How does fiscal austerity impact on poverty and inequality? The Spanish case

The aim of this paper is contributing to fill the gap between the macroeconomic effects of policy reforms and the microeconomic and social ones, considering simultaneously both kind of impacts. Regarding fiscal adjustments, concern about the sustainability of public deficit and debt resulting from the Great Recession led governments to adopt austerity measures in most European countries. Our analysis considers the redistributive effects of such adjustments for the Spanish economy by simulating a hypothetical reduction of public deficit and distinguishing between spending cuts and tax hikes. In terms of analytical approach, a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model and a microsimulation model are integrated to include the general equilibrium effects of these measures as well as the effects on income distribution. The results contribute to the growing but limited literature on the distributional effects of fiscal consolidations by showing that policymakers have to choose between more inequality or more poverty.

Development Education in the Age of COVID-19 and Climate Change

Development education (DE) is a radical learning pedagogy that combines analysis, discussion, and action to engage the learner in active citizenship toward positive social change. This chapter discusses the contribution that DE and other related ‘educations' can make to mitigating the climate crisis and addressing the growing levels of poverty and inequality in the global North and South. Central to this discussion is the neoliberal economic model that has driven ‘development' since the 1970s and placed the needs of the market above the social needs of citizens. This has become particularly apparent during the coronavirus pandemic which has overwhelmed the health services of countries across the world. The chapter argues for a more sustainable form of development based on de-growth and a Green New Deal.

Poverty Plus Pandemic Equal to Lethal Epidemics in Mexico

For Mexican society it is relevant to know the prospects of well-being in an environment of instability and social insecurity; therefore, this research has the purpose of publicizing the health, economic, and social situation from COVID-19 in Mexico. The work has a qualitative, analytical, and descriptive research design considering current information from the Bank of Mexico with recent indicators of economic activity, The National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) with data on occupation and employment, as well as the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (CONEVAL) regarding the consequences of poverty in Mexican society and other documents that refer to the problem, all this analysis in order to form an idea of the near future of Mexicans. Currently, there is an increase in poverty and inequality resulting from the mismanagement of government policies and the lack of proposals to improve the social sector.

Islamic Social Finance: Integrating Zakah Funds in Microfinance and Microenterprise Support Programs

Alleviating poverty and inequality are among the central objectives of zakah in the Islamic economic system. These objectives are also on top of the 17 SDGs of the UN 2030 Agenda. This research argues that microenterprise support programs (MSPs) have been proven as effective tools in combating poverty. However, lack of funds has always been a major challenge for the sustainability of those programs. Channeling zakah funds to MSPs will directly contribute to empowering deprived populations and helping them to lift themselves out of the poverty cycle. Two zakah-based MSPs have been analyzed in this chapter. The first one is the Asnaf Entrepreneurship Program of Lembaga Zakah, Malaysia and the second one is Baitul Maal Muamalat Indonesia (BMMI). According to literature, using zakah in (MSPs) requires a strict implementation of best practices including screening program beneficiaries, providing professional training and monitoring to businesses, and finally applying a graduation scheme.

Cross-Border Cooperation for Bilateral Trade, Travel, and Tourism

Cross-Border Cooperation (CBC) is described as collaboration with neighbouring countries sharing land or sea borders to cooperate to reduce poverty and inequality among people, and improve living standards for sustainable development of the regions. European Union key objective has been CBC model where bordering countries in balanced partnership, have equal say in program decision-making process for sustainable development to meet common goals. The three factors essential for CBC clearly defined goals, promotion of political transparency, and promotion of connectivity and communication are correlated with the four levels of CBC implementation and public-private-partnerships. This chapter examines the challenge and significance of cross border cooperative relationship between India and Pakistan to disarm and have peace, for achieving 17 sustainable development goals in bordering conflict regions between the two countries for socio-economic progress and prosperity of the millions of people living in South Asia.

