Suchergebnisse

Which dimensions of globalisation have an impact on social expenditure? How do different social welfare policies react to globalisation? This paper addresses these questions focusing on 36 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries over the period 1990–2015 and applying system Generalised Method of Moments to deal with endogeneity. We consider different dimensions of globalisation, economic, social and political, and their potential differentiated impacts on variegated social welfare policies. According to our findings, all the dimensions of globalisation have a positive effect on total social expenditure and on most of its components, although the influence is not statistically significant for social globalisation. The social welfare policies affected by globalisation are old age pensions, incapacity related, family and unemployment benefits and active labour market policies. These results can shed additional light on social and economic outcomes of globalisation such as poverty, inequality, long run growth and economic recovery.

L'Union Européenne est toujours et restera sûrement pendant quelque temps (avec l'élargissement) un groupe de pays marqué par des différences importantes dans les niveaux de revenu. Bien que les pays européens du Sud, qui dans les années 50 étaient classés par la Banque Mondiale comme des pays en voie de développement, fassent maintenant partie du monde développé, la vérité est qu'ils sont encore loin d'atteindre les niveaux de revenu de leur contre-partie nordique. Il semble alors que comprendre le processus de convergence réelle qui s'est produit en Europe, soit tout à fait important et puisse être utile dans un proche avenir. La Théorie Néoclassique de la Croissance peut nous aider à étudier la convergence réelle dans l'UE. Il semble y avoir deux explications qui s'opposent: pour les théoriciens de la croissance exogène, la convergence existe et est due à des productivités marginales décroissantes des facteurs; pour les théoriciens de la croissance endogène, il peut n'y avoir aucune convergence. Après avoir présenté brièvement ces deux approches théoriques, nous évaluerons l'hypothèse de convergence pour les quinze Etats membres entre 1960 et 1990 en utilisant des données en cross section et en séries temporelles et nous vérifierons s' il y a eu convergence due aux rendements décroissants. En plus de l'obtention de résultats qui supportent l'hypothèse de la convergence, nous essaierons également de définir quelques mesures de politique économique qui, selon la théorie de la croissance, doivent stimuler la convergence des Etats membres, présents et futurs. ; The European Union is still and will probably remain for sometime (with the enlargement) a group of countries with important differences in income levels. Although the southern european countries, which in the 50's were classified by the World Bank as developing countries, are now part of the developed world, the truth is that they are still far from reaching the income levels of their northern counterparts. It seems then that understanding some of the real convergence process that has occurred in Europe is quite important and can be of use in the near future. The Neoclassical Theory of Growth can help us study real convergence in the EU. Here there seems to be two opposing explanations: for exogenous growth theorists convergence exists and is due to diminishing marginal productivities to inputs; for endogenous growth theorists there can be no convergence. After presenting briefly both theories we test the convergence hypothesis for the 15 member states between 1960 and 1990 using both cross section and time series data and verify if there has been convergence due to diminishing returns. In the presence of results that support the convergence hypoyhesis we also try to establish some economic policy measures that, according to the Theory of Growth, can stimulate convergence between present and future member states. ; A União Europeia é constituída por países que apresentam diferenciais de níveis de rendimento per capita significativos. Esta situação vai permanecer ainda durante alguns anos e agravar-se-á com o alargamento. Apesar dos países do Sul terem registado taxas de crescimento notáveis nas últimas décadas, podendo ser já classificados como países desenvolvidos, ao contrário do que acontecia na década de 50, a verdade é que o seu rendimento per capita fica ainda muito aquém do dos países do Norte. Tentar perceber se há ou não convergência real no seio da União Europeia e quais as suas causas é assim de extrema importância no contexto actual. Através da Teoria Neoclássica do Crescimento é possível analisar o processo de convergência real na UE. Esta oferece-nos contudo dois tipos de análises, aparentemente contradiórias. A Teoria do Crescimento Exógeno defende a existência de convergência real entre grupos de países na presença de produtividades marginais decrescentes dos factores. A Teoria do Crescimento Endógeno nega a existência de convergência. Depois de uma breve apresentação de ambas as teorias testa-se a hipótese de convergência real para os quinze estados-membros da UE entre 1960 e 1990 com base quer em dados seccionais quer em dados cronológicos. Dado que os resultados apoiam a hipótese de convergência são então propostas algumas medidas de política económica que podem, de acordo com a Teoria do Crescimento, estimular a convergência real entre os actuias e futuros estados-membros.

