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Regional Inequalities (regional + inequality)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences58%
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting27%
Medical Sciences6%

Selected Abstracts

Forging Ahead and Falling Behind: Changing Regional Inequalities in Post-reform China

GROWTH AND CHANGE, Issue 1 2002
Max Lu
This study analyzes the evolution of China's regional inequalities during the reform period of 1978,1998 based on three geographical scales, both output and livelihood indicators of economic well-being and three measures of inequality. The results indicate that interprovincial and regional inequalities declined between 1978 and 1990, but have widened steadily since 1990. Urban-rural disparity diminished before 1984, then experienced a decade-long surge afterwards to peak in 1994 at a much higher level and since 1994, it has been declining again. The levels of regional inequalities in China appear to be sensitive to changes in government development strategies and regional policies. Differential growth of the provincial economies shaped by the coast-oriented and urban-biased development strategies as well as selective open-door policy implemented by the Chinese government after the reform is the key to understanding the wax and wane in China's regional inequalities. This paper discusses the factors that account for the changing regional inequalities in post-reform China and argues that government policies are likely to continue to influence the future trajectories of inequality change. [source]

Regional Inequalities in Consumption Patterns: A Multilevel Approach to the Case of Italy

INTERNATIONAL STATISTICAL REVIEW, Issue 1 2007
Filippa Bono
Summary The main aim of this paper is to evaluate the disparities in the Italian regions on the demand side. In more detail, an attempt will be made to find if the consumption behaviour of Italian households is different in the regions. With this in mind, Istat's 2000 Italian Family Budget data set was analysed. The data in question, which were collected through a two-stage sample over Italy's 20 regions, contains information regarding the expenses of approximately 23,000 households. In this analysis, both households and regions are considered as units: households are nested in the regions so that the basic data structure is hierarchical. In order to take this hierarchical structure into account, a multilevel model was used, making it possible for parameters to vary randomly from region to region. The model in question also made it possible to consider heterogeneity across different groups (regions), such as stochastic variation. First, regional inequalities were tested using a simple model in which households constituted the first level of analysis and were grouped according to their region (the second level). As a second step, and in order to investigate the interaction between geographical context and income distribution, another model was used. This was cross-classified by income and regions. The most relevant results showed that there is wide fragmentation of consumption behaviour and, at the same time, various differentiated types of behaviour in the regions under analysis. These territorial differentials become clear from income class and items of consumption. Resumé L'objet du travail est l'analyse des différences, entre les régions italiennes, des comportements des consommateurs. Le traitement statistique des données individuelles est originale car il est conduit par un modèle ,multilevel'. Le modèle multilevel tient compte de la structure hiérarchique de données et permet au paramètres estimée de varier par hasard. En outre, ce modèle permet que l'hétérogénéité entre le différent groupes de familles (les unités statistiques) peut varier par hasard entre le régions. Pour l'analyse des différences régionales modèle ,multilevel nous avons estimée un premier modèle avec les familles au premier dégrée hiérarchique et les régions au second dégrée. Car le facteur géographique interagit avec la distribution du revenue dans chaque région nous avons estimée un autre modèle cross-classifiée par lequel le familles sont groupées par le revenue. [source]

Regional Inequalities and Civil Conflict in Sub-Saharan Africa,

INTERNATIONAL STUDIES QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2009
Gudrun ØStby
The case study literature is ripe with examples of a positive association between inequality and civil war, but systematic country-level studies have largely failed to find a significant relationship. One reason for this discrepancy may be that large-N studies tend to ignore spatial variations in group welfare within countries, although civil wars often take place within limited areas. We address this gap in the literature by applying GIS operations to Demographic and Health Surveys to construct new disaggregated data on welfare and socioeconomic inequalities between and within subnational regions in 22 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. These measures are coupled with geographical data on the location of conflict zones for the period 1986,2004. We find that conflict onsets are more likely in regions with (1) low levels of education; (2) strong relative deprivation regarding household assets; (3) strong intraregional inequalities; and (4) combined presence of natural resources and relative deprivation. [source]

