 714), 5.2% (n = 401), and 9.0% (n = 694), respectively, compared to lower rates for HIG: 1.0% (n = 82), 3.2% (n = 263), 29.6% (n = 798), 3.9% (n = 354), and 5.0% (n = 638). After adjusting for age, sex, race and ethnicity, education, and birthplace, HIG had the lowest odds of having any liver disease [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 0.67, p < 0.0001], with similar findings for specific conditions including HCV, HBV, and advanced fibrosis (aOR 0.24, 0.52, and 0.64, all p < 0.0001, respectively). While viraemic HCV prevalence decreased over time for HIG, there were no changes for MIG nor LIG. Similarly, NAFLD prevalence was stable for HIG but increased for MIG and LIG. Conclusion: LIG and MIG in the United States have higher liver disease burdens than HIG, with increasing NAFLD prevalence and lack of decline in current HCV infection prevalence over time as opposed to declining or stable trend in HIG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the relationship between perceptions of inequality, feelings of loneliness, and societal fragmentation in South Korea, focusing on their interconnected dynamics. The research emphasizes the social contexts in which loneliness emerges and exerts its influence. In the first phase, path analysis is employed to examine how perceived inequality contributes to societal fragmentation—manifested through disbelief, exploitation, and indifference—with loneliness serving as a mediating factor. The findings reveal a significant link between perceived inequality and loneliness, which, in turn, undermines social cohesion. The second phase delves deeper into this relationship by analyzing each regression model, further substantiating the connection between perceived inequality and loneliness and its role in shaping perceptions of societal fragmentation. In an era marked by rising economic inequality and democratic erosion, loneliness extends beyond an individual concern, posing broader implications for societal emotional health. The study underscores the urgent need for interventions aimed at reducing economic inequality and addressing loneliness to promote more cohesive societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increase in life expectancy around the world puts aging societies with all their challenges on the Global Public Health agenda. In Austria, additional years of life gained are not spent in good health, as healthy life expectancy is far below the European average. Using repeated cross-sectional data from three waves of the Austrian Health Interview Survey (2006, 2014 and 2019), including a total of 10,056 participants aged 65 years and above, this study examined the change in self-reported quality-of-life (QoL) over time and explored associated factors. QoL, estimated by domain scores of the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire, increased over time but decreased with age in all survey waves. Observed mean scores were significantly higher in males than in females in all QoL domains except the social domain but sex differences disappeared in most domains in the multivariable regression analyses. Instead, factors associated with significantly higher QoL scores included younger age, higher socioeconomic status, living in Western Austria and having no chronic conditions. Statistically significant observed sex differences in QoL in the older-aged Austrian population disappeared when adjusting for income and education. Strategies and measures to increase financial capabilities may have a significant impact on QoL and well-being in this age group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid expansion of precarious employment carries risks of exacerbating the gender wage gap in China. This article finds an inverse relationship between flexibility and security in the labor market, disproportionately affecting women workers. Drawing from the Marxist-feminist theory of social reproduction, the study conceptualizes China’s social reproduction regime as developmentalist, characterized by ongoing tension between economic development and social reproduction. Promoting precarious work, which reflects the operational logic of the developmentalist social reproduction regime, is essentially transferring social reproduction cost from capital to labor. This cost is predominantly shouldered by precarious workers, particularly women, resulting in a widened gender wage gap. Using the China Labor-force Dynamic Survey, the study finds empirical support for the theorization that the gender wage gap among precarious workers is significantly larger than among non-precarious workers. The article proposes policies addressing the gap by shifting the cost of social reproduction from labor back to capital.HIGHLIGHTSGender wage gap is wider among precarious workers in China.Marxist-feminist theories help us to better understand GWG in precarious work.Women in precarious work face income loss risks and heavier domestic responsibilities.Developmentalist social reproduction regime seeks to balance growth and reproduction.The cost of social reproduction should be shifted back to capital.Gender wage gap is wider among precarious workers in China.Marxist-feminist theories help us to better understand GWG in precarious work.Women in precarious work face income loss risks and heavier domestic responsibilities.Developmentalist social reproduction regime seeks to balance growth and reproduction.The cost of social reproduction should be shifted back to capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how digitalization contributes to inclusive development by analyzing global panel data using fixed-effect models. The main finding is the reverse U-shaped relationship between digitalization and inequality reduction. By testing the moderation and mediation effects, we further illustrate the intricate dynamics of digitalization on inequality. The findings suggest that while digitalization fosters inclusive institutions, it may also foster polarized relationships. Furthermore, we demonstrate that reverse U-shaped effects are particularly pronounced in countries in the global south, indicating a diffusion of relational norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the gendered politics of "getting it wrong" on social media, focusing on the persistent critique of women being labeled as "fake." It explores how young women face hyper-scrutiny on platforms like Instagram and TikTok, leading to anxieties about meeting beauty standards and projecting authenticity. The text highlights the societal pressures and risks faced by women, especially those from marginalized communities, in navigating online spaces where authenticity policing is rampant. The author calls for a deeper understanding of gendered and sexualized disinformation as a form of digitally networked online abuse that aims to deter women from participating in the public sphere. [Extracted from the article]

