Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Inequality, unemployment and growth: New measures for old controversies

  • Published:
The Journal of Economic Inequality Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This essay surveys some of the work of the University of Texas Inequality Project, a small research group that for the past decade has worked primarily to develop new measures of economic inequality, using a method based on the between-groups component of Theil’s T statistic. In this way, inequality statistics can be computed from many diverse and mundane sources of information, including regional tax collections, employment and earnings, census of manufacturing, and harmonized international industrial data sets. The rich data environment so constructed permits new analyses of patterns of economic change, by region, by sector, and by country, and broadly supports the idea that the movement of inequality is closely related to macroeconomic events at the national and the global level.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Ahluwalia, M.S.: Inequality, poverty and development. J. Dev. Econ. 3, 307–342 (1976)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Atkinson, A., Brandolini, A.: Promise and Pitfalls in the use of secondary data-sets: income inequality in OECD countries as a case study. J. Econ. Lit. 34, 771–799 (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Barro, R.J.: Inequality and growth in a panel of countries. J. Econ. Growth 5, 5–32 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Biancotti, C.: A polarization of inequality? The distribution of national Gini coefficients 1970–1996? J. Econ. Inequal 4(1), 1–32 (2005) TD No. 487

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Calmon, P.D.P., Conceição, P., Galbraith, James K., Garza-Cantú, V., Hibert, A.: The evolution of industrial wage inequality in Mexico and Brazil. Rev. Dev. Econ. 4(2), 194–203 (2000) June

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Chatterjee, A., Yarlagadda, S., Chakrabarti, B.K.: Econophysics of Wealth Distributions. Springer-Verlag Italia, Milan (2005)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  7. Conceição, P., Galbraith, James K., Bradford, P.: The Theil index in sequences of nested and hierarchical grouping structures: implications for the measurement of inequality through time, Galbraith, James K., data aggregated at different levels of industrial classification. East. Econ. J. 27(4), 491–514 (2001) Fall

    Google Scholar 

  8. Conceição, P., Galbraith, James K., Ferreira, P.: Inequality and unemployment in Europe: the American cure. New Left Rev. 237, 28–51 (1999) September–October

    Google Scholar 

  9. Conceição, P., Galbraith, James K.: Technological intensity and inter-sectoral dynamics of inequality: evidence from the OECD, 1970–1990. Int. J. Technol. Policy Manag. 2(3), 315–337 (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Conceição, P., Galbraith, James K.: Constructing long and dense time series of inequality using the Theil statistic. East. Econ. J. 26(1), 61–74 (2000) June

    Google Scholar 

  11. Deininger, K., Squire, L.: A new data set measuring income ine-quality. World Bank Econ. Rev. 10, 565–591 (1996) Available at http://www.worldbank.org/research/growth/dddeisqu.htm

    Google Scholar 

  12. Dollar, D., Kraay, A.: Growth is good for the poor, World Bank Development Research Group, Manuscript (2001)

  13. Forbes, K.: A reassessment of the relationship between inequality and growth. Am. Econ. Rev. 90, 869–887 (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Galbraith, James, K., Berner, M. (eds.): Inequality and Industrial Change: A Global View. Cambridge University Press, New York (2001)

  15. Galbraith, James, K.: Created Unequal: The Crisis in American Pay. A Twentieth Century Fund Book. The Free Press, New York (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Galbraith, James, K.: What is the American model really about? Soft budgets and the Keynesian revolution. Ind. Corp. Change 16(1), 1–18 (2007a). DOI 10.1093

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Galbraith, James, K.: Maastricht 2042 and the Fate of Europe: Toward Convergence and Full Employment. Levy Economics Institute Public Policy Brief, No. 87, November 2006. Published separately by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, International Policy Analysis Unit, March (2007b)

  18. Galbraith, James, K.: Global macroeconomics and global inequality. In: Held, D., Kaya, A., (eds.) Global Inequality. Ralph Miliband Lecture Series on Inequalities at the London School of Economics, pp. 148–175. Polity Press, Cambridge (2007c) Republished in Journal of Policy Modeling 29 (2007) 587–607

    Google Scholar 

  19. Galbraith, James, K.: A perfect crime: inequality in the age of globalization. Daedalus 131, 11–25 (2002a) Winter

    Google Scholar 

  20. Galbraith, James, K.: The importance of being sufficiently equal. Soc. Policy Philos. 19(1), 201–224 (2002b) January–February

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Galbraith, James, K.: Globalization and pay. Proc. Am. Philos. Soc 143(2), 178–186 (1999a) June

    Google Scholar 

  22. Galbraith, James, K., Ferguson, T.: The American wage structure, 1920–1947. Res. Econ. Hist. 19, 205–257 (1999b)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Galbraith, James, K., Garcilazo, E.: Pay inequality in Europe 1995–2000: convergence between countries and stability inside. Eur. J. Comp. Econ. 2(2), 139–175 (2005) December

    Google Scholar 

  24. Galbraith, James, K., Garcilazo, E.: Unemployment, inequality and the policy of Europe, 1984–2000. Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Quarterly Review LVII, (228), 3–28 (2004) March

    Google Scholar 

  25. Galbraith, James, K., Garza-Cantú, V.: Inequality in American manufacturing wages, 1920–1998: a revised estimate. J. Econ. Issues 33, 735–743 (1999), Summer

