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Inequality and Poverty

20. Inequality and Poverty. CHAPTER. C H A P T E R C H E C K L I S T. When you have completed your study of this chapter, you will be able to. 1 Describe the economic inequality and poverty in the United States. 2 Explain how economic inequality and poverty arise.

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Inequality and Poverty

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  1. 20 Inequality and Poverty CHAPTER

  2. C H A P T E R C H E C K L I S T When you have completed your study of this chapter, you will be able to • 1Describe the economic inequality and poverty in the United States. • 2 Explain how economic inequality and poverty arise. 3 Explain why governments redistribute income and describe the effects of redistribution on economic inequality and poverty.

  3. 20.1 ECONOMIC INEQUALITY • We measure economic inequality by looking at the distributions of income and wealth. • Market income is a household’s wages, interest, rent,and profit earned from the marketsfor factors of production beforepaying income taxes. • Money income is market income plus cash benefits paid by the government. • A household’s wealth is the value of the things that it owns at a point in time. • Table 20.1 shows these distributions in the United States in 2006.

  4. 20.1 ECONOMIC INEQUALITY

  5. 20.1 ECONOMIC INEQUALITY

  6. 20.1 ECONOMIC INEQUALITY • Lorenz Curves • A Lorenz curve is a curve that graphs the cumulative percentage of income (or wealth) against the cumulative percentage of households. • Figure 20.1 on the next slide shows the Lorenz curves for the U.S. income in 2006 and U.S. wealth in 1998. • These Lorenz curves are based on Table 20.1

  7. 20.1 ECONOMIC INEQUALITY The cumulative percentages of income and wealth are graphed against the cumulative percentage of households. 1. If each 20 percent of households received 20 percent of total income, there would be no rich and poor—there would be equality as shown by the Line of equality.

  8. 20.1 ECONOMIC INEQUALITY 2. The distribution of income shows that the poorest 20 percent of households received 3.4 percent of total income, and the richest 20 percent received 49.4 percent. 3. The distribution of wealth shows that the poorest 40 percent of households owned 0.2 percent of total wealth, and the richest 1 percent owned 38.1 percent.

  9. 20.1 ECONOMIC INEQUALITY • The farther the Lorenz curve is from the Line of equality, the greater is the inequality. The distribution of wealth is much more unequal than the distribution of income.

  10. 20.1 ECONOMIC INEQUALITY • Inequality over Time • U.S. income inequality hasincreased the past few decades. • The highest incomes have increased much faster than the lower incomes. • The gap between rich and poor has widened. • Figure 20.2(a)on the next slide shows how the distribution of income changed from 1967 to 2006.

  11. 20.1 ECONOMIC INEQUALITY The average income of the lowest quintile increased from $7,900 to $11,400—an increase of 43 percent. The average income of three middle quintiles increased by 42 percent. The average income of highest quintile increased by 91 percent.

  12. 20.1 ECONOMIC INEQUALITY • Economic Mobility • Economic mobility is the movement of a family up or down the income ladder and through the income quintiles. • If there were no economic mobility, a family would be stuck at a given point in the income distribution—persistently rich to persistently poor. • How much economic mobility has there been?. • Figure 20.2(b)shows the percentage of families that moved by one quintile or more over a ten-year period.

  13. 20.1 ECONOMIC INEQUALITY The figure shows quite a lot of economic mobility. About 30 percent of families move up a quintile or more in a decade; A similar percentage move down by a quintile or more; Between 35 and 40 percent remain in the same quintile. Mobility decreased over the 1980s and 1990s.

  14. 20.1 ECONOMIC INEQUALITY • Who Are the Rich and the Poor? • The lowest-income household in the United States today is likely to be a black woman over 65 years of age who lives alone somewhere in the South and has fewer than nine years of elementary school education. • The highest-income household in the United States today is likely to be a college-educated white married couple between 45 and 54 years of age living together with two children somewhere in the Northeast or the West.

  15. 20.1 ECONOMIC INEQUALITY The median income in 2005 was $46,326. Education is the single biggest factor affecting household income distribution.

  16. 20.1 ECONOMIC INEQUALITY Size of household, marital status, and age of householder arealso important. Race and region are the least important.

  17. 20.1 ECONOMIC INEQUALITY • Poverty • Poverty is a state in which a household’s income is too low to be able to buy the quantities of food, shelter, and clothing that are deemed necessary. • In 2005, the poverty level for a household with 2 adults and 2 children was an income of $19,806. • In 2006, 36 millionAmericans lived below the poverty level. • Figure 20.4 on the next slide shows the distribution of poverty by race in 2006.