Several efforts have been made to explore the income inequality influence on environmental degradation, but the query regarding the nexus of income inequality and renewable energy consumption (REC) is still unanswered. This vacuum in existing literature has raised the need to inspect the relationship between income inequality and REC. Thus, this study purposes to investigate the asymmetric effect of income inequality on REC for emerging Asian economies over the period 1990–2019 by adopting the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) approach. The panel-wise long-run results infer that positive shock in income inequality exerts a significant negative effect on REC, while negative shock in income inequality has an insignificant effect on REC. Likewise, economy-wise long-run findings reveal that a positive shock in income inequality brings a negative and statistically significant influence on REC in the case of China, India, and Iran, while a negative shock in income inequality brings a positive influence on REC only in case of Russia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brazil is divided into five large regions marked by profound economic and social inequalities. Such vast differences can make people feel like “foreigners”, even though they live in the same country. Here, meritocracy is seen as the criterion for assessing and promoting people, which is conflicting given the absurdly unequal contexts in the country. This choice widens inequalities of gender, race and, above all, social class. Between 2000 and 2018, Brazil experienced profound social transformations. Female participation in the labor market grew, although there were still barriers to access and professional advancement for women, which were exacerbated in the case of black women. When it came to leadership positions, they were almost always blocked by processes which depended on subjective decisions from evaluators. These circumstances occur through daily confrontations with processes of sexualisation and racialisation. These transformations were followed in the most recent period by clear setbacks, deepened by the COVID‐19 pandemic and intense political polarization. A milestone in terms of Esperançar, a verb proposed by Paulo Freire (1992), were the 2022 presidential elections, understood as a process of re‐democratisation. The social achievements that have been maintained, however, are ‘advances’ that work differently when the diversity of the population and regional differences are taken into account. With this particular context in mind, the aim of this study is to investigate how the “glass ceiling” phenomenon has been present in the daily interactions and academic trajectory of black women in the accounting field. The question that underpinned this study was: how can the academic accounting environment, considering practice and discourse, boost or hinder the “glass ceiling” phenomenon in the professional career of black female academics? This is a qualitative study with a post‐structuralist approach, based on the adoption of auto‐ethnographic and oral history techniques. The evidence was built up through semi‐structured, in‐depth interviews with female academics who had graduated from postgraduate programmes. This corpus was analyzed from an interpretivist perspective and the findings reveal that the “glass ceiling” phenomenon is present in accounting academia in Brazil and is expressed in barriers specific to the field. Barriers are erected in processes of closure, blocking the path of black women who aim to succeed in prestigious academic spaces, regardless of their level of qualification. In this way, they are conceptualized as “stained glass ceilings”, because the barriers become visible and concrete in a country where racism is a structuring element of social relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Bradford Hill (BH) viewpoints are widely used to assess causality in systematic reviews, but their application has often lacked reproducibility. We describe an approach for assessing causality within systematic reviews ('causal' reviews), illustrating its application to the topic of income inequality and health. Our approach draws on principles of process tracing, a method used for case study research, to harness BH viewpoints to judge evidence for causal claims. Methods: In process tracing, a hypothesis may be confirmed by observing highly unique evidence and disconfirmed by observing highly definitive evidence. We drew on these principles to consider the value of finding supportive or contradictory evidence for each BH viewpoint characterised by its uniqueness and definitiveness. Results: In our exemplar systematic review, we hypothesised that income inequality adversely affects self‐rated health and all‐cause mortality. BH viewpoints 'analogy' and 'coherence' were excluded from the causal assessment because of their low uniqueness and low definitiveness. The 'experiment' viewpoint was considered highly unique and highly definitive, and thus could be particularly valuable. We propose five steps for using BH viewpoints in a 'causal' review: (1) define the hypothesis; (2) characterise each viewpoint; (3) specify the evidence expected for each BH viewpoint for