Ethnicity, Economic Polarization and Regional Inequality in Southern Slovakia

GROWTH AND CHANGE, Issue 2 2000
Adrian Smith
This paper examines the relationships between ethnicity and regional economic transformation in Slovakia. It takes as its focus the position of the Hungarian minority in Slovakia in the uneven process of regional change. The paper places these issues within the context of struggles over ethnicity and ,nation' in post-independence Slovakia. The paper argues that ethnicity has been a thoroughly contested issue since the collapse of ,communism' in Slovakia and a variety of struggles have been waged over enhancing the rights and position of the Hungarian minority population. The concentration of the Hungarian minority in the southern Slovak border regions with Hungary is examined within the context of the uneven economic impacts of the ,transition to capitalism'. It is argued that, while the economic decline seen in many of these ,Hungarian' regions has impacted negatively on the local populations, the roots of these changes lie within the ways in which such regions were integrated into the state socialist regional division of labor. In particular, the role of peripheral industrialization in such regions prior to 1989, in attempting to reduce economic differences among various ethnic groups, resulted in the establishment of branch plant economies which have had difficulty in surviving since 1989. It is therefore the interweaving of the economics of regional decline and the politics of ethnicity that help us to understand the complex place of the Hungarian minority in Slovakia. [source]

Leading Sectors and Leading Regions: Economic Restructuring and Regional Inequality in Hungary since 1990

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 3 2007
DAVID L. BROWN
Abstract This article examines factors accounting for persisting regional inequality in Hungary during the regime change from socialism to a market economy in 1990. We examine the determinants of regional inequality through the lens of leading sector theory which has been used to explain why some ex-socialist countries have done better than others during the transformation. In other words, we ask whether some regions of Hungary are doing better than others for the same reasons that some ex-socialist countries have outperformed their counterparts. We use county level data from the Hungarian Central Statistical Office to examine whether the quantity and types of foreign direct investment counties have received since 1990 are associated with regional inequality in per capita GDP. We find that foreign capitalists concentrate human-capital-intensive investment in already well performing locations because they have similar supply structures to their home economies. We also contend that no measure of institutional modernization is likely to make lagging regions attractive candidates for human-capital-intensive investments in the near future. Hence, regardless of the national state's efforts to target development to lagging areas, or the effectiveness of local institutions, lagging regions are likely to remain underdeveloped. We recommend that future field-based research be conducted to examine the nexus between FDI, the nation state and localities. Unraveling interrelationships between these three political economy sites will expose the causal forces sustaining regional inequalities during post-socialism. Résumé Cet article analyse les facteurs qui expliquent l'inégalité persistante entre régions hongroises lors du passage du socialisme à une économie de marché en 1990. Nous examinons les déterminants de l'inégalité régionale à travers la théorie du secteur moteur qui a servi à expliquer pourquoi certains ex-pays socialistes ont mieux réussi que d'autres pendant la transition. Plus précisément, nous cherchons à savoir si des régions de Hongrie font mieux que d'autres pour les mêmes raisons que certains ex-pays socialistes ont eu de meilleurs résultats que leurs homologues. Nous utilisons des données départementales provenant du Bureau central hongrois de la statistique afin d'examiner si la quantité et les types d'investissement direct à l'étranger que les départements ont reçu depuis 1990 sont associés à une inégalité régionale en termes de PIB par habitant. Nous établissons ainsi que les capitalistes étrangers concentrent leur investissement à fort capital humain dans des sites qui présentent déjà de bons résultats, les structures d'approvisionnement étant similaires à celles de leur économie nationale. Nous soutenons également que, dans le court terme, aucune mesure de modernisation institutionnelle ne va sans doute transformer les régions en retard en candidates intéressantes pour des investissements à fort capital humain. En conséquence, quels que soient les efforts de l'État national en vue de développer spécifiquement les zones en décalage, ou l'efficacité des institutions locales, les régions en retard resteront sans doute moins développées. Nous conseillons d'entreprendre à l'avenir des études de terrain afin d'analyser le lien entre IDE, État national et régions. Démêler les relations entre ces trois centres de l'économie politique révélera les forces en cause dans la durabilité des inégalités régionales pendant l'après-socialisme. [source]

Inpres Desa Tertinggal (IDT) Program and Indonesian Regional Inequality

ASIAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL, Issue 2 2000
Takahiro Akita
First page of article [source]