  18. 20.1 ECONOMIC INEQUALITY Part (a) shows the distribution of poverty in 2006: 56 percent of white families 20 percent of black families 21 percent of Hispanic families 3 percent of Asian families

  19. 20.1 ECONOMIC INEQUALITY • Poverty Incidence and Trends • To measure the incidence of poverty, we look at the poverty rate. • The poverty rate is the percentage of families living in poverty. • In 2006,the poverty rate was 12.3 percent. • Figure 20.4(b) on the next slide shows the poverty rates and their trends for whites, blacks, and Hispanic families from 1996 to 2006.

  20. 20.1 ECONOMIC INEQUALITY The white poverty rate has been fairly steady. The Hispanic poverty rate fell in the 1990s. The black poverty rate fell during the 1960s and the 1990s. Poverty rates for blacks and Hispanics are double that for whites.

  21. 20.1 ECONOMIC INEQUALITY Poverty Duration • Another measure of poverty is duration. • Duration of poverty is an important indicator of the hardship poverty brings. • Figure 20.5 on the next slide shows the duration of poverty in the United States from 1996 to 1999.

  22. 20.1 ECONOMIC INEQUALITY More than 50 percent of poverty last for between 2 and 4 months. But almost 30 percent of poverty lasts for more than 9 months. These families experience chronic poverty.

  23. 20.2 HOW INEQUALITY AND POVERTY ARISE • Economic inequality and poverty arise from five key factors • Human capital • Discrimination • Financial and physical capital • Entrepreneurial ability • Personal and family characteristics • We look at each in turn.

  24. 20.2 HOW INEQUALITY AND POVERTY ARISE • Human Capital • High-skilled workers have a higher value of marginal product than low-skilled workers. • Figure 20.6(a) on the next slide illustrates the demand for high-skilled and low-skilled labor.

  25. 20.2 HOW INEQUALITY AND POVERTY ARISE Demand for High-Skilled and Low-Skilled Labor High-skilled labor has a higher VMP than low-skilled labor and a greater demand. The demand curve for high-skilled labor, DH, lies above the demand curve for low-skilled labor, DL, by the VMP of skill.

  26. 20.2 HOW INEQUALITY AND POVERTY ARISE • The Supply of High-Skilled and Low-Skilled Labor • Skills are costly to acquire, and a worker pays the cost of acquiring a skill before benefiting from a higher wage. • Figure 20.6(b) on the next slide illustrates the supply of high-skilled and low-skilled labor

  27. 20.2 HOW INEQUALITY AND POVERTY ARISE High-skilled labor bears the cost of acquiring skill. The supply curve of high-skilled labor, SH, lies above the supply curve of low-skilled labor, SL, by the compensation for the cost of acquiring skill.

  28. 20.2 HOW INEQUALITY AND POVERTY ARISE Wage Rates of High-Skilled and Low-Skilled Labor • The combined effects of skill on the demand for and supply of labor generate a higher wage for high-skilled labor than for low-skilled labor. • Figure 20.6(c) on the next slide illustrates the skilled wage differential.

  29. 20.2 HOW INEQUALITY AND POVERTY ARISE • The demand for low-skilled labor, DL, and the supply of low-skilled labor, SL, determine the wage rate of low-skilled labor—in this example at $10 an hour. • The demand for high-skilled labor, DH, and the supply of high-skilled labor, SH, determine the wage rate of high-skilled labor—in this example at $20 an hour.

  30. 20.2 HOW INEQUALITY AND POVERTY ARISE • Discrimination • Human capital differences explain much of the income inequality that exists. • Economists are not sure whether and by how much discrimination adds to income inequality. • One line of argument is that competition prevents discrimination. But race and sex income differences do persist.

  31. 20.2 HOW INEQUALITY AND POVERTY ARISE • Financial and Physical Capital • People with high incomes are usually those who own large amounts of financial capital and physical capital. • They receive income in form of interest, dividends, and capital gains. • Families with a lot of capital tend to become even more wealthy because • They bequeath wealth to their children. • Rich people marry rich people (on average).

  32. 20.2 HOW INEQUALITY AND POVERTY ARISE • Saving and wealth accumulation is not inevitably a source of inequality. • When a family saves to redistribute an uneven income over the life cycle, it enjoys more equal consumption. • If a lucky generation that has a high income saves and makes a bequest to an unlucky generation, this saving decreases economic inequality.

  33. 20.2 HOW INEQUALITY AND POVERTY ARISE • Entrepreneurial Ability • Some people become extremely rich through a combination of hard work, good luck, and outstanding entrepreneurial ability. • But others who borrow to create a business, work hard, and have bad luck become extremely poor. • Personal and Family Characteristics • Personal and family characteristics play a crucial role, for good or evil, in influencing economic well-being.