a true or untrue hypothesis; (4) gather evidence for each viewpoint (e.g., systematic review meta‐analyses, critical appraisal, background knowledge); (5) consider if each viewpoint was met (supportive evidence) or unmet (contradictory evidence). Conclusions: Incorporating process tracing has the potential to provide transparency and structure when using BH viewpoints in 'causal' reviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study examines the racial disparity in health‐care coverage between Hispanics and whites. Racial disparities in accessing health‐care services have worsened in the United States, exacerbating social and economic inequality between whites and racial/ethnic minority groups. While existing research primarily attributes these disparities to income differences among racial groups, this study focuses on the mediating role of social capital and the moderating role of public trust in formal institutions, while controlling for income and other socioeconomic factors. Methods: Drawing on a survey data set collected in the Austin area of Texas in 2020, we test a series of regression models using mediating and moderating analyses. Results: We find that Hispanics, as a major ethnic minority group, have lower levels of social capital compared to whites, which contributes to the gap in health‐care coverage. The results indicate that social capital has mediating effects in positively transmitting the effect of being Hispanic on access to health‐care coverage. In addition, trust in nonprofits positively moderates the main relationship. Conclusion: The study suggests that promoting social capital for Hispanics can help bridge racial disparities in accessing healthcare. Our study provides policy recommendations for nonprofits to collaborate with government agencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyze the trends in income inequality in large cities within a selected sample of OECD countries. Specifically, we consider a set of individual characteristics that account for changes in the income distribution and estimate their contribution to differences in inequality in large cities over the last two decades. We use a combination of reweighting techniques and recentered influence functions (RIF) to detect an upward trend in inequality within large cities. This result is mainly driven by changes in the returns to endowments rather than by changes in its distribution. Our findings suggest that these results are not of the same magnitude across the countries analyzed. A key finding is that the contribution to inequality of the skill premium is considerably higher in North American countries than in European countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the role of municipal and provincial public social spending for local income inequality after taxes and transfers in Austria. We utilize a spatial multi‐level model, which allows us to analyze the contribution of three spatial scales (municipal, district, and provincial level) to municipal income inequality. Our analysis shows that the effect of public social spending on local Gini indices does not only differ across provinces but also across municipalities which indicates that the potential cushioning effect of social expenditure is highly localized. Further splitting total public social expenditure into three distinct categories (education, health, social protection) reveals that spending on social protection has the highest effect on local inequality across all provinces, while health spending does not exert a discernible influence in any province. The method and results presented in this paper are of international interest for policymakers and researchers who aim to investigate whether the same patterns hold true in other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fuel subsidies, intended to improve consumer affordability, can result in economic distortions through altered relative prices and negative environmental impacts. Furthermore, these subsidies can lead to unintended consequences, such as fuel smuggling, especially to neighboring countries where significant price differences exist. While previous research has extensively explored the economic dimensions of fuel subsidies, the potential interplay between fuel smuggling and its impact on regional income distribution remains understudied. This study investigates the effects of fuel smuggling, stemming from Iran's long history of significant fuel subsidies, on income distribution across all 30 provinces of the country. We employ a model to specify the demand for fuel smuggling, using fuel prices in neighboring countries and the distance to the nearest border as sources of identification. Subsequently, we estimate the monthly smuggling profit across regions and assess this profit's influence on regional income distribution. Our empirical analysis draws on monthly data on gasoline and diesel sales from 160 fuel distribution districts in Iran, spanning the period from 2005 to 2014. Our findings demonstrate specific cases of smuggling activities that account for an average of 25% of total fuel consumption and generate substantial income in economically disadvantaged border provinces. We discuss the socioeconomic implications of fuel subsidies, with a focus on smuggling activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using individual data from the Italian Labor Force Survey, we investigate the impact of immigration on the Gini index and the percentile ratio (p90/p10) at the household level within Labor Market Areas (LMAs) in Italy from 2008 to 2018. To identify the effect of immigration we construct a composite index based on demographic and occupation‐related characteristics that captures the degree of similarity between immigrants and natives across LMAs. This approach addresses the limitations of the standard cell segmentation method and allows us to estimate the impact of immigration on the entire distribution of natives' earnings. To address endogeneity concerns we use an instrument proposed by Card, which exploits the tendency of immigrants to