958 research outputs found
Replication files for "Poverty decompositions with counterfactual income and inequality dynamics" (Hartmann and Wacker, 2023)
No full textSTATA files to replicate Hartmann and Wacker (2023) and calculate the poverty counterfactuals discussed therein. An overview about the files is provided in a ReadMe file.</p
An Aesthetics of Exclusion: Konstantin Vaginov's Kozlinaia pesn'
Full text linkThis thesis renegotiates the position of Konstantin Vaginov’s novel Kozlinaia pesn΄ within the meta-text of post-Revolutionary culture, challenging the long accepted view that Vaginov maps out a programme of exclusion from Bolshevik reality in an attempt to preserve the classical ideals of pre-Revolutionary Russian culture from ruin. Vaginov’s ambivalent treatment of such trends in intellectual culture as the nature of the life culture dualism, the tenability of culture a priori and framings of rebirth in projections of cultural history are dialogised with the theories of Viacheslav Ivanov, Viktor Shklovskii, Roman Iakobson, Mikhail Bakhtin and Lev Pumpianskii.
In addition, critical reception centred around the novel’s status as roman-à-clef is also challenged, particularly the insistence that the novel accurately depicts the reality of intellectual life during the Soviet 1920s and the consequences of the struggle for hegemony over culture.
As an alternative to such readings, the world-view of an all encompassing life is posited as central to Vaginov’s aesthetics, marked by the tendencies to lay low and simultaneously affirm and negate any stance taken in the struggle for hegemony over culture
Why We Don't See Poverty Convergence: The Role of Macroeconomic Volatility
Full text linkMartin Ravallion ("Why Don't We See Poverty Convergence?" American Economic Review, 102(1): 504-23; 2012) presents evidence against the existence of poverty convergence in aggregate data despite the conditional convergence of per capita income levels and the close linkage between growth and poverty reduction in standard neoclassic growth theory and associated empirics. In this contribution we address this puzzle. After showing some evidence of regional convergence, we demonstrate that macroeconomic volatility prevents countries with a higher incidence of poverty from converging in poverty levels to those with less poverty on a global scale. Once volatility is controlled for, the relevant convergence parameter shows the expected negative sign and is robust to various estimation techniques and model specifications. Only if a country's volatility exceeds a relatively high threshold level, it no longer converges. Similarly, initial poverty only exercises a negative impact on mean (income) convergence in countries where macroeconomic volatility is high
Understanding the Income and Efficiency Gap in Latin America and the Caribbean
Full text linkThe countries of the Latin America and Caribbean region (LAC), like other emerging economies, have benefited from a decade of remarkable growth and some income per capita convergence towards the United States and other industrialized countries. However, even nearly ten years of solid growth in the first decade of the 21st century could not guarantee that LAC would move on to a sustained long-term income convergence path. In fact, despite this recent progress, LAC still faces a significant per capita income gap with the developed world. The papers in this volume contribute to the ongoing debate on the reasons for this persistent income gap and the potential drivers of convergence, and propose some broad avenues for reform. This volume presents new macro-, sectoral-, and micro-level evidence that: (i) differences in total factor productivity (TFP), or efficiency in using the production factors, such as physical and human capital, explain a large part of LAC's persistent income gap; and (ii) resource misallocation is the main factor behind LAC's large efficiency gap. At the same time, the findings of this volume indicate there is significant room for further economic growth gains from technology adoption and innovation more broadly. In fact, the quality of the available technology in LAC is low, and there is very little innovation. Although firms can use innovation to reach productivity at the global productivity frontier, weak institutions reduce incentives to innovate. This volume also proposes that the main priorities for improving resource allocation and the incentives to innovate include: (i) enhancing market competition in key network industries (transport, financial, telecommunications, logistics, communication and distribution services); (ii) increasing labor market flexibility (including skill-mismatches and social barriers); (iii) removing informational frictions (including complex tax regimes and credit rationing); (iv) strengthening property rights; and (v) improving the rule of law
There is poverty convergence
Full text linkMartin Ravallion ("Why Don't We See Poverty Convergence?" American Economic Review, 102(1): 504-23; 2012) presents evidence against the existence of convergence in global poverty rates despite convergence in household mean income levels and the close linkage between income growth and poverty reduction. We show that this finding is driven by a specification that demands more than simple convergence in poverty headcount rates and assumes a growth elasticity of poverty reduction, which is well-known to accelerate with low initial poverty levels. If we motivate the poverty convergence equation using an arguably superior growth semi-elasticity of poverty reduction, we find highly significant and robust evidence of convergence in absolute poverty headcount ratios and poverty gaps. Relatedly, we show that the results in Ravallion (2012) are driven by the special income growth and poverty dynamics in Central and Eastern European transition economies that started with low initial poverty rates and thus observed a high elasticity of poverty reduction. Once we control for their abnormal poverty dynamics, we again find robust evidence of global convergence in poverty, even in the original specification by Ravallion (2012).Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Serie
When Do We See Poverty Convergence?*
Full text linkWe show why convergence in mean income levels and the negative relation between mean income growth and poverty changes need not lead to proportionate poverty convergence across countries. We propose an analytical framework that highlights that poverty convergence depends on the speed of income convergence relative to a complex interaction of initial inequality, mean income levels, and inequality dynamics. Our framework allows us to investigate poverty convergence, or the lack thereof, under different plausible dynamics of mean income and inequality
Data set on correlates of economic growth: 1970-2019
No full textBeyer and Wacker (2022) data set in STATA .dta format, containing data on income levels and potential covariables for about 150 countries over the time period 1970-2019, averaged over non-overlapping 5-year periods.</p
Pandemics and environmental performance in a globalized world
Full text linkOpen-Access-Publikationsfonds 202
Severe progressive brain atrophy in pediatric multiple sclerosis
No full textBACKGROUND: Multiple sclerosis is an immune-mediated disease of the central nervous system. Progressive brain atrophy is a known marker of patient disability and cognitive impairment in MS patient, but limited information is available about the clinical and cognitive consequences in the pediatric population. CASE REPORT: We present a case of aggressive pediatric-onset MS with severe rapidly progressive brain atrophy, neurological disability, and cognitive deterioration. Serial brain MRI studies demonstrate ongoing cerebral atrophy correlating with severe deficits on serial neuropsychological testing. CONCLUSIONS: A subset of pediatric MS patient may be vulnerable to severe cognitive deterioration associated with marked brain atrophy.Peer reviewe
Non-tax revenue and subnational democracy: evidence from Colombia
No full textAn influential group of political economists posits a negative relationship between the relative size of non-tax revenues in public balance sheets and the level of democracy in a given county. While empirical evidence for this proposition is largely based on cross-national studies, scholars have largely neglected subnational contexts as important domains of research. Addressing this disjuncture, the author studies the electoral impact of two important subnational non-tax revenues - natural resource royalties and central-government fiscal transfers - at the municipal level in Colombia. Employing a propensity score matching approach to attenuate problems of omitted variable bias, a quantitative analysis of Colombia's 1119 municipalities shows that higher levels of fiscal transfers and petroleum royalties had no discernible impact on the average level of competitiveness in the 2007 and 2011 municipal elections. If anything, there seems to be a positive impact of non-tax revenues on electoral contestation. Supported by qualitative evidence from theoretical outliers in the set of observations, the results suggest that non-tax revenue promotes electoral competition by raising the stakes of attaining political office. At the same time, abundance in fiscal transfers and resource royalties may undermine democratic governance through means that are not reflected in electoral margins.M.A.Includes bibliographical referencesIncludes vitaby Lukas Konstantin Kelle
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