SGER: Topics in the Political Economy of Inequality

本探索性研究试图通过原始数据的收集和传播、正式建模和微观计量经济学分析，对不平等的政治经济学文献做出三个贡献：首先，本研究将收集和组织印度地区一级收入不平等和贫困的面板数据集。 该数据集将来自1983年、1987年、1993年和1999年的印度全国抽样调查。 PI已经构建了一个算法，将全国调查数据转化为地区一级的不平等指数。关于发展中国家贫穷和不平等问题的研究的一个主要问题是缺乏国家以下一级-即执行政策的各级-的充分和可靠的数据。 印度地区一级贫困和不平等指数的构建将大大有助于研究发展过程中的分配和贫困问题。第二，研究使用构建的数据来研究大型公共项目，如建造水坝，是否会造成不平等。 具体而言，本研究调查了水坝的地理分布是否受到政治的影响，以及水坝建设是否会影响地区间和时间上的不平等和分布。第三，本研究调查了平等和贫困的变化是否以及如何影响种族和宗教冲突的可能性。 这里的前提是，种族和宗教冲突有经济原因和后果。 构建的不平等数据被用来测试几个有趣的假设的开始，持续时间，和强度的种族和宗教confliction.Finally，收集的数据将被用来调查如何经济范围内的收入不平等的变化影响家庭资源的分配沿着性别线。 具体而言，它将调查整个经济收入分配的变化如何影响父母为子女提供资源的动机。

This exploratory research attempts to make three contributions to the literature on the political economy of inequality, using original data collection and dissemination, formal modeling, and microeconometric analysis.First, the research will collect and organized a panel data set on income inequality and poverty at the district level in India. This data set will be derived from the Indian National Sample Survey of 1983, 1987, 1993, and 1999. The PI has already constructed an algorithm to translate the national survey data into district level inequality indices. A major problem in research on poverty and inequality in developing countries is lack of adequate and reliable data at the sub-national level---levels at which policies are implemented. The construction of the district level poverty and inequality indices for India will contribute significantly to research on distribution and poverty in the development process.Second, the research uses the constructed data to examine whether large-scale public projects, such as the construction of dams, create inequality. Specifically, it investigates whether the geographical distribution of dams is influenced by politics and whether dam construction affects inequality and distribution across districts and through time.Third, the research investigates whether and how changes in equality and poverty affect the probability of ethnic and religious conflicts. The premise