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Income inequality and urban/rural migration.
"The purpose of this paper is to examine some of the consequences of [U.S.] migration trends from 1970-1980, focusing on the relationship of income inequality within a state with population shifts within and across states. Furthermore, we wish to determine if the movement of wealth and the changing employment opportunities [have] had any effect on the distribution of income within the four census regions and for urban and rural populations across all fifty states." Data are from the 1970 and 1980 censuses.
Training, migration, and regional income disparities.
"It is assumed that there are two regions, that production requires both skilled and unskilled labour, and that one region is innately more productive than the other. Workers, who differ in their migration or training costs, make individually rational decisions. In equilibrium the ratio of skilled workers to unskilled workers is always higher in the more productive region. Average incomes differ between regions because regional differences in wage rates are reinforced by regional differences in the structure of employment. The model is also used to analyse the effects of policies intended to equalize the distribution of income."
Estimation and allocation of solid waste to bin through geographical information systems.
This study presents a geographical information system (GIS)-based procedure for the precise estimation of solid waste generation, computed using the local population density and income group distribution. Using a triangulated irregular network (TIN) in a GIS environment, the procedure further determines the command area for waste allocation to a particular bin which is generally located so the route slopes towards the collection points for ease of transportation by cart pullers. Computational results of bin location, type, size and the frequency of removal are presented for a typical urban area with known population density, income group distribution, road network and topology.
Public pension reform, demographics, and inequality.
"Starting from a simple, descriptive model of individual income, an explicit link between the age composition of a population and the personal distribution of incomes is established. Demographic effects on income inequality are derived. Next, a pay-as-you-go financed state pension system is introduced. The resulting government budget constraint entails interrelations between fiscal and demographic variables, causing an additional, indirect demographic impact on the distribution. This is shown not only to change, but in some cases even to reverse the distributional incidence of an aging population. Several policy conflicts arise. The point is re-emphasized by an analysis of the German Pension Reform Act of 1992. The study reveals that the design of the pension formula decisively drives the relation between demographics and inequality."
[Demographic change and state income support: an incidence analysis].
"Starting from a simple, descriptive life-cycle model of individual income, an explicit link between the age composition of a population and the personal distribution of incomes is established. Demographic effects on income inequality are derived. Next, two income maintenance programs are introduced: a redistributive tax-transfer scheme and a pay-as-you-go financed state pension system. The resulting government budget constraints entail interrelations between fiscal and demographic variables, causing an additional, indirect demographic impact on the distribution. This is shown not only to change, but in some cases even to reverse the distributional incidence of demographic trends. Several policy conflicts arise." (SUMMARY IN ENG)
Drug information pharmacists at health-care facilities, universities, and pharmaceutical companies.
A national survey was conducted to provide a profile of drug information pharmacists. Questionnaires were mailed to 436 drug information pharmacists whose names were obtained from directors of drug information centers (DICs) at health-care facilities, universities, and pharmaceutical companies. The net response rate was 64% (278 usable replies). Most respondents were 30 to 39 years of age and had practiced in drug information for four years or less. There were equal numbers of male and female respondents. More than half had a doctor of pharmacy (Pharm.D.) degree, and about half had completed a postgraduate residency or fellowship. Respondents with a Pharm.D. degree or postgraduate training reported a more favorable professional outcome, including position, income, and job satisfaction. Respondents reported a high level of professional involvement, including faculty appointment, publishing, and professional membership. Common reasons cited for choosing a career in drug information were an opportunity to continually learn, job satisfaction, and regular work hours. More than 70% of respondents were either very satisfied or extremely satisfied with their current job position. The most frequently reported income range was $40,000-44,999; distribution of income differed significantly among geographic regions. Drug information pharmacists report a high level of job satisfaction and involvement in professional activities; they often have completed advanced pharmacy education or postgraduate training.
Alcohol taxes: do the poor pay more than the rich?