  26. Galbraith, James, K., Hale, T.: State income inequality and presidential election turnout and outcomes. Soc. Sci. Q. 89:4 (2008 December, in press)

  27. Galbraith, James, K., Hale, T.: American inequality: from IT bust to big government boom. The Economists’ Voice, 3(8), article 6 (2006)

  28. Galbraith, James, K., Krytynskaia, L., Wang, Q.: The experience of rising inequality in Russia and China during the transition. European Journal of Comparative Economics 1(1), 87–106 (2004)

  29. Galbraith, James, K., Kum, H.: Estimating the inequality of household incomes: toward a dense and consistent global data set. Rev. Income Wealth, 51(1), 115–143 (2005) March

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Galbraith, James, K., Kum, H.: Inequality and economic growth: a global view based on measures of pay. CESifo Economic Studies 49(4), 527–556 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Galbraith, James, K., Priest, C., Purcell, G.: Economic equality and victory in war: an empirical investigation. Defense and Peace Economics 18(5), 431–449 (2007) October

  32. Galbraith, James, K., RoyChowdhury, D., Shrivastava, S.: Pay inequality in the Indian manufacturing sector, 1979–1998. Econ. Polit. Wkly, New Delhi 39(28), 3139–3148 (2004) July 10

    Google Scholar 

  33. Galbraith, James, K., Spagnolo, L., Pinto, S.: Economic inequality and political power: a comparative analysis of Argentina and Brazil. Business and politics (9) 1. article 3, Berkeley Electronic Press (2007)

  34. Galbraith, James, K., Spagnolo, L., Munevar, D.: Inequidad salarial en Cuba durante el Período Especial. América Latina Hoy, 48 (2008), in press

  35. Garcilazo-Corredera, J.E.: Regional labor markets unemployment and inequality in Europe. VDM Verlag Dr. Müller e.K, Saarbrücken (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  36. Giovannoni, O.: Inequality and the US labor force structure. UTIP working paper 43, http://utip.gov.utexas.edu, (2007)

  37. Harris, J.R., Todaro, M.P.: Migration, unemployment and development: a two-sector analysis. Am. Econ. Rev. 60(1), 126–42 (1970)

    Google Scholar 

  38. Kim, J.: The South Korean Economy: Toward A New Explanation of an Economic Miracle. Ashgate, London (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  39. Kim, J.: Globalization and Industrial Development. iUniverse, Lincoln (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  40. Kitov, I.O.: Modelling the average income dependence on work experience in the USA from 1967 to 2002. Working Paper 11, society for the study of economic inequality (2005)

  41. Kitov, I.O.: Modeling the evolution of Gini coefficient for personal incomes in the USA between 1947 and 2005. MPRA Paper 2798, University Library of Munich, Germany (2007)

  42. Kuznets, S.: Economic growth and income inequality. Am. Econ. Rev. 45, 1–28 (1955)

    Google Scholar 

  43. Li, H., Squire, L., Zou, H.-f.: Explaining international and intertemporal variations in income inequality. Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society 108(446), 26–43 (1998) January

    Google Scholar 

  44. Meidner, R., Rehn, G.: Fackföreningrsrörelsen och den Fulla Sysselsättningen. LO, Stockholm (1951)

    Google Scholar 

  45. Milanovic, B.: The Ricardian vice: why Sala-i-Martin’s calculation of world income inequality cannot be right. mimeo, September (2002a)

  46. Milanovic, B.: True world income distribution, 1988 and 1993: First calculation based on household surveys alone. Econ. J. (2002b), January

  47. Milanovic, B.: Worlds Apart: Measuring International and Global Inequality. Princeton University Press, Princeton (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  48. Perotti, R.: Growth, income distribution, and democracy: what the data say. J. Econ. Growth 1, 149–187 (1996)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  49. Ram, R.: Level of economic development and income inequality: evidence from the postwar developed world. South. Econ. J. 64, 576–578 (1997)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  50. Randolph, S., Lott, W.: Can the Kuznets effect be relied on to induce equalizing growth? World Dev. 21, 829–840 (1993)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  51. Meidner, R., Rehn, G.: Fackföreningrsrörelsen och den Fulla Sysselsättningen. LO, Stockholm (1951)

    Google Scholar 

  52. Robinson, S.: A note on the U hypothesis relating income inequality and economic development. Am. Econ. Rev. 66, 437–440 (1976)

    Google Scholar 

  53. Sala-i-Martin, X.: The disturbing “rise” of global income inequality. Xavier Sala-i-Martin. NBER Working Paper No. 8904. April (2002)

  54. Theil, H.: Statistical decomposition analysis: with application to the social and administrative science. North Holland, Amsterdam and London (1972)

    Google Scholar 

  55. University of Texas Inequality Project (http://utip.gov.utexas.edu)

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. LBJ School of Public Affairs, The University of Texas at Austin, 2315 Red River, Austin, TX, 78712, USA

    James K. Galbraith

Authors
  1. James K. Galbraith
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to James K. Galbraith.

Additional information

I thank Ravi Kanbur for the invitation to submit this essay for consideration by the JOEI, and I thank the members of the UTIP team for comments on the draft.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Galbraith, J.K. Inequality, unemployment and growth: New measures for old controversies. J Econ Inequal 7, 189–206 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10888-008-9083-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10888-008-9083-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation