Explaining Inequality

Franzini, Maurizio; Pianta, Mario

doi:10.4324/9781315734453

Cited by 26 publications

(15 citation statements)

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“…Because of its nature as a supplier of goods and services based on individual and social needs, the welfare state has been a key factor in reducing inequalities after the Second World War. As argued in our book Explaining inequality (Franzini and Pianta, 2015), the reduction of the policy space, the privatisation of public services and the extension of the market in areas previously protected by public action have introduced new mechanisms that generated economic and social disparities. In Europe a report from the European Commission recalled that "[i]n all countries with available data, significant differences in health exist between socioeconomic groups, in the sense that people with lower levels of education, occupation and/or income tend to have systematically higher morbidity and mortality rate" (2007).…”

Section: Health Is a Global Public Goodmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Coming Coronavirus Crisis: What Can We Learn?

Lucchese

Pianta

2020

Intereconomics

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The coronavirus pandemic is bringing with it the prospect of severe fi nancial and economic crises. The article investigates its economic consequences in terms of fi nancial instability, economic recession, lower incomes and policy challenges at the national and European levels. What are some of the lessons that can be learned? This article argues that health is a global public good. Public health and welfare systems are crucial alternatives to the market and universal public health is a key element of an egalitarian policy.

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Section: Health Is a Global Public Goodmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Coming Coronavirus Crisis: What Can We Learn?

Lucchese

Pianta

2020

Intereconomics

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“…Indeed, over the past several decades, we have witnessed a steep increase in the magnitude of economic inequality in nearly all advanced capitalist countries [52]. This growing economic wedge appears to be driven by underlying changes in the structure of the labour market, including an increasing prevalence of precarious employment conditions, rising levels of structural unemployment, stagnating earnings among low-wage workers, and the enactment of wide-ranging labour market reforms that have curtailed the scope and generosity of redistributive social policies [53,54]. Put simply, these macrosocial trends have widened socioeconomic inequalities, such as those observed between the employed and the unemployed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Widening health inequalities between the employed and the unemployed: A decomposition of trends in Canada (2000-2014)

et al. 2018

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Recent developments in the social epidemiological literature indicate that health inequalities between the employed and the unemployed are widening in many advanced capitalist countries. At present, we know relatively little about why these inequalities are worsening. Drawing on nationally-representative data from the largest health survey in Canada, we explored this question by analyzing changes in self-rated health inequalities between employed and unemployed Canadians from 2000 to 2014. Using a regression-based method that decomposes a given inequality into its component sources, we investigated the extent to which risk factors that account for unemployment-related health inequalities at a single point in time can also explain the extent and direction of change in these unemployment-related health inequalities over time. Our results indicate that relative and absolute health inequalities between employed and unemployed Canadians widened over the study period. Between 2000 and 2014, the prevalence of poor self-rated health among unemployed Canadians increased from 10.8% to 14.6%, while rates among employed Canadians were stable at around 6%. Our findings suggest that the demographic, socioeconomic, and proximal risk factors that are routinely used to explain unemployment-related health inequalities may not be as powerful for explaining how and why these inequalities change over time. In the case of unemployment-related health inequalities in Canada, these risk factors explain neither the increasing prevalence of poor self-rated health among the unemployed nor the growing gap between the unemployed and their employed counterparts. We provide several possible explanations for these puzzling findings. We conclude by suggesting that widening health inequalities may be driven by macrosocial trends (e.g. widening income inequality and declining social safety nets) which have changed the meaning and context of unemployment, as well as its associated risk factors, in ways that are not easy to capture using routinely available survey data.

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“…1 More recently, contributions by Thomas Piketty and Anthony Atkinson have drawn attention to the role of income inequality as a determinant in the reduction in the pace of economic growth (Atkinson andPiketty, 2007 andPiketty, 2014). An inclusive review of the literature by Franzini and Pianta (2016) effectively summarizes the basic argument according to which the raising levels of income inequality have direct negative consequences that include both: i) the negative economic effects stemming from a decline in marginal propensity to consumption and the accumulation of financial capital (Atkinson, 2015), and ii) relevant socioeconomic aspects in terms of inequality of opportunities (Ramos and Van de Gaer, 2015) and reduction in happiness (Ferrer-iCarbonell and Ramos, 2014). An increasing awareness of such negative consequences, both economic and societal, draws attention to the identification of determinants of income inequality as the necessary condition for defining appropriate economic policy aimed at limiting its impact.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Technological change, rent and income inequalities: A Schumpeterian approach

Antonelli

Gehringer

2017

Technological Forecasting and Social Change

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Increasing levels of income inequality have recently attracted much attention. The literature has concentrated on the hypothesis that increasing levels of income inequality are the cause of slow growth and social unbalances. This paper contributes to exploring an alternative hypothesis according to which increasing levels of income inequality are the consequence, rather than the cause, of slow growth and more specifically of the slowing pace of technological change. The paper articulates the Schumpeterian hypothesis that the rate of technological change exerts a significant influence in reducing income distribution. Due to the powerful effects of creative destruction, the rate of technological change engenders a reduction in wealth and rent inequalities that are highly skewed and, consequently, limits income inequality. We test this hypothesis in an empirical exercise by implementing quantile regressions on a large dataset of advanced and industrializing economies. The inequality diminishing effect of technological change holds along the entire income inequality distribution, but exhibits larger effects in countries where the concentration of wealth and, consequently, income asymmetries are stronger. These results have novel welfare implications and suggest some crucial insights for economic policy analysis.

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Explaining Inequality

Cited by 26 publications

References 0 publications

The Coming Coronavirus Crisis: What Can We Learn?

The Coming Coronavirus Crisis: What Can We Learn?

Widening health inequalities between the employed and the unemployed: A decomposition of trends in Canada (2000-2014)

Technological change, rent and income inequalities: A Schumpeterian approach

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