Concern has often been expressed that alcohol taxes bear more heavily on the poor than on the rich, especially if these taxes are based on quantity rather than price. However, surprisingly little is known about how the tax burden is distributed across different income groups. Utilizing survey data from 3010 respondents in New Zealand, this study calculates exactly how much alcohol tax was paid by respondents in different income groups and in different types of households. These results were applied to household expenditure survey data to estimate the incidence of alcohol taxes across different households. The results suggest that, although in dollar terms the wealthiest households paid about four times as much alcohol tax as the poorest households, when expressed as a percentage of income, alcohol taxes are distributed proportionally across the lower income brackets but decline towards the upper end of the income scale. These taxes accounted for less than 1% of household income for all income groups. Households with children generally paid less alcohol tax than households without children. It is concluded that alcohol taxes in New Zealand do not seriously conflict with the broader equity objectives of government policy.
[Malnutrition and poverty in Colombia].
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[Monetary security for the aged--concepts of political distribution goals and income-related effects of pension security systems].
This contribution discusses some theoretical aspects related to the question of whether, and in what way, a uniform social security target has been defined for the monetary old-age protection in the Federal Republic of Germany, and to what extent different pension schemes fulfill this target. The analysis leads to the conclusion that only a "target range", and not a defined value, has been developed for the indicator "individual replacement rate". The investigation into the effects of old-age pension schemes on income shows that, even after benefit cuts, public sector employees, on the whole, are better protected than employees in the private sector. A future, detailed empirical analysis would have to investigate individual social groups.
Relation of per capita income and gross domestic product to the supply and distribution of pediatricians in the United States.
OBJECTIVE: To describe the number and distribution of pediatricians per child nationally and on a state-by-state basis relative to the economic conditions within each state. STUDY DESIGN: Real inflation-adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) per capita (1996 dollars) was plotted against the number of all active physicians and pediatricians in the United States for all years data were available. GDP was then compared with the active number of pediatric medical physicians per child 0 to 14 years of age. RESULTS: The number of pediatricians per 100000 children has more than doubled, from 49.8 to 106.2. Since 1929, the growth in the total number of physicians per capita in the United States has followed a linear relation (r(2)=0.977) with per capita national GDP. This relation is consistent with that specifically for all pediatricians as well (r(2)=0.980) for the years in which data are available (1963 to 2000). There is an extremely uneven distribution of pediatricians. Income differences only partially explain this maldistribution. CONCLUSIONS: There has been a marked increase in the number of pediatricians relative to the number of children in the United States, correlating strongly with the rise in per capita GDP. However, there has been a furthering of their uneven distribution across the United States.
State-level income inequality and individual mortality risk: a prospective, multilevel study.
OBJECTIVES: Previous studies have linked state-level income inequality to mortality rates. However, it has been questioned whether the relationship is independent of individual-level income. The present study tests whether state-level income inequality is related to individual mortality risk, after adjustment for individual-level characteristics. METHODS: In this prospective, multilevel study design, the vital status of National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) respondents was ascertained by linkage to the National Death Index, with additional linkage of state-level data to individuals in the NHIS. The analysis included data for 546,888 persons, with 19,379 deaths over the 8-year follow-up period. The Gini coefficient was used as the measure of income inequality. RESULTS: Individuals living in high-income-inequality states were at increased risk of mortality (relative risk = 1.12; 95% confidence interval = 1.04, 1.19) compared with individuals living in low-income-inequality states. In stratified analyses, significant effects of state income inequality on mortality risk were found, primarily for near-poor Whites. CONCLUSIONS: State-level income inequality appears to exert a contextual effect on mortality risk, after income is adjusted for, providing further evidence that the distribution of income is important for health.
Adverse selection and price sensitivity when low-income people have subsidies to purchase health insurance in the private market.
Policymakers interested in subsidizing low-income people's purchase of private insurance face two major questions: will such subsidies lead to adverse selection, and how large do the subsidies have to be to induce large numbers of eligible people to purchase the insurance? This study examines New Jersey's short-lived experience with a premium subsidy program, Health Access New Jersey (Access Program). The program was for people in families with incomes below 250% of the poverty level who were not eligible for health insurance provided by an employer, or Medicaid or Medicare, and who wished to purchase policies in the state's individual health insurance market, the Individual Health Coverage Program. Surveying a random sample of Access Program policyholders, we compared their demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, as well as their health status, to those of other New Jersey residents who had family incomes below 250% of the poverty level to determine whether there was any evidence of adverse selection among the people who enrolled in the Access Program. The people who enrolled were not in worse health than uninsured people with incomes below 250% of the poverty level, but they were quite price sensitive. Most enrollees had incomes within the low end of the income eligibility distribution, reflecting the structure of rapidly declining subsidies as income increased.