Relationship Dynamics of Sustainable Development Goals on Poverty and Inequality in sub-Saharan Africa: Beyond the Covid-19 Pandemic

The study examined the relationship dynamics of sustainable development goals on poverty and inequality in sub-Saharan Africa: beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. Monthly data were sourced from World Bank Sustainable Development Goals Data Bank, Africa SDG index from 2015 (m01) to 2020 (m12). Both static and dynamic panel analysis techniques were employed in estimating the interrelationship among the seventeen SDGs and cases of COVID-19. The study presents mixed results as it revealed the SDGs having both and either positive or negative short run or long run relationship with poverty, inequality and COVID-19. By implication, some SDGs presents a short-term relationship while some SDGs presents a long-term relationship. In another scenario, some SDGs presents both short term and long-term relationship towards the achievement of No poverty and reducing inequality on or before year 2030. The study therefore recommends that policy should be put in place in sub-Saharan Africa so as to differentiate the SDGs having short term goals from SDGs having long term goals and from the SDGs having both short term and long-term goals towards the achievement of No Poverty and reducing Inequality on or before year 2030.

Effective Modern Campaigns Against Inequality and Poverty in the United States

If one of the goals of macro social work in the United States is to decrease poverty and inequality, by most measures it has largely failed that mission over the past 40 years. After briefly documenting the four-decade rise in inequality and extreme poverty in the United States, three organizing campaigns are highlighted—living wage, Fight for $15, and strikes by public school educators—that fought hard to reverse such trends. A strategy, “bargaining for the common good,” which was implemented across those campaigns, is analyzed as a key ingredient to their success.

Emerging complexity in children's conceptualization of the wealthy and the poor

Past work suggests that children have an overly rosy view of rich people that stays consistent across childhood. However, adults do not show explicit pro-rich biases and even hold negative stereotypes against the rich (e.g., thinking that rich people are cold and greedy). When does this developmental shift occur, and when do children develop more complex and differentiated understandings of the wealthy and the poor? The current work documents the developmental trajectory of 4- to 12-year-old primarily American middle-class children’s conceptualizations of the wealthy and the poor (total N = 164). We find: 1) age-related decreases in pro-rich preferences and stereotypes relative to the poor; 2) domain-sensitive stereotypes across prosociality, talent, and effort; 3) resource-specific behavioral expectations such that with age children increasingly expect the wealthy to contribute more material resources but not more time than the poor; 4) an increasing recognition of the unfairness of the wealth gap between the wealthy and the poor; and 5) a developing understanding of the link between wealth and power. In sum, this work illuminates the emergence of more complex understandings of wealth, poverty, and inequality.

Stature, Poverty, and Inequality in 19th- and 20th-Century Mexico

Anthropometric studies have shown that the evolution of human stature can be helpful to examine human welfare. Adult stature is an indicator of health status and living standards for periods in which there has not been a systematic collection of data of other indicators, such as the price of goods and wages, as is the case in Mexico prior to 1950. Mexican anthropometric history studies have revealed that stature is a good measure to examine the evolution of living standards in the long run and that it has been effective for assessing poverty and inequality. These studies have shown that, for the period 1850–1950, the evolution of living standards was heterogeneous. There were different trajectories depending on the socioeconomic status. People from working-class backgrounds experienced a deterioration and/or stagnation, while people from upper-class backgrounds experienced a sustained increase in average stature. These trends challenged the official history of the post-revolutionary period, which argued that the living standards of the Mexican population deteriorated during the Porfirio Díaz administration (1876–1911) and improved afterwards with the promulgation of social legislation in the post-revolutionary era (post-1910). Additional studies show that, during the post-1950 period, there was a generalized improvement in stature, but it was limited by the challenges of economic downturns and persistent structural inequality.

On some problems of public policy to combat poverty and income inequality

. The article examines how in modern Russia since the beginning of the 90s of the last century, poverty has formed as a mass phenomenon, reveals the specific features of this phenomenon, which can be called “new poverty”, as well as some new factors contributing to the replenishment of marginalized layers. It shows how the poverty of workers affects the quality of the country's labor potential, what tasks in these conditions face social policy. Purpose of work: to identify why overcoming poverty currently remains largely an unresolved problem that threatens the country's economic security. It is concluded that the methods used to assess poverty and inequality do not fully assess the extent and nature of the phenomenon under study, that it is not this fate for centuries, but is largely man-made, and the social policy of the state can be a factor in the marginalization of the population. It is proved that the depreciation of labor is not a factor of competitiveness, but a factor in the destruction of labor potential and brain drain. Therefore, the main thing in solving the problem of poverty is to ensure decent income from work.