Income Inequality, Poverty and Growth

Year 2022, Volume: 11 Issue: 1, 680 - 702, 31.03.2022

Duygu Serin Oktay , Neşe Algan

https://doi.org/10.15869/itobiad.880351

Cited By: 1

Abstract

Today, one of the most important causes of global income inequality and poverty is the unequal sharing of the increase in economic growth between countries and regions. The increase in income inequality creates an important obstacle to economic development as it reduces the share of the poor in economic growth. Therefore, reducing poverty and income inequality is a fundamental policy goal in the development process. Because in the process of poverty alleviation, providing a fair income distribution as well as growth is important in terms of obtaining more effective results. For this reason, the aim of the study is to analyze the direction of global income inequality and its change by using the nonparametric conditional density estimation method. The analysis provides evidence to support that global income inequality did not decrease between 1995 and 2017. This result indicates that the gap is widening between countries with more even distribution and countries with an unfair distribution of income. Besides, the other aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between income inequality, poverty and economic growth. In this context, countries are classified according to income groups and analyzed with cross-section data estimation method. The general findings of the study vary in income groups in accordance with the theoretical literature. According to the results for all income groups, economic growth decreases poverty and income inequality increases poverty. On the other hand, results show that while increasing income inequality in the middle-income group increases growth, in the high-income group the increase in growth decreases inequality.

Keywords

Income inequality,, Poverty,, Growth,, Nonparametric conditional density estimation,, Cross-section data analysis,

Gelir Eşitsizliği, Yoksulluk ve Büyüme

Abstract

Günümüzde küresel eşitsizliğin ve yoksulluğun en önemli nedenlerinden biri ekonomik büyümedeki artışın ülkeler ve bölgeler arasında eşit olmayan bir şekilde paylaşılmasıdır. Gelir eşitsizliğindeki artış yoksulların payını azaltması nedeniyle ekonomik kalkınmanın önünde bir engel oluşturmaktadır. Dolayısıyla, yoksulluğun ve gelir eşitsizliğinin azaltılması kalkınma sürecinde temel bir politika hedefi olmaktadır. Çünkü yoksulluğun azaltılması için büyümenin yanı sıra adil bir gelir dağılımının sağlanması daha etkili sonuçların elde edilmesi açısından önem arz etmektedir. Bu nedenle çalışmada küresel gelir eşitsizliği boyutu ve ne yönde değişim gösterdiği parametrik olmayan koşullu yoğunluk tahmin yöntemi kullanılarak analiz edilmektedir. Analizde 1995-2017 yılları arasında küresel gelir eşitsizliğinin azalış göstermediğini destekleyen kanıtlar elde edilmektedir. Bu sonuç gelirin eşit dağıldığı ülkeler ve gelirin daha adaletsiz dağıldığı ülkeler arasında farkın arttığına işaret etmektedir. Bununla birlikte, çalışmanın diğer bir amacı ise, gelir eşitsizliği, yoksulluk ve ekonomik büyüme arasındaki ilişkinin araştırılmasıdır. Bu kapsamda ülkeler gelir gruplarına göre sınıflandırılarak yatay kesit veri tahmin yöntemi ile incelenmektedir. Çalışmanın genel bulguları teorik literatürle uyumlu olarak gelir gruplarına göre çeşitlilik göstermektedir. Elde edilen sonuçlara göre, bütün gelir gruplarında gelir eşitsizliğindeki artış yoksulluğu arttırmakta, ekonomik büyüme ise yoksulluğu azaltmaktadır. Bu bağlamda ülkelerin yoksulluk sorunlarıyla etkili olarak mücadele edebilmesi, artan gelir eşitsizliği olgusunun dikkate alınmasını gerektirmektedir. Çünkü ekonomik büyümenin yoksulluk üzerindeki olumlu etkisi, genel olarak ülkelerde gelir eşitsizliği seviyesine bağlı olmaktadır. Bununla birlikte, orta gelir grubunda gelir eşitsizliğinin artması büyümeyi arttırırken, yüksek gelir grubunda büyümenin artmasının eşitsizliği azalttığına yönelik sonuçlar elde edilmektedir.

Keywords

Gelir Eşitsizliği, Yoksulluk, Büyüme, Parametrik Olmayan Koşullu Yoğunluk Tahmincisi, Yatay Kesit Veri Analizi

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