Is the rise in economic inequality around the world during the last few decades mainly a matter of economic forces that have affected wages, or a matter of political forces that reduced the extent of redistribution? What are the long-term patterns across the world in income redistribution? Does more redistribution happen in the more unequal countries?
As Hurricane Florence slams into the southeastern United States, here are a few posts from the past on the economics of hurricanes and other natural disasters.
The U.S. Census Bureau has just published its annual report with estimates of the U.S. poverty rate (footnotes and references to figures omitted): " The official poverty rate in 2017 was 12.3 percent, down 0.4 percentage points from 12.7 percent in 2016. This is the third consecutive annual decline in poverty. Since 2014, the poverty rate has fallen 2.5 percentage points, from 14.8 percent to 12.3 percent. In 2017, there were 39.7 million people in poverty ..."
The day Lehman went bankrupt I left the office in London for Waterloo Station and realized that something monumental had happened. The faces of the dozens of people waiting patiently for trains from the center to their homes were revealing. Most of them were, like me, City workers. Panic.
China's Belt and Road Initiative was first announced five years ago in 2013. Broadly speaking, the grand plans is for a grand set of transportation connections from China across Asia, and reaching to Africa and Europe. Some of the connections would be overland (the "belt") and others would be overseas (the "belt"). Chinese banks and investment funds would provide substantial finance for these projects, and Chinese firms -- many with considerable experience building infrastructure in China -- would carry out a substantial chunk of the work.
What policy steps might offer at least a medium-term solution for homelessness affecting families with children? The Family Options Study is a randomized experiment run by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development that sought to address this topic. As it explains at the website:
The World Health Organization reports: "About 5.4 million snake bites occur each year, resulting in 1.8 to 2.7 million cases of envenomings (poisoning from snake bites).