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.
Uses a methodology developed by Foster, Greer and Thorbecke to investigate the effects of poverty in terms of a shortfall in food for daily calorie intake. Provides intertemporal comparison of poverty and its decomposition among subgroups and makes comparisons with other studies. Results show a significant improvement in poverty situations in rural areas from 1982-1986. (Abstract amended)
The article investigates in the context of Bangladesh, the most powerful effect of poverty in terms of a shortfall in food for daily calorie intake by the poor. It provides intertemporal comparison of poverty and its decomposition among subgroups. The results of the study show a significant improvement in poverty situations in rural areas from 1982-86. The article also discusses the policy implications of its findings. (DSE)
This paper analyses the structure of the European income inequality by a decomposition in a within- and between-component. It illustrates a replication of the work of Beblo and Knaus (Rev Income Wealth 47(3):301–333, 2001) and decomposes the income inequality for the EU-28 in 2014 by using data from the European Survey on Income and Living Conditions. The Theil index is applied to additively decompose the sources of inequality into a within- and between-component by countries, country groups and demographic groups. This is done by using equivalised disposable household income and income before transfers and taxes. The results show that inequality, with regard to disposable income, is highest for households with household heads older than 59 years and lowest for households with children. Moreover, high income countries have lower inequality, higher social expenditures and show a stronger relative reduction of income inequality after transfers and taxes than low income countries. On country group level, Social-Democratic countries have the lowest income inequality and redistribute most, while the opposite holds true for Baltic countries.
The purpose of this article is to propose a theoretical foundation on the impact of a transfer scheme on income inequality in the redistribution process among participants in a related agreement. Our example involves the study of the Common Agricultural Policy implemented by EU Countries. First, we show that ex-post inequality (after the distribution process) may increase if either initial aggregate income or the amounts of fiscal contributions are sufficiently high. Second, we characterize a multifactorial methodology according to Palestini and Pignataro (2014) to gauge the impact of redistribution and the effects of different income sources to the inequality profile. Finally, we propose an exercise where a hypothetical policy is implemented and we apply the Banzhaf and Shapley values to determine the marginal contributions of each factor to overall inequality.
ResumenEl objeto de este texto es proponer un conjunto de breves conjeturas sociológicas en las que se relacionan las situaciones de anomia y de descomposición social que se registran en disímiles sociedades contemporáneas. Sociedades que registran crisis de sus capacidades estatales y fragmentación de sus cohesiones sociales como consecuencia de los efectos de los procesos de globalización políticos, económicos y culturales.Palabras Clave: anomia, descomposición social, crisis, capacidades estatales, cohesiones sociales, globalización ResumoO objetivo deste texto é propor um conjunto de breves conjeturas sociológicas nas quais se relacionam as situações de anomia e de decomposição social que se registram em dissimiles sociedades contemporâneas. Sociedades que registram crises das suas capacidades estatais e fragmentação das suas coesões sociais como consequência dos efeitos dos processos de globalização política, econômica e cultural.Palavras-chave: anomia, decomposição social, crises, capacidades estatais, coesões sociais, globalização. AbstractThe aim of this text is to propose a set of brief sociological conjectures in which the anomie and social decomposition situations that occur in dissimilar contemporary societies are related. Societies experiencing crises in their state capacities and fragmentation of their social cohesions as a consequence of the processes of political, economic and cultural globalization effects.Keywords: anomie, social decomposition, crisis, state capacities, social cohesions, globalization.
Introduction. The article analyzes а chronicle in the Slavo-Vallachian miscellany manuscript (mid 16th c.) (currently in the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine in Kiev, Pochaev Lavra Collection, 116, l. 440a–447b). This text is known in scholarly literature as "Bulgarian anonymous chronicle". Usually it is considered as a wholesome work created in the early 15th c. by an unknown scribe, who followed the traditions of the Tyrnovo literary school and possessed Bulgarian ethnopolitical identity. There were hypotheses that the work was based upon Slavonic translation of a lost work by Byzantine writer John Chortasmenos or upon an early Slavo-Moldavian chronicle. Concentrating their attention on the contents of the chronicle as a historical source or trying to identify its author as one of the contemporary scribes known by name, scholars used to divide the text of the chronicle into parts due to their contents or main persons. The article aims to precisely attribute the chronicle's origin and composition, to separate its components and to connect them with the military and political events, as well as with the sociocultural environment of the orthodox Balkans in the early 15th c.
Method. Applying the method of multi-level analytical decomposition of the text, the author reveals the chronicle's structure and considers the revealed parts in three contexts: the military and political situation in the Balkans during the first five decades of the Ottoman conquest (1352–1402); the social and cultural environment of the Southern Slavic and Greek polities and their literary heritage.
Analysis. The chronicle is based on three extensive historical narratives concerning the first stage of the Ottoman invasion before the establishment of the Turks' control on crossing of the Gallipoli strait, the battle at Nicopolis in 1396 and the siege of Constantinople by Bayezid I in 1396–1402. They are connected with smaller stories on important episodes of the Ottoman conquest accompanied with historical notes integrated into the main text or left as marginal glosses. Three layers of the text differ with their composition and contents as well as with their language and style features, which allow to suppose that they had been created separately and became parts of the chronicle at its completion.
Results. The chronicle was composed in the early 15th c. from several kinds of historical records. Extensive historical narratives reveal their Byzantine origin, while short records lead to Bulgarian and Serbian samples of history writing, and the whole work could be completed in a Slavonic scriptorium of a Vallachian or Moldоvian monastery, where its manuscript was copied for the Pochaev miscellanea in the mid 16th c., and in the early 17th c. used by Michail Moxa to compose his "General history" in Vlacho-Moldovian.
