Some economists have argued that the process of disintegration of the world economy between the two World Wars led to income divergence between the countries. This is in keeping with the view that economic integration leads to income convergence. The paper shows that the view that the period...

Standard official measures of economic well-being are based on money income. The general consensus is that such measures are seriously flawed because they ignore several crucial determinants of well-being. We examine two such determinants-household wealth and public consumption-in the context of...

We study the effects of unequal representation in the interest-group system on the degree of information transmission between a lobbyist and a policymaker. Employing a dynamic cheap-talk model in which the lobbyist cares instrumentally about his reputation for truthtelling, we show that the...

Unlike aversion to inequality, aversion to poverty resists formalization in welfare economics. One way to assign normative significance to the poverty line is to allow the welfare measure to exhibit a discrete loss from poverty (DLP) at z. However, the resulting redistribution scheme prioritizes...

I use a dynamic microsimulation model to analyse the distributional effects of an expansion of education in Côte d'Ivoire in the medium and long term. The simulations are performed in order to replicate several policies in force or subject to debate in this country. Various hypotheses...

Using data from the Assets and Debts Survey of 1984 and the Survey of Financial Security of 1999, we document the evolution of wealth inequality in Canada between 1984 and 1999. Our main findings are as follows: 1) Wealth inequality has increased between 1984 and 1999; 2) the growth in wealth...

With all the talk in Europe about “Islam” and “Muslim culture” it is surprising how little hard-core empirical evidence exists on the compatibility of “Muslim culture” with positive patterns of political, social, and ecological development in the world system in the 1980s, 1990s, and...

The paper presents a non-technical summary of the current state of debate on the measurement and implications of global inequality (inequality between citizens of the world). It discusses the relationship between globalization and global inequality. It shows why global inequality matters and...

Families with two or more adults have unadjusted incomes above the overall average because they have more potential earners. On the other hand, unattached individuals and lone parents have after-tax income averages just over half the overall average. Adjusting incomes to account for family size...

This paper attempts to define financial globalization as a process whereby financial markets internationally are integrated so closely that they can be considered as a single market. The process, viewed as a by- product of financial liberalization, is only a necessary condition for financial...