migrate to areas with a pre‐existing group of immigrants of the same ethnicity. Our findings show that immigration reduces income inequality among natives and the effect is larger in those LMAs where the degree of similarity between immigrants and natives is higher. We also find that immigration has a positive effect on natives' labor income in occupations that require language skills, while the effect is not significant in low/no skilled jobs that only require basic language skills, or highly skilled jobs where interaction between immigrants and natives is limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Promoting the rural industrial integration is a crucial pathway to revitalize rural industries and expand income opportunities for farmers. This study utilizes the panel data from 133 counties within the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle from 2016 to 2020 to examine the impact of rural integration of the three industries (primary, secondary, and tertiary) on the urban-rural income gap. It finds that (1) rural industrial integration effectively mitigates the widening of the urban-rural income gap; (2) industrial structure upgrading acts as a key mechanism through which rural integration narrows the income gap, (3) a positive spatial autocorrelation is observed between rural integration and the urban-rural income gap, and (4) the urban-rural income gap in sample cities is influenced by the interplay of local and neighboring counties'rural integration levels. Based on these findings, this study suggests promoting regional industrial collaboration, exploring new rural integration models, and implementing talent incentive policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the advancement in women's conditions in the past fifty years, women are still the targets of forms of oppression that span from sexual objectification to gender economic inequality, which, among other factors, is linked to challenges that women may face with wage negotiation. Bridging these two research areas, in the present correlational study (N = 552), we took the female target perspective and investigated whether everyday sexualized media consumption may be indirectly linked with Italian women's negotiation intentions in a working scenario (i.e. salary request, negotiation probability, salary raise negotiation). We hypothesized that this association would be mediated by internalization of mainstream beauty ideals, chronic self-objectification, and subsequent lower self-attribution of the fundamental social dimensions of competence, agency, and morality. Path analyses supported the indirect path model on all the negotiation behaviors via self-attribution of competence; a significant indirect path via self-attribution of morality was also found on women's negotiation probability. Implications for gender economic inequality as well as possible interventions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have seen the proliferation of television broadcasts that focus on the lavish lifestyles and consumption of "rich kids." However, flaunting inherited wealth is an accountable activity within UK society that claims to be based on meritocratic values. Whilst wealthy individuals are a source of public spectatorship, they are also attributed with contributing to economic inequality and inhibiting social mobility. This study draws on social psychology to examine media representations of wealthy heirs accounting for their wealth in popular programmes about the "super rich." Forty-one and a half hours of non-subscription UK television data from 2016 that included the term "super-rich" was analysed. Drawing on Discursive Social Psychology, heirs were found to be managing an ideological dilemma of accounting for their inherited privilege while in a (supposedly) meritocratic environment. Heirs use four interpretative repertoires to negotiate their unmeritocratic position: (1) having a fair go, (2) unintentional privilege, (3) constructing wealth as "family money" and (4) sharing wealth with loved ones. These interpretative repertoires downplay privilege by redefining ownership, highlight any work they do, construct them as aspirational and present them as lacking agency. The presentation of heirs in entertainment documentaries maintains the illusion of meritocratic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent populist wave has raised questions about the implications of populism for democracy. Some scholars express optimism that populism may be a source of democratic revitalization, bringing about sweeping changes in accordance with the majority will. More often, populism is viewed as a threat to liberal democracy, combining calls for radical change with disdain for core democratic institutions and norms. We consider the possibility that these outcomes may not be mutually exclusive and develop a conceptual typology for understanding the consequences of populist rule. We then use cross-national panel fixed-effects models to analyze the effects of populist leadership between 1990 and 2017. We first examine whether populists have economic and social effects in line with their core aspirations. Left-wing populists are quite effective at implementing their agenda: they reduce income inequality, regulate markets, and incorporate marginalized groups. Right-wing populists are also fairly impactful: for instance, they raise tariffs, cut taxes, and restrict the rights of women and gay people. However, populists of all stripes are associated with the rapid and severe erosion of liberal democratic institutions. Populists, we conclude, often destroy democracy in the name of the people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although substantial research indicates that considerations about status can lead to anxiety and other negative outcomes, a valid measure of the importance individuals attribute to status is lacking. This paper introduces the Status Importance Scale (SIS), a mono‐factorial 10‐item self‐report questionnaire that quantifies how important a person deems status to be. Five studies