Regional inequalities in Greece,

PAPERS IN REGIONAL SCIENCE, Issue 1 2000
George Petrakos
Regional inequalities; Greece; convergence Abstract. This article examines regional inequalities in Greece, on the basis of ,-convergence and ,-convergence analysis and shows that they were reduced in the 1970s and the 1980s. Regression analysis indicates that regional inequalities have a pro-cyclical character, increasing in periods of economic expansion and decreasing in periods of economic recession. It also indicates that the structure of local industry, the process of EU integration, the quality of human capital and the existence of resources suitable for the development of tourism are among the factors affecting regional growth. [source]

Public investment and regional inequality in rural China

AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, Issue 2 2004
Xiaobo Zhang
Public investment; Regional inequality; Growth; Chinese economy Abstract This paper develops a method for decomposing the contributions of various types of public investment to regional inequality and applies the method to rural China. Public investments are found to have contributed to production growth in both the agricultural and rural non-agricultural sectors, but their contributions to regional inequality have differed by type of investment and the region in which they are made. All types of investment in the least-developed western region reduce regional inequality, whereas additional investments in the coastal and central regions worsen regional inequality. Investments in rural education and agricultural R&D in the western region have the largest and most favorable impacts on reducing regional inequality. [source]

Survey of dietetic provision for patients with diabetes

DIABETIC MEDICINE, Issue 8 2000
M. Nelson
SUMMARY Aims To survey dietitians involved in diabetes care regarding the provisions for patients with diabetes. Methods A national survey of 512 dietitians known to be engaged in provision of diabetes care was conducted in 1997 and 391 (76%) responded. Results Nationally the median provision of dietetic care for diabetes reported was 10.7 h per 100 000 general population per week, but the provision was uneven ranging from 2.0 to 27.6 h per 100 000. Eighty-five per cent of dietitians worked in areas where the provision was less than 22 h per 100 000 general population per week (the current recommended minimum standard). Dietetic provision was greater in secondary care (median 9.1 h per 100 000 general population per week) than in general practice, residential homes and other locations (median 4.4 h per 100 000 general population per week). Provision was greater in those areas in which a designated dietitian had responsibility for co-ordinating the dietetic service for diabetes than in areas where the co-ordinator was not a dietitian or where there was no co-ordinator. Over 90% of dietitians reported following British Diabetic Association (BDA) recommendations regarding advice on carbohydrate, sugar, fat and fibre consumption, but only one-third routinely advised on salt restriction. Of the 17% of dietitians who continue to use carbohydrate exchanges, all combine this method with other approaches. Of the recommendations made by the Clinical Standards Group, only 69% of dietitians reported seeing more than half of newly diagnosd adult patients within four weeks, and less than 50% reported offering half or more of their patients an annual review. Amongst the literature in current use, 98% of dietitians use BDA literature for teaching patients and 90% use BDA publications in their own education. Seventy-six per cent of dietitians believed that there was a role for commercial slimming organizations in weight management of people with diabetes Conclusions Given the proven value of dietetic input in diabetes management, there would be advantages to correcting the regional inequalities in dietetic provision for diabetes care in the UK. [source]

Is the Impact of Public Investment Neutral Across the Regional Income Distribution?

ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, Issue 3 2005
Evidence from Mexico
Abstract: This article investigates the contribution of public investment to the reduction of regional inequalities, with a specific application to Mexico. We examine the impact of public investment according to the position of each region in the conditional distribution of regional income by using quantile regression as an empirical technique. The results confirm the hypothesis that regional inequalities can indeed be attributed to the regional distribution of public investment; the observed pattern shows that public investment mainly helped to reduce regional inequalities among the richest regions. [source]

Trade Liberalization and the Geography of Production: Agglomeration, Concentration, and Dispersal in Indonesia's Manufacturing Industry

ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, Issue 3 2004
Örjan Sjöberg
Abstract: The effect of the liberalization of trade on the spatial concentration of economic activities is not straightforward. It has been widely argued that protectionism increases spatial concentration as firms locate close to the main domestic markets. However, it has also been argued that an expansion of international trade primarily favors existing industrial centers and therefore leads to increased regional inequalities. Against the background of ongoing debates in both mainstream economics and in geography, we examine the spatial concentration of manufacturing in Indonesia between 1980 and 1996, a period when Indonesia substantially liberalized its trade regime. The high concentration did not decrease during this period, and establishments that engaged in international trade were actually comparably concentrated. We discuss some possible explanations for the spatial concentration in Indonesia and conclude that a host of factors may affect the outcome of trade liberalizations. In particular, the spatial configuration of the national settlement system is a potentially important factor in this regard. [source]

