Suchergebnisse

Government fiscal positions in all the advanced economies suffered severe deteriorations during the financial crisis. Figure 1 illustrates the cumulative deterioration of the government budget ratio as a per cent of GDP between 2007 and 2009 in a selection of OECD economies. The sharpest declines materialised in Ireland, Spain and Finland, while public finances in Austria, Germany and Italy have held up better. Budget deficits have worsened in part because of the cyclical downturn, in part because of the policy response to the crisis, including both fiscal stimulus packages and certain fiscal costs related to government support of financial institutions, and in part because of a change in the relationship between revenue and production, which may prove longer-term.

During the last three decades the decomposition method originally suggested to explain differences in mean wages has been considerably extended. In more recent approaches the focus has turned towards analyzing complete income distributions and differences between groups' incomes at all percentiles. We discuss in detail and apply four approaches: firstly, the approach of Juhn, Murphy and Pierce (1991, 1993), the approach suggested by Machado and Mata (2001, 2005), the approach suggested by Donald, Green and Paarsch (2000) and finally, the approach suggested by DiNardo et al. (1996) and Fortin and Lemieux (1998). In this paper, we compare these approaches and decompose differences in men's wage distributions between the USA and Germany in 2007.

We analyse the changes in earnings inequality in Mexico and the Mexican regions from 1987 to 2008. Using the Jenkins-van Kern decomposition method, we distinguish two major components: progressivity, which reflects the pro-poor (or pro-rich) orientation of wage growth, and re-ranking, which measures the movements of individuals in the wage hierarchy. At the national level, progressivity has been systematically pro-poor, but re-ranking has to a large extent offset this pro-equality dynamic. Similar variations are found for the Mexican regions. The South, the Border and the Centre have, however, witnessed a decrease in inequality, whereas inequality has increased in the North and the Capital regions.

Polarization is an interesting additional social indicator for analyzing income inequality and poverty across countries, as it captures the phenomenon of 'clustering around extreme poles'. Rising income polarization can be harmful since it is closely linked to poverty, social exclusion, social tension and social unrest. Present study emphasizes on the measurement of income polarization in Pakistan to determine the degree of this social conflict. Polarization is measured by the index provided in Bossert and Schwor (2006). Results are further decomposed over time to identify the major factors contributing to polarization in Pakistan. Pakistan Integrated Household Survey (PIHS) and Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey (PSLM) surveys for the years 2001-02, 2004-05 and 2007-08 are utilized for the sake of empirical analysis. The results reveal that the polarization increased from 2001-02 to 2004-05 and then it decreased from 2004-05 to 2007-08.

AbstractPoverty in sub‐Saharan Africa is largely a rural phenomenon that is associated with an inequitable distribution of resources among gender groups. This study therefore assessed poverty decomposition in rural Nigeria along gender lines. Data for the study came from the General Household Survey panel data for 2010/2011 (wave 1) and 2015/2016 (wave 3) and were analyzed with Foster Greer and Thorbecke poverty classes and the Shapley decomposition method. Total poverty change and poverty elasticity were −0.0690 and 0.1394, respectively, in women‐led households, −0.0973 and 0.1825 in men‐led households, and −0.1152 and 0.2906 in gender‐balanced households. Between‐group (0.9773) elasticity was higher than the within‐group (0.1853) component for the poverty headcount, while within‐group elasticity was higher than the between‐group component for poverty depth and severity. Thus, an effective poverty reduction strategy in Nigeria should be gender‐inclusive.

After having stalled in the 1990s, fertility in Rwanda resumed its downward trajectory between 2005 and 2010. The total fertility rate declined from 6.1 to 4.6 and modern contraceptive use increased. However, it is unclear which determinants lay behind the previous stall and the recent strong drop in fertility. This paper contributes to an ongoing debate on the impact of social upheavals on fertility decline. We use a decomposition analysis, focusing on the change in characteristics and reproductive behaviour of women and their contributions to levels of fertility during 1992–2000 and 2000–2010. Results show that due to widowhood and separation the proportion of women who were married decreased between 1992 and 2000, but their fertility increased in the same period due to replacement fertility and an unmet need for family planning. After 2000, postponement of marriage and lower infant mortality contributed to lower fertility, but the most important effect is the overall lower fertility due not only to improved family planning provision but perhaps also to the sensitizing campaigns of the Rwandan government.