validate the scale showing that it has excellent internal reliability and acceptable test–retest reliability, it correlates with several related measures (supporting convergent validity), it shows little correlation with theoretically unrelated constructs (supporting discriminant validity), it is the best predictor of conspicuous consumption compared with other potential candidates (supporting concurrent validity), and it can help predicting which activities one gives importance to (further supporting concurrent validity). Finally, as hypothesized by previous literature, the last study reveals that the SIS can predict status anxiety. The SIS can contribute to research regarding important phenomena such as the detrimental psychological effects of income inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper underlines the importance of accounting for non‐base compensation in explaining the motherhood wage gap. We consider two alternative measures of hourly wage using Italian EU‐SILC data from 2007 to 2019: the base‐wage and the full‐wage. The former refers to the contractual base wage, while the latter includes performance‐based bonuses, productivity bonuses, commissions, pay incentives, and other extra payments. We address the endogeneity issues of motherhood and examine the effect of motherhood status across various quantiles of the wage distribution for the two hourly wage measures. Empirical findings provide evidence of a motherhood base‐wage premium, which becomes nonsignificant when using the full‐wage measure, suggesting that non‐base compensation is a source of inequality for mothers. These findings are consistent across the wage distribution. Exploring potential heterogeneity across macro‐regions and periods, we find no notable regional disparities except minor distinctions for the Southern regions, alongside a decline in the base‐wage premium over time and the emergence of a full‐wage penalty in recent years. A comparative analysis with a sample of men reveals that fathers enjoy a premium with both wage measures. Nevertheless, fatherhood is also associated with reduced extra remunerations, yet to a lesser extent than motherhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nature‐based tourism nets roughly 8 billion annual travelers globally to all regions of Earth, with many visiting around 200,000 formally protected areas. Financially well‐off tourists pay for playful activities and effects on wildlife are potentially large and relatively uncertain. Our commentary makes 3 points. First, variation in resource privileges and associated benefits characterizes not only humans but other species. Among animals, well‐nurtured populations engage in more playful and leisurely activities than do those nutritionally impoverished. Privilege depends partially on birth sites, parents, and local conditions, but for humans recreation expands with monetary advantage. Second, nature‐based tourism has 2 generalizable effects on wildlife, each involving degree of habituation. Among non‐habituated populations, local site abandonment is frequent and modulated by seasonality, individuals' physiological states, and whether recreation is motorized or not. For habituated populations, tolerance emerges to increasing recreational exposure with some populations of species learning to rely on humans to shield as a buffer against possible predation. Third, desert bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis nelsoni) offer a robust example of the issues surrounding the effects of tourism on wildlife because of the geographically complicated relationship between recreational pursuit and wildlife on public lands of the western United States. While protected for decades, females have failed to habituate to different forms of recreation at certain sites. The result has been flight or site abandonment. Biodiversity protection at numerous scales has made strong gains but is still needed where progress is stymied by income disparities, privilege, and increasing recreation ventures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumer expenditures in the United Kingdom account for over 50% of Gross Domestic Product on the expenditure side, yet their impact on economic activity is often overshadowed by attention to technological change, value chain analysis and especially international trade. In this paper, a recently developed interregional model of the UK economy, SEIM (S ocio- E conomic I mpact M odel) will be used to provide some parallel perspectives to the role of interregional trade in goods and services by focusing on the interregional structure and impact of income and expenditures by households. Drawing on the original contributions of Miyazawa (1976) to highlight the contribution and structure of income interdependence complemented by interpretations offered by average propagation length, field of influence, and feedback loop analyses. The findings reveal the nature and strength of asymmetries in the structure of income formation and their impacts across the multiregional system. While there is only modest variation in aggregate income propagation by region, the accumulation of income is dominated by regions in the London area and secondarily by other metropolitan areas providing a source of explanation for the sustained income inequalities that have characterized the UK economy for almost a century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though the growth of the gig economy has coincided with increased economic precarity in the new economy, we know less about the extent to which gig work (compared with other self-employment arrangements and non-gig work) may fuel economic insecurity among American households. We fill this gap in the literature by drawing on a sample of 4,756 workers from a unique national survey capturing economic hardships among non-standard workers like app- and platform-based gig and other self-employed workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results from generalized boosted regression modeling, utilizing machine learning to account for potential