AbstractThis study examines the relationship between welfare state or social expenditure composition and health human capital in 37 OECD countries spanning 1980–2018. Our findings confirm that public health spending has a positive effect on health capital formation. Dissecting social expenditure according to other nine social spending categories reveals a positive influence for old age pensions and unemployment benefits. The results for the remaining social programs vary with the health capital proxy and estimation method used. It thus appears that more comprehensive and universal social programs, possibly by guaranteeing the necessary income, do a better job in improving health human capital.

Brazil is often cited for its high levels of inequality. Despite some success in reducing this inequality during the Partido dos Trabalhadores (Workers' Party—PT) period, the rise of Jair Bolsonaro as Brazil's president threatened to reverse this trend as he actively sought to promote policies that would lead to greater financialization of the Brazilian economy. In recent years, several studies have shown that the financialization of the economy as a whole can lead to a rise in inequality, but the financialization of the health and education sectors has not been of particular interest to researchers and government officials. An empirical analysis of the pattern of income inequality in twenty-first-century Brazil paying particular attention to the potential impact of the financialization of health and education sectors on this process shows a correlation between greater financialization (especially in the health sector) and an increase in income inequality. O Brasil é frequentemente destacado pelos seus níveis elevados de desigualdade. Apesar de algum progresso na redução da desigualdade durante o período de governação do PT, a tomada de posse como presidente de Jair Bolsonaro ameaça reverter esta trajetória, nomeadamente via o apoio a uma maior financeirização da economia. Nos últimos anos, vários estudos mostraram que a financeirização da economia como um todo pode conduzir ao aumento da desigualdade. Porém, a financeirização dos setores da saúde e da educação não tem sido alvo de interesse particular. Uma análise empírica do comportamento da desigualdade no Brasil no séc. XXI salientando o potencial impacto da financeirização da saúde e da educação, sugere que uma maior financeirização, em particular do setor da saúde, está associada a um aumento da desigualdade na repartição do rendimento no Brasil.

This paper examines employees' earnings inequality in Portugal for1986-2017 using data from the Personnel Records database. Our objective istwofold: (a) characterize earnings inequality by comparing representative distri-butions, before and after the great crisis; and (b) investigate the role played bythe business cycle on the behaviour of earnings inequality by estimating Auto-regressive Distributed Lag (ADL) models. To identify trends and variations along the trend in earnings inequality we use cardinal measures and the coefficient ofvariation. We inspect the characteristics of earnings distributions in terms of mo-ments (mean and median) and polarization (using relative distributions analysis).The main findings are: (1) earnings inequality shows a positive trend (exceptduring the great crisis); (2) polarization is present in every year, with lower po-larisation prevailing over upper polarization, both evolving at different paces(very fast 1989-2002; slower pace 2002-2008; negative growth 2008-2017); (3) the business cycle relationship with earnings inequality is negative. ; COMPETE 2020, Portugal 2020 and the European Union (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-029365) and Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia I.P./MCTES through the research project PTDC/EGE-ECO/29365/2017 ("WISER Portugal - Welfare Intervention by the State and Economic Resilience in Portugal").

Purpose
This study aims to analyse the relationship between health human capital and economic growth for a maximum sample of 92 countries over the period 1980-2010 taking into account countries' heterogeneity by assessing how health variables affect different countries according to their position on the conditional growth distribution.


Design/methodology/approach
The paper estimates a growth regression applying the methodology proposed by Canay (2011) for regression by quantiles (Koenker, 1978, 2004, 2012a, 2012b) in a panel framework. Quantile regression analysis allows us to identify the growth determinants that present a non-linear relationship with growth and determine the policy implications specifically for underperforming versus over achieving countries in terms of output growth.


Findings
The authors' findings indicate that better health is positively and robustly related to growth at all quantiles, but the quantitative importance of the respective coefficients differs across quantiles, in some cases, with the sign of the relationship greater for countries that recorded lower growth rates. These results apply to both positive (life expectancy) and negative (infant mortality rate, undernourishment) health status indicators.


Practical implications
Given the predominantly public nature of health funding, cuts in health expenditure should be carefully balanced even in times of public finances sustainability problems, particularly when growth slowdowns, as a decrease in the stock of health human capital could be particularly harmful for growth in under achievers. Additionally, the most effective interventions seem to be those affecting early childhood development that should receive from policymakers the necessary attention and resources.


Originality/value
This study contributes to the existing literature by answering the question of whether the growth effects of health human capital can differ in sign and/or magnitude depending on a country's growth performance. The findings may help policymakers to design the most adequate growth promoting policies according to the behaviour of output growth.