diff --git a/scoping_review.qmd b/scoping_review.qmd index f109baf..c57ddcc 100644 --- a/scoping_review.qmd +++ b/scoping_review.qmd @@ -649,7 +649,13 @@ Summary of main findings for institutional policies ### Labour laws and regulatory systems - +@Adams2015 study the effects of labour, business and credit regulations and looks at their long-term correlations to income inequality in developing countries from 1970 to 2012. +Additionally, the study looks at the effects of FDI and school enrolment, which will be reviewed in their respective policy sections. +They find that in MENA, SSA, LAC and to some extend AP increased labour and business regulations are actually negatively related to equitable income distribution, with market regulation not having significant effects. +The authors identify developing countries lacking in institutional capability to accomplish regulatory policies optimized for benefits and see the need for policies requiring more specific targeting of inequality reduction as their agenda. +Overall, the authors suggest that regulatory policy in developing countries needs to be built for their specific contexts and not exported from developed countries due to their different institutional capabilities and structural make-up. +The study is limited in its design focus relying purely on the macro-level regional analyses and can thus, +when finding correlations towards income inequality, not necessarily drill down into their qualitative root causes. @Broadway2020 study the introduction of universal paid maternal leave in Australia, looking at its impacts on mothers returning to work and the conditions they return under. @@ -857,29 +863,27 @@ Two limitations of the study are its small sample size due to a low response rat ## Structural -### Economic growth and fiscal policies +### Fiscal growth and trade liberalisation -@Adams2015 study the effects of labour, business and credit regulations, FDI and school enrolment and looks at their long-term correlations to income inequality in developing countries from 1970 to 2012. -They find that in MENA, SSA, LAC and to some extend AP increased labour and business regulations are actually negatively related to equitable income distribution, with market regulation not having significant effects. -Similarly, FDI is negatively related and the authors suggest it is unlikely to generate general welfare effects in developing countries as it often has the wrong targeting incentive structure and can only generate more equity when correctly targeting connections from the local to surrounding economies. -The authors identify developing countries lacking in institutional capability to accomplish regulatory policies optimized for benefits and see the need for policies requiring more specific targeting of inequality reduction as their agenda. -On the other, they find school enrolment and thus education-oriented policies to be positively related with an equitable income distribution, -suggesting it increases the capacity of public administration practitioners and in turn lead to more adapted policies specific to developing countries' institutional contexts. -Overall, the authors suggest that regulatory policy in developing countries needs to be built for their specific contexts and not exported from developed countries due to their different institutional capabilities and structural makeup. -The study is limited in its design focus that lying purely on the macro-level regional analyses and can thus, when finding correlations towards income inequality, also only identify far-reaching structural and institutional possible root causes. -While the literature on policy efforts towards income redistribution is large, -studies which focus on the direct effects of individual policy interventions on income inequality and its possible linkages with other inequalities tends to focus on policies such as minimum wage impositions, direct transfers from the state or subsidies for individual life aspects. +Complementing their research on institutional labour regulation, +@Adams2015 study the effects of business and credit regulations and FDI on long-term income inequality in developing countries. +While for them business regulations seemed to have mixed relationships with income inequality, +they find that, FDI is positively related with income inequality and the authors suggest it is unlikely to generate general welfare effects in developing countries. +This, they argue, is due to FDI often operating on the wrong targeting incentive structure and only able to generate more equity when correctly targeting the creation of connections from the local to surrounding economies. +While a long-term study, its scale is purely on the macro-level without delving deeper into individual-level changes per country. @Xu2021 study the effects of trade liberalization and FDI on income inequality in 38 countries in the Sub-Saharan region. It finds that increased FDI is negatively correlated with income inequality measured through the Gini coefficient, while trade liberalization is positively correlated with income inequality --- -as are corruption, political stability, rule of law and education, which contradicts a variety of previous studies. -The authors suggest this may be due to the difference in sample and variables used, and the periods under study. +as are corruption, political stability, rule of law and education, which contradicts some findings of the previous study. +The authors argue this may be due to the difference in sample and variables used, and the periods under study. They suggest that FDI may primarily go to the agricultural sector which can employ low-skilled labour and thereby reduce inequalities, while trade openness in fact creates jobs in other countries through higher import than export rates. -They do not provide clear channels through which education positively correlates with inequality, though some possibilities are an unequal access to education (through excluding factors such as those based on spatial, gender or financial inequalities), as well as a differentiated quality of education. +They do not clearly identify channels through which a higher overall education level positively correlates with inequality, +though some possibilities are an unequal access to education (through excluding factors such as those based on spatial, gender or financial inequalities), +as well as a differentiated quality of education. Limitations of the study are the region-wide level of analysis which may obscure context-dependent mechanisms within the different institutional-structural contexts of the countries and potential hidden unobservables which may bias the results. -A simulation study on the effects of trade liberalization through FTA by @Khan2021 looks at income inequality in Pakistan between different households, measured through the Gini coefficient. +A simulation study on the