endogeneity, demonstrated that gig workers experienced significantly greater economic hardship than non-gig and other self-employed workers during the pandemic. For example, gig workers were more likely to experience food insecurity, miss bill payments, and suffer income loss compared with non-gig and other self-employed workers during the pandemic. While household liquid assets endowment prior to the pandemic reduced the effect of gig work on experiencing economic hardships, having dependent children in the household increased this effect. Thus, contrary to democratizing entrepreneurship opportunities, these findings suggest that the expansion of the gig economy may exacerbate labor market inequality, where wealth-endowed families are protected against adverse economic consequences of the gig economy. We discuss the implications of these findings for inequality-reducing labor market policies, including policies that account for the interconnectedness of family and the labor market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have seen a proliferation of research on the connection between voters and elites. One literature explores whether elites' responsiveness is biased towards affluent voters, but does not allow for reverse causality. Another literature investigates voters' responsiveness to elite cues but pays limited attention to potential inequality in such responsiveness. This study combines insights from both literatures by analysing income inequality in elite responsiveness to voters, and vice versa. It does so using detailed time-series data on citizens' preferences and party positions towards government spending in the Netherlands. Empirical analyses reveal that there is no exclusive pro-middle or pro-rich bias in voter influence, while adaptation increases with income. The analysis has important implications for the study of representation and inequality and, more broadly, for the relationship between citizens and elites in established democracies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study empirically investigates the dynamic effects of weather shock on within‐country income inequality. Using panel data of 17 Asia‐Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member economies, we estimate impulse responses via the local projection method. Moreover, temperature and precipitation shocks, defined as deviations of temperature and precipitation from their historical norms, are exploited to measure country‐specific weather shocks. The empirical results reveal the following. First, temperature and precipitation shocks deteriorate income inequality measured by the Gini index; these effects are long‐lasting. Moreover, asymmetric effects exist: heat waves and droughts more significantly increase income inequality than cold waves and floods. Lastly, current redistribution policies do not seem to effectively mitigate those adverse effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The labour market dualisation theory claims that labour unions bargain against the interests of temporary workers and that they foster inequalities between temporary and permanent employees. Conversely, the industrial relations literature argues that unions commonly follow solidaristic strategies towards outsiders. This study contributes to the literature by analysing unions' associations with temporary workers' hourly wages and the wage gap between permanent and temporary workers in Spain: one of the most prominent examples of labour market dualisation. By analysing cross-sectional surveys, unions' influence through works councils, collective agreements and union density are studied during a period of economic growth (2006–2007) and a period of recession (2008–2010). Results show that there is generally no association between these three institutions and wage differences between permanent and temporary workers. The associations with temporary workers' wages are insignificant or positive during both the period of economic growth and the period of recession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I investigate the impact of automation on political behavior in postindustrial societies, particularly focusing on political disengagement. I argue that structural changes in the labor market lead to political alienation due to increased economic insecurities, diminished resources from lower wages, and greater economic polarization. Using hierarchical logistic modeling with varying intercepts by country, I present evidence from survey data across several advanced democracies. I find that workers exposed to technological change are less likely to feel close to a political party, participate in elections, and take part in protests. The impact of automation on political engagement is smaller among wealthier citizens and in highly unionized environments. The political message from these interaction effects speaks to the reinforcing forces between economic inequality and automation and the role of collective organization. My findings have important implications for understanding the links between structural change in labor markets and politics, especially since disengaged workers are the reservoir for radical right parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2009 and 2012 earthquakes in Italy occurred in a close-knit region and time horizon but differed substantially on both the initial shock to the stock and the subsequent flow of resources. This paper considers the short run impact on the dynamic response of labor market outcomes. Both earthquakes lowered employment and labor force participation by more than 0.5%. With its negative effect on the resources available, the 2009 shock led to a drop in real wages of 1.3% and a sharp—but short-lived—widening of the wage gap generated by the skill premium. The 2012 earthquake, which led firms to upgrade their technology, increased wages by 2.2% and led to a more balanced—but persistent—widening of the wage gap. The predictions of a model developed in this paper are consistent with these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the