Weeks One - Six

Question 1

What is inequality?

Answer 1

The unequal distribution of something

Question 2

Dimensions of inequality?

Answer 2

Wealth, Income, Power, Opportunity

Question 3

How is inequality measured?

Answer 3

GINI - Gross National Income

Question 4

What is PPP?

Answer 4

Purchasing Power Parity

Question 5

What are Proportional Share Indices?

Answer 5

The income of the richest decile ratioed to the income of the poorest decile

Question 6

Key points of Pickety and Saez (2014)?

Answer 6

Used World Top Income Database to map income distributions in US and Europe.
Wealth inequality greater in the US
Wealth-to-income holds a U-distribution

Question 7

What is fiscal deregulation?

Answer 7

Removing rules surrounding income and tax

Question 8

Wealth equation?

Answer 8

Wealth = Income - spending + inheritance + luck

Question 9

From where is the GINI Coefficient derived?

Answer 9

The Lorenz curve - plots the richest x poorest cumulative income

Question 10

What is perfect equality vs perfect inequality?

Answer 10

0 = Perfect GINI Equality, 1 = Perfect GINI Inequality

Question 11

How is the GINI coefficient limited?

Answer 11

Entirely descriptive - tells us there is inequality but not why

Question 12

What is Theil’s T+L?

Answer 12

Shows whether inequality is due to reasons within or between areas

Question 13

What did Friedman believe about inequality?

Answer 13

It is inevitable and even desirable as a motivator

Inherited talent is as valuable as inherited wealth

Question 14

What did Wilkinson and Pickett believe about inequality?

Answer 14

It can only be negative - “The Spirit Level” theory states that inequality erodes trust, promotes excess and increases anxiety in society

Question 15

What does Branko Milanovic say about geographic inequality?

Answer 15

Luck and effort can change personal circumstances, but not overall inequality
Efforts need to be combined with overall country improval and migration to improve global income position of nations

Question 16

What did Barone and Mocetti study?

Answer 16

Cyclical wealth transfers in Italy - earning elasticity of 5%, wealth elasticity of 10%

Question 17

What did the Cycle 8 European Social Survey show?

Answer 17

Welfare attitudes - huge variations across countries as to whether income should differ to reward effort.
Strong agreeance that equal societies should have few wealth differences
Irish people grossly overestimate unemployment levels
Most people want inequality levelling to improve the bottom % rather than impede the top
Those exposed to inequality are most likely to oppose its potential upsides

Question 18

Compare inequality of outcome to inequality of opportunity

Answer 18

Outcome = variation in resource distribution
Opportunity = variation in potential to get these resources

Question 19

What four factors influence social attitudes towards inequality?

Answer 19

What do they believe to be the source (wealth vs talent)
Imagining/personal depictions of inequality
Efficiency of inequality
Fairness

Question 20

Compare benign and malign drivers of inequality

Answer 20

Benign = globalisation, technology, demographic changes
Malign = epidemics, war, slavery

Question 21

What four benign factors does Branko believe will reverse inequality cycles?

Answer 21

Politics, Education, Competition, Technology

Question 22

Who are Groups A, B, and C in global income distributions?

Answer 22

Group A - the median, an emergent middle class from Asian economies

Group B - Richer than A but poorer than C, the ‘losers’ of globalisation as they see no income increase unlike the others, no benefit from neoliberal globalisation

Group C - The richest, global plutocrats

Question 23

What is import shock?

Answer 23

The belief that jobs are at a loss due to imports, a higher driver for Brexit than racism, associated with negative attitudes towards immigration rather than immigrants themselves

Question 24

Outline Kuznet’s ideas on within-country inequality

Answer 24

Economic development can both increase and decrease inequality
There will be a proliferation of jobs/wages should there be no intervention in inequality
Wage variation is difficult to suppress

Question 25

Outline Kuznet’s ideas on between-country inequality

Answer 25

Industrialisation and globalisation moved some causes of inequality from within to between countries
Citizenship premiums and penalties based on geographic location (Branko Milanovic calculated these)

Question 26

Outline Breen’s key points on social mobility in Northern Ireland

Answer 26

Stormont discriminated against Catholics in housing, electorate and labour
Classes converged over time
Neighbourhoods have a strong impact on social mobility opportunities
Catholics fluidly filled new positions while Protestants stayed the same, levelling inequality

Question 27

Outline Whelan’s analysis of the 1999 Living In Ireland survey

Answer 27

Social change relies on mobility
Relative mobility depends on social origins
Downward mobility is more buffered than upward

Question 28

Contrast the micro and macro dimensions of social mobility

Answer 28

Micro = inter and intragenerational (child in relation to the parent, personal position over time)

Macro = cross-national, cross time, cross social groups

Question 29

Why does Van Degaer propose we care about social mobility patterns?

Answer 29

We can see and describe the movements of society, whether they are rigid or fluid

Equality of opportunity

Equality of life chances

Question 30

Why are there issues with analysing social mobility?

Answer 30

It is hard to operationalise - do we analyse class, social status, occupation?

Question 31

What is the difference between structural and fluid mobility?

Answer 31

Structural - everyone wins, overall upward shifts for whole populations

Fluid - winners and losers within the existing structures

Fragmented - a mix of both, generally structural for the lower class and fluid for the upper

Question 32

Outline the key points of mass education expansion

Answer 32

Nation-states have standardised mass education systems
These systems are independent of localities and their social conditions
The modern polity of nation-states stress the need for mass enrollment
Article highly critiques theories of social reproduction through education

Question 33

What is functionalism in terms of mass education?

Answer 33

Education diminishes social hierarchies through class integration while simultaneously upholding elite dominance
Linked to Westernisation

Question 34

Outline Blau and Duncan’s path analyses of social mobility

Answer 34

Ascribed vs achieved = inherited vs education
Correlation matrix between direct and indirect influences of inequality
Blau and Duncan believe family education is indirect so one’s socioeconomic position is achieved independently