  34. 20.3 INCOME REDISTRIBUTION • How Governments Redistribute Income • Three main ways in which governments in the United States redistribute income are • Income taxes • Income maintenance programs • Subsidized services

  35. 20.3 INCOME REDISTRIBUTION Income Taxes • Income taxes may be progressive, regressive, or proportional. • A progressive tax One that taxes income at an average rate that increases with the level of income. • A regressive tax One that taxes income at an average rate that decreases with the level of income. • A proportional tax One that taxes income at a constant rate, regardless of income.

  36. 20.3 INCOME REDISTRIBUTION Income Maintenance Programs • Three main types of program are • Social Security programs • Unemployment compensation • Welfare programs

  37. 20.3 INCOME REDISTRIBUTION • Social Security Programs • OASDHI or Old age, Survivors, Disability, and Health Insurance • Medicare, which provides hospital and health insurance for the elderly and disabled.

  38. 20.3 INCOME REDISTRIBUTION • Unemployment Compensation • To provide an income to unemployed workers. • A tax is paid based on the income of each covered worker. • Each worker receives a benefit when he or she becomes unemployed.

  39. 20.3 INCOME REDISTRIBUTION • Welfare Programs • 1. Supplementary Security Income (SSI), designed to help the neediest elderly, disabled, and blind people. • 2. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, designed to help households that have inadequate income. • 3. Food Stamp program, designed to help the poorest households obtain a basic diet. • 4. Medicaid, designed to cover the costs of medical care for households receiving help under the SSI and TANF programs.

  40. 20.3 INCOME REDISTRIBUTION • Subsidized Services • Services provided by the government at prices far below the cost of production.The most important of these are • Education • Health care

  41. 20.3 INCOME REDISTRIBUTION • The Scale of Income Redistribution • Market income is the income that a household earns in factor markets with no redistribution. • Money income is themarket income plus cash benefits paid by the government. • Disposable income is market income plus cash benefits paid by the government minus taxes.

  42. 20.3 INCOME REDISTRIBUTION • The Scale of Income Redistribution • Market income is the income that a household earns in factor markets with no redistribution. • Disposable income is market income plus cash benefits paid by the government minus taxes. • We can measure the scale of income redistribution by calculating the percentage of market income paid in taxes minus the percentage received in benefits at each income level.

  43. 20.3 INCOME REDISTRIBUTION Figure 20.7 shows income redistribution in 2005. In part (a), the Lorenz curve for the distribution of money income is closer to the line of equality than the distribution of market income. The distribution of disposable income is even closer to the line of equality.

  44. 20.3 INCOME REDISTRIBUTION • Part (b) shows the amount of redistribution in 2005. • The quintile with the lowest incomes received net benefits that increased their share of total income by 2.9 percent. • The quintile with the highest incomes paid taxes that decreased their share of total income by 6.5 percent of total income.

  45. 20.3 INCOME REDISTRIBUTION • Why We Redistribute Income • Two approaches: • Normative approach Discusses why we should compel everyone to help the poor and looks for principles to guide in the appropriate scale of redistribution. • Positive approach Seeks reasons why we do compel everyone to help the poor and tries to explain the actual scale of redistribution.

  46. 20.3 INCOME REDISTRIBUTION Normative Theories of Income Redistribution • Utilitarianism points to the ideal distribution being one of equality. But efficiency is also desirable. • Greater equality can be achieved only at the cost of inefficiency—the big tradeoff. • John Rawls proposed the principle that income should be redistributed to the point at which the poorest person’s share is maximized.

  47. 20.3 INCOME REDISTRIBUTION • Libertarian philosophers, such as Robert Nozick, say that any redistribution is wrong because it violates the sanctity of private property and voluntary exchange. • Modern political parties stand in the center of these extremes—some favor a bit more redistribution than others, but the major parties are basically happy with the current scale of redistribution.

  48. 20.3 INCOME REDISTRIBUTION Positive Theories of Income Redistribution • There is no good positive theory, but economists have a promising idea called the median voter theory. • Median voter theory is a theory that government pursues policies that make the median voter as well off as possible. • In the majority voting system, the voter whose views carry most weight is the one in the middle—the median voter. • Political parties will deliver the scale of redistribution that the median voter prefers.

  49. 20.3 INCOME REDISTRIBUTION • The Major Welfare Challenge • The poorest people in the United States are young women who have not completed high school, have a child (or children), live without a partner, and are more likely to be black or Hispanic than white. • These young women and their children present the major welfare challenge: • The long-term solution involves education and job training. • The short-term solution is welfare.

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