relationship between global value chain (GVC) participation, worker‐level routine task intensity (RTI) and wage inequality within countries. Using survey data from 34 countries and instrumenting for GVC participation, we find that higher GVC participation contributes to higher wage inequality in high‐income countries and lower wage inequality in middle‐ and low‐income countries. We distinguish between two opposite‐working channels. First, participation in GVCs directly reduces wage inequality, suppressing wages in offshorable occupations that tend to earn above the country‐specific median, and increasing wages of non‐offshorable occupations. Second, it indirectly widens within‐country wage inequality by increasing the gap in RTI, which is negatively associated with wages, between offshorable and non‐offshorable occupations. The direct effect prevails in most low‐ and middle‐income countries that receive offshored jobs, and the indirect effect prevails in high‐income countries that offshore jobs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emphasizing upper-middle-income Balkan Economies, this study focuses on the determinants of financial inclusion on a sample of individuals engaged in agriculture. Using logit estimations, we investigate socio-economic characteristics influencing financial inclusion, including owning a bank account and holding savings. Results reveal that individual characteristics, such as education, income, gender, and online payment usage are influential drivers. Financial inclusion is also impacted by economy-level variables including the share of agriculture in GDP and financial infrastructure density. The study underscores the importance of tailored policies to promote financial inclusion, particularly for vulnerable groups in agriculture-dependent economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the 2004–2015 China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) data, this article examines the effect of minimum wages on household income distribution. The results show that minimum wage increases significantly reduce the probability of per capita household net income falling below the poverty threshold, indicating that minimum wage can play a role in poverty reduction. Furthermore, we find that minimum wages significantly reduce the probability of per capita household income being 0–3 times lower than the poverty threshold, but have little effect on households with per capita net income more than 3 times the poverty threshold, which means that minimum wage increases can reduce household income inequality. We also find heterogeneous effects of minimum wage increases on household income distribution across gender, education, hukou, and age of household heads. Finally, we show that minimum wage increases play a role in regulating household income distribution by increasing the wages of employed individuals in households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IMPACT: This article provides insights for policy-makers and public administrators interested in public value and policy analysis. By examining the recent experience of spending reviews in Spain, the study showcases how gender and income equality can be integrated into this process. The authors identify potential trade-offs between promoting equality and ensuring fiscal sustainability, as well as the tensions that may arise between gender and income equality objectives. Public administrators and politicians will benefit from understanding the potential conflicts and trade-offs between different public values. Overall, this article underscores the necessity of comprehensive impact analysis in public policy—promoting transparency and informed decision-making that aligns with societal values and needs. This article documents the incorporation of gender and income equality references into spending reviews in Spain. This is a new direction, as spending reviews have to date mostly been employed, and studied, as instruments geared towards achieving efficiency and managing budgetary cutbacks. The article interprets and discusses this new development as a manifestation of the 'public value' movement in public administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research has concluded that foreign trade is a key factor shaping the urbanization process in developing countries. Yet the empirical evidence is still in its infancy. This paper seeks to fill this gap by using the Financial Crisis of 2008 as a quasi-experiment to examine how trade shocks have affected urbanization in China. We find that such shocks have reduced the change in the urbanization rate by 0.4%. These results are robust after controlling for other factors that affect urbanization. We explore the underlying mechanisms and find that trade shocks reduce the urban – rural income gap by lowering the income of urban residents and slowing down the urbanization process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present the first estimate of the full income distribution in pre‐industrial Sweden (including present‐day Finland). We draw on the schedule and the individual assessments devised by the authorities to distribute the 1613 Älvsborg ransom taxation to estimate income inequality, as well as the income shares of the top quantiles and of various social groups. We find that Sweden was relatively equal compared with other early modern European societies, for two main reasons: first, because the nobility, the clergy, the burghers, and other middle‐rank social groups all held relatively small shares of the total income, and second, because the landless groups were less numerous in Sweden than in other societies. This resulted in a large share of the total income going to the relatively homogeneous group of landed peasants, who made up the majority of the population. Our study thus speaks to the political historiography of early modern Sweden, within which negotiation and collaboration between the landed peasantry and the state has been seen as pivotal to the state formation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]