Identifying and measuring unintended outcomes.
Unintended outcomes of governmental actions have received little attention from evaluators. The argument made here is that outcome evaluations should routinely include efforts to identify and measure unintended outcomes. A systems perspective is presented which treats governmental actions as disequilibrating intrusions into reacting systems that produce an array of outcomes, only some of which are intended. Intended and unintended outcomes can be valued monetarily, in terms of human rights, or both; specifically, outcomes having monetary value alter both the level and distribution of income while outcomes with rights value alter the level and distribution of rights. More needs to be done on unintended outcomes. The systems approach offered here requires further elaboration. Design modification that increase the chances of identifying and measuring unanticipated outcomes are needed, especially for designs based on non-equivalent groups and time-series data. Instrumentation is needed for designs based on non-equivalent groups and time-series data. Instrumentation is needed that will more accurately and sensitively register unanticipated outcomes. In the meantime, evaluators should pay more attention to theoretical predictions, the experiences of those involved with programs similar to the ones being evaluated, intercultural differences, and to unintended outcomes that originate within government itself.
Social Security and SSI as safety nets for the elderly poor.
Partial privatization of Social Security is being considered as an integral part of the future Social Security program for American retirees. Because privatization creates uncertainty about the amount of retirement income that future retirees may expect to receive, the issue of a safety net is critical. This article presents the findings from an empirical study that investigated the degree to which the current Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs provide a safety net, separately and in combination, to the elderly poor. The major findings were that the Social Security program not only increases the income statuses of both posttransfer and pretransfer poor elderly people considerably, but that the program also significantly equalizes the distribution of income among them. In addition, the SSI program supplements the Social Security program in establishing an even greater safety net, especially for posttransfer poor elderly people. On the other hand, Social Security benefits make the income disparity among races greater between both posttransfer and pretransfer poor elderly people. Implications for policy are discussed.
Simulated effects of incomes-based policies on the distribution of physicians.
As the United States enters a period of adequate physician supply (or even surplus), policies to ameliorate the maldistribution of physicians across communities and medical specialties will depend more heavily on explicit redistributional incentives. Targeted financial incentives are an obvious method for encouraging desirable practice choices. This paper simulates the effect of a series of incomes policies on the distribution of sample physicians across specialties, community sizes, and practice modes. The predictions are based on the estimated parameters of a simultaneous choice model for these three dimensions of a physician's practice. The results suggest that policies based on financial incentives are more effective than previous research has indicated.
A cell based approach to modelling public expenditure.
The paper examines the use of a cell based model to analyse the effects of demographic change on the level and distribution of public expenditure. The nature and advantages of a cell based model for this purpose are described. The level and distribution of the key components of welfare state expenditure--health, education, social security--and of direct taxes, is examined for the base year of 1985. The net transfer of resources is compared to the distribution of income across cells. The effect of demographic change on the level and distribution of health and education expenditure is analysed. Issues in the further development of this approach are then reviewed.
Foreign workers in Kuwait: implications for the Kuwaiti labor force.
An analysis of the foreign population in Kuwait shows that foreign nationals make up 60 percent of the population and 78 percent of the labor force in Kuwait. The implications of these figures for the Kuwaiti labor force are discussed by analyzing the occupational structures of Kuwaitis and non-Kuwaitis. "Structural analysis of the labor force indicates that 62 percent of Kuwaiti males are concentrated in administrative and service occupations while their percentage in sales and production work has declined during 1970-80. This demonstrates the need for reorienting educational/training programs and changing Kuwaiti attitudes towards manual work to ensure the realization of the 'Kuwaitization' process, and balance the nationals with foreign nationals." mortality has stabilized at relatively high levels and there is resistance to family planning. The author concludes that the main cause of the stalling of the demographic transition process is to be found in the role of the state and the dynamics of the social structure and that "demographic trends will depend more on the changes in social structure, land reforms, and response of the formal governing system to the needs of the underprivileged sections of the society, rather than on the health and family planning policies."