Unemployment clusters across Europe's regions and countries

ECONOMIC POLICY, Issue 34 2002
Henry G. Overman
Summary High unemployment and regional inequalities are major concerns for European policy-makers, but so far connections between policies dealing with unemployment and regional inequalities have been few and weak. We think that this should change. This paper documents a regional and transnational dimension to unemployment , i.e., geographical unemployment clusters that do not respect national boundaries. Since the mid 1980s, regions with high or low initial unemployment rates saw little change, while regions with intermediate unemployment moved towards extreme values. During this polarization, nearby regions tended to share similar outcomes due, we argue, to spatially related changes in labour demand. These spatially correlated demand shifts were due in part to initial clustering of low-skilled regions and badly performing industries, but a significant neighbour effect remains even after controlling for these, and the effect is as strong within as it is between nations. We believe this reflects agglomeration effects of economic integration. The new economic geography literature shows how integration fosters employment clusters that need not respect national borders. If regional labour forces do not adjust, regional unemployment polarization with neighbour effects can result. To account for these ,neighbour effects' a cross-regional and transnational dimension should be added to national anti-unemployment policies. Nations should consider policies that encourage regional wage setting, and short distance mobility, and the EU should consider including transnational considerations in its regional policy, since neighbour effects on unemployment mean that an anti-unemployment policy paid for by one region will benefit neighbouring regions. Since local politicians gain no votes or tax revenues from these ,spillovers', they are likely to underestimate the true benefit of the policy and thus tend to undertake too little of it. [source]

Critical Events and Labour Mobility: Relocations in the Wake of the Ansett Airlines Collapse

GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH, Issue 3 2009
SALLY WELLER
Abstract Migration plays an important role in neo-liberal regional adjustment. This paper explores the role of economic shocks in stimulating internal migration within Australia. Drawing on the experiences of retrenched Ansett Airlines employees, it argues that economic crisis impels some households to relocate but traps others in places with restricted employment prospects. For some, the crisis of retrenchment triggers inter-state migration to take up new jobs. For others, it prompts relocation to less expensive housing, often in a geographically proximate location. These opposing responses, which are different outcomes of similar causal processes, exacerbate regional inequalities since they selectively encourage younger skilled workers to enter growing regions. The combination of high housing costs and insecure employment discourages speculative migration. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the policy implications of these findings. [source]

Forging Ahead and Falling Behind: Changing Regional Inequalities in Post-reform China

GROWTH AND CHANGE, Issue 1 2002
Max Lu
This study analyzes the evolution of China's regional inequalities during the reform period of 1978,1998 based on three geographical scales, both output and livelihood indicators of economic well-being and three measures of inequality. The results indicate that interprovincial and regional inequalities declined between 1978 and 1990, but have widened steadily since 1990. Urban-rural disparity diminished before 1984, then experienced a decade-long surge afterwards to peak in 1994 at a much higher level and since 1994, it has been declining again. The levels of regional inequalities in China appear to be sensitive to changes in government development strategies and regional policies. Differential growth of the provincial economies shaped by the coast-oriented and urban-biased development strategies as well as selective open-door policy implemented by the Chinese government after the reform is the key to understanding the wax and wane in China's regional inequalities. This paper discusses the factors that account for the changing regional inequalities in post-reform China and argues that government policies are likely to continue to influence the future trajectories of inequality change. [source]

Health care reform in Belgium

HEALTH ECONOMICS, Issue S1 2005
Erik Schokkaert
Abstract Curbing the growth of public sector health expenditures has been the proclaimed government objective in Belgium since the 1980s. However, the respect for freedom of choice for patients and for therapeutic freedom for providers has blocked the introduction of microeconomic incentives and quality control. Therefore , with some exceptions, particularly in the hospital sector , policy has consisted mainly of tariff and supply restrictions and increases in co-payments. These measures have not been successful in curbing the growth of expenditures. Moreover, there remains a large variation in medical practices. While the structure of health financing is relatively progressive from an international perspective, socioeconomic and regional inequalities in health persist. The most important challenge is the restructuring of the basic decision-making processes; i.e. a simplification of the bureaucratic procedures and a re-examination of the role of regional authorities and sickness funds. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Leading Sectors and Leading Regions: Economic Restructuring and Regional Inequality in Hungary since 1990