effects of trade liberalization through free trade agreements (FTA) by @Khan2021 looks at income inequality in Pakistan between different households, measured through the Gini coefficient. It finds that there is no clear general direction for changes through FTA visible, with its impact primarily depending on micro-economic factors. Some large trade agreements are negatively correlated with the Gini while others are positively related, similar to regional and bilateral agreements. Generally, this is due to increases in the income of poor rural agricultural farm households being dependent on grain (which is the largest export good often rising under FTA), while livestock predominantly owned by poor rural households decreases in returns under FTA. @@ -903,11 +907,11 @@ In Mexico, while the gap widened during the 1990s, it began closing again afterw The differences in wage gap effects compared to both other countries and the respective country's physical labour market requirements show that contextual structural changes played a large role in each case: with erstwhile reduced returns on Brazilian returns for brain intensive occupations, the introduction of a female-lead manufacturing sector in Mexico in the 90s, and widely diverging basic labour market skill structures in Thailand and India necessitating subsistence-oriented participation; the results show impacts of structural changes, though limited through a variety of mediating factors influencing each case. -@Wang2020 conduct a simulation to examine the impact of terminating subsidies for the agricultural grain sectors in China, with a particular focus on analyzing the effects on rural-urban income inequality. +@Wang2020 conduct a simulation to examine the impact of terminating subsidies for the agricultural grain sectors in China, with a particular focus on analysing the effects on rural-urban income inequality. The findings indicate that the removal of grain subsidies would lead to gradual improvements in the industrial economic structure. However, in the short term, it is observed that rural-urban income inequality is exacerbated. Over an extended period, the decrease in real wages for rural workers would alleviate, suggesting an increase in the rural income ratio, yet the gap remains incompletely closed. -The study attributes this outcome to the displacement of rural unskilled labor, resulting in an increased supply of unskilled labor that is challenging to absorb into the manufacturing or service sectors. +The study attributes this outcome to the displacement of rural unskilled labour, resulting in an increased supply of unskilled labour that is challenging to absorb into the manufacturing or service sectors. Additionally, the low income and price elasticity of agricultural products contribute to an overall decline in rural incomes. Consequently, the authors identify a trade-off between long-term national economic output, adversely affected by the removal of subsidies, and the reduction in rural-urban income ratios facilitated by the subsidies, albeit with diminishing contributions over time. Limitations of the study include the need to assume static national employment and, notably, limited generalizability due to the simulation of specific Chinese structural economic characteristics in the model. @@ -926,11 +930,13 @@ Using an absolute poverty headcount ratio, it finds that a significant 1.6 per c They attribute this primarily to income gains for poorer households and the targeting benefiting the poorest households most by providing them greater income gains. Limitations of the study include the general equilibrium model approach being potentially restricted by its prior assumptions in validity and generalizability, as well as potentially not accounting for unobservables or exogenous shocks. -Due to the nature of most studies on these policy areas being based on modelling simulations, there are some potentially exacerbated blind-spots: -they require a larger reliance on prior assumptions for their results to hold, which includes the effort to subsume all potential relevant channels and mediators into the equilibrium models. +Due to the high number of studies on these policy areas being based on equilibrium modelling simulations, +there are some potentially exacerbated blind-spots: +they can possess a higher reliance on prior assumptions for their results to hold, +which includes the effort to subsume all potentially relevant channels and mediators into the equilibrium models. They are generally more prone to disregarding exogenous factors which may provide shock effects into the system under analysis, and often can not cleanly account for longer-term dynamics. -Lastly, they can not address practical implementation challenges which may be faced by those implementing such policies, the institutional context and political ability to pursue the results modeled therein. -So, some caution should be provided in drawing too strong of a conclusion from their findings. +Lastly, they can not address practical implementation challenges which may be faced by those implementing such policies, the institutional context and political ability to pursue the results modelled therein. +These limitations should be taken into consideration when evaluating their results. ### Automation and technological change @@ -974,7 +980,12 @@ as well as having to make the assumption of no population growth for measures to ### Education access - +In addition to the institutional effects of regulation above, @Adams2015 analyse the effects of school enrolment and on income inequality in developing countries between 1970 and 2012. +Contrary to the regulatory policies, they find school enrolment and thus well-effected education-oriented policies to be positively related with an equitable income distribution. +They suggest additional enrolment increases the capacity of public administration practitioners and in turn lead to more adapted policies specific to developing countries' institutional contexts. +Due to the often limited contexts of institutional capabilities such policies thus have a two-fold function: +they increase human capital in the medium term, but may also function as capability-building measures long-term. +It is important to keep in mind that the recommendations of the study should be understood as made from a macro-perspective, detached from the more micro-oriented contexts of individual countries or regions. @Mukhopadhaya2003 looks at the income inequality in Singapore and how national education policies impact this inequality, focusing especially on the 'Yearly Awards' scheme and the 'Edusave Entrance Scholarship for Independent Schools'. It finds that, generally, income inequality for migrants in Singapore is relatively high, primarily due to generated between-occupational income inequalities and migration policies which further stimulate occupational segregation.