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 3 2007
DAVID L. BROWN
Abstract This article examines factors accounting for persisting regional inequality in Hungary during the regime change from socialism to a market economy in 1990. We examine the determinants of regional inequality through the lens of leading sector theory which has been used to explain why some ex-socialist countries have done better than others during the transformation. In other words, we ask whether some regions of Hungary are doing better than others for the same reasons that some ex-socialist countries have outperformed their counterparts. We use county level data from the Hungarian Central Statistical Office to examine whether the quantity and types of foreign direct investment counties have received since 1990 are associated with regional inequality in per capita GDP. We find that foreign capitalists concentrate human-capital-intensive investment in already well performing locations because they have similar supply structures to their home economies. We also contend that no measure of institutional modernization is likely to make lagging regions attractive candidates for human-capital-intensive investments in the near future. Hence, regardless of the national state's efforts to target development to lagging areas, or the effectiveness of local institutions, lagging regions are likely to remain underdeveloped. We recommend that future field-based research be conducted to examine the nexus between FDI, the nation state and localities. Unraveling interrelationships between these three political economy sites will expose the causal forces sustaining regional inequalities during post-socialism. Résumé Cet article analyse les facteurs qui expliquent l'inégalité persistante entre régions hongroises lors du passage du socialisme à une économie de marché en 1990. Nous examinons les déterminants de l'inégalité régionale à travers la théorie du secteur moteur qui a servi à expliquer pourquoi certains ex-pays socialistes ont mieux réussi que d'autres pendant la transition. Plus précisément, nous cherchons à savoir si des régions de Hongrie font mieux que d'autres pour les mêmes raisons que certains ex-pays socialistes ont eu de meilleurs résultats que leurs homologues. Nous utilisons des données départementales provenant du Bureau central hongrois de la statistique afin d'examiner si la quantité et les types d'investissement direct à l'étranger que les départements ont reçu depuis 1990 sont associés à une inégalité régionale en termes de PIB par habitant. Nous établissons ainsi que les capitalistes étrangers concentrent leur investissement à fort capital humain dans des sites qui présentent déjà de bons résultats, les structures d'approvisionnement étant similaires à celles de leur économie nationale. Nous soutenons également que, dans le court terme, aucune mesure de modernisation institutionnelle ne va sans doute transformer les régions en retard en candidates intéressantes pour des investissements à fort capital humain. En conséquence, quels que soient les efforts de l'État national en vue de développer spécifiquement les zones en décalage, ou l'efficacité des institutions locales, les régions en retard resteront sans doute moins développées. Nous conseillons d'entreprendre à l'avenir des études de terrain afin d'analyser le lien entre IDE, État national et régions. Démêler les relations entre ces trois centres de l'économie politique révélera les forces en cause dans la durabilité des inégalités régionales pendant l'après-socialisme. [source]

Regional Inequalities in Consumption Patterns: A Multilevel Approach to the Case of Italy

INTERNATIONAL STATISTICAL REVIEW, Issue 1 2007
Filippa Bono
Summary The main aim of this paper is to evaluate the disparities in the Italian regions on the demand side. In more detail, an attempt will be made to find if the consumption behaviour of Italian households is different in the regions. With this in mind, Istat's 2000 Italian Family Budget data set was analysed. The data in question, which were collected through a two-stage sample over Italy's 20 regions, contains information regarding the expenses of approximately 23,000 households. In this analysis, both households and regions are considered as units: households are nested in the regions so that the basic data structure is hierarchical. In order to take this hierarchical structure into account, a multilevel model was used, making it possible for parameters to vary randomly from region to region. The model in question also made it possible to consider heterogeneity across different groups (regions), such as stochastic variation. First, regional inequalities were tested using a simple model in which households constituted the first level of analysis and were grouped according to their region (the second level). As a second step, and in order to investigate the interaction between geographical context and income distribution, another model was used. This was cross-classified by income and regions. The most relevant results showed that there is wide fragmentation of consumption behaviour and, at the same time, various differentiated types of behaviour in the regions under analysis. These territorial differentials become clear from income class and items of consumption. Resumé L'objet du travail est l'analyse des différences, entre les régions italiennes, des comportements des consommateurs. Le traitement statistique des données individuelles est originale car il est conduit par un modèle ,multilevel'. Le modèle multilevel tient compte de la structure hiérarchique de données et permet au paramètres estimée de varier par hasard. En outre, ce modèle permet que l'hétérogénéité entre le différent groupes de familles (les unités statistiques) peut varier par hasard entre le régions. Pour l'analyse des différences régionales modèle ,multilevel nous avons estimée un premier modèle avec les familles au premier dégrée hiérarchique et les régions au second dégrée. Car le facteur géographique interagit avec la distribution du revenue dans chaque région nous avons estimée un autre modèle cross-classifiée par lequel le familles sont groupées par le revenue. [source]

Mind the Gaps: The Evolution of Regional Earnings Inequalities in the U.K., 1982,1997

JOURNAL OF REGIONAL SCIENCE, Issue 2 2002
Gilles Duranton
In this paper we apply earnings equations for U.K. regions over 1982,1997. We find evidence of rapid convergence across regions regarding the determinants of individual wages (i.e., regional fixed-effects, gender gaps, and returns to education and experience). In contrast, data on average regional earnings point to a worsening of U.K. regional inequalities and a rise in the North-South gap. Education accounts for most of the discrepancy between aggregate divergence and disaggregated convergence. First, London gained because its workforce became relatively more educated over the period. Second, returns to education increased nationwide, which favored the most educated regions (i.e., London). Third, returns to education were initially lower in London but they (partially) caught up with the rest of the country. Had returns to education and their distribution across U.K. regions remained stable over the period, the U.K. North-South divide would have decreased. [source]

Regional inequalities in Greece,

PAPERS IN REGIONAL SCIENCE, Issue 1 2000
George Petrakos
Regional inequalities; Greece; convergence Abstract. This article examines regional inequalities in Greece, on the basis of ,-convergence and ,-convergence analysis and shows that they were reduced in the 1970s and the 1980s. Regression analysis indicates that regional inequalities have a pro-cyclical character, increasing in periods of economic expansion and decreasing in periods of economic recession. It also indicates that the structure of local industry, the process of EU integration, the quality of human capital and the existence of resources suitable for the development of tourism are among the factors affecting regional growth. [source]

Leading Sectors and Leading Regions: Economic Restructuring and Regional Inequality in Hungary since 1990

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 3 2007
DAVID L. BROWN
Abstract This article examines factors accounting for persisting regional inequality in Hungary during the regime change from socialism to a market economy in 1990. We examine the determinants of regional inequality through the lens of leading sector theory which has been used to explain why some ex-socialist countries have done better than others during the transformation. In other words, we ask whether some regions of Hungary are doing better than others for the same reasons that some ex-socialist countries have outperformed their counterparts. We use county level data from the Hungarian Central Statistical Office to examine whether the quantity and types of foreign direct investment counties have received since 1990 are associated with regional inequality in per capita GDP. We find that foreign capitalists concentrate human-capital-intensive investment in already well performing locations because they have similar supply structures to their home economies. We also contend that no measure of institutional modernization is likely to make lagging regions attractive candidates for human-capital-intensive investments in the near future. Hence, regardless of the national state's efforts to target development to lagging areas, or the effectiveness of local institutions, lagging regions are likely to remain underdeveloped. We recommend that future field-based research be conducted to examine the nexus between FDI, the nation state and localities. Unraveling interrelationships between these three political economy sites will expose the causal forces sustaining regional inequalities during post-socialism. Résumé Cet article analyse les facteurs qui expliquent l'inégalité persistante entre régions hongroises lors du passage du socialisme à une économie de marché en 1990. Nous examinons les déterminants de l'inégalité régionale à travers la théorie du secteur moteur qui a servi à expliquer pourquoi certains ex-pays socialistes ont mieux réussi que d'autres pendant la transition. Plus précisément, nous cherchons à savoir si des régions de Hongrie font mieux que d'autres pour les mêmes raisons que certains ex-pays socialistes ont eu de meilleurs résultats que leurs homologues. Nous utilisons des données départementales provenant du Bureau central hongrois de la statistique afin d'examiner si la quantité et les types d'investissement direct à l'étranger que les départements ont reçu depuis 1990 sont associés à une inégalité régionale en termes de PIB par habitant. Nous établissons ainsi que les capitalistes étrangers concentrent leur investissement à fort capital humain dans des sites qui présentent déjà de bons résultats, les structures d'approvisionnement étant similaires à celles de leur économie nationale. Nous soutenons également que, dans le court terme, aucune mesure de modernisation institutionnelle ne va sans doute transformer les régions en retard en candidates intéressantes pour des investissements à fort capital humain. En conséquence, quels que soient les efforts de l'État national en vue de développer spécifiquement les zones en décalage, ou l'efficacité des institutions locales, les régions en retard resteront sans doute moins développées. Nous conseillons d'entreprendre à l'avenir des études de terrain afin d'analyser le lien entre IDE, État national et régions. Démêler les relations entre ces trois centres de l'économie politique révélera les forces en cause dans la durabilité des inégalités régionales pendant l'après-socialisme. [source]

Public investment and regional inequality in rural China

AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, Issue 2 2004
Xiaobo Zhang
Public investment; Regional inequality; Growth; Chinese economy Abstract This paper develops a method for decomposing the contributions of various types of public investment to regional inequality and applies the method to rural China. Public investments are found to have contributed to production growth in both the agricultural and rural non-agricultural sectors, but their contributions to regional inequality have differed by type of investment and the region in which they are made. All types of investment in the least-developed western region reduce regional inequality, whereas additional investments in the coastal and central regions worsen regional inequality. Investments in rural education and agricultural R&D in the western region have the largest and most favorable impacts on reducing regional inequality. [source]

Measuring regional inequality of education in China: widening coast,inland gap or widening rural,urban gap?

JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, Issue 2 2008
Xiaolei Qian
Abstract This article measures education inequality between the coastal and inland provinces and compares it with rural,urban educational inequality in China, using Gini education coefficients and decomposition analysis. The main finding of the article is that disparities in access to education between rural and urban areas rather than between coastal and inland provinces are the major cause of educational inequality in China. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Education, cost of living and regional wage inequality in Brazil,

PAPERS IN REGIONAL SCIENCE, Issue 2 2002
Carlos R. Azzoni
Brazil; regional wage inequality; cost of living differences; education and regional inequality Abstract The objective of this article is to analyze wage inequality among the 10 largest metropolitan regions in Brazil in the 1990s. We assess the extent to which worker characteristics (education, age, gender, race, position in the family) and job characteristics (occupational position, sector, experience) can explain wage inequality. The analysis is made both with regional-nominal and with regional-real wage data. In the second case regional price indexes are used to control for differences in cost of living among regions. Wage differentials in Brazil were slightly lowered when control variables were introduced, but the leftover inequality remained high. The results indicate that cost of living levels do have a role in explaining wage inequality in Brazil, but even after controlling for this factor, the remaining regional differentials are still important. [source]

Economic Reforms and Human Development Indicators in India,

ASIAN ECONOMIC POLICY REVIEW, Issue 2 2008
Raghbendra JHA
D13; I3; O18; O53 This paper sketches the contours of progress in India across a broad range of human development indicators, especially those related to the Millennium Development Goals. This paper also considers the slackening of the drop in poverty reduction since the 1990s (as compared to the 1980s) and the theme of increasing personal and regional inequality in India in the post-reforms period. It also considers the even more persistent incidence of hunger in India and concludes by assessing the potential role of public policy in addressing the twin problems of slowdown in poverty alleviation and reduction of hunger. [source]

Changes in regional inequality in rural China: decomposing the Gini index by income sources

AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL & RESOURCE ECONOMICS, Issue 3 2001
Guang Hua Wan
A new method is proposed to decompose inequality changes as measured by the Gini index into structural effects, real inequality effects and interactive effects. Application of the method to updated Chinese data reveals that structural effects represent the driving force underlying the increasing trend in regional income inequality in rural China. Policy implications are explored. In addition to these contributions, considerable efforts are made to construct the income data used in the article. Pitfalls in measuring income inequality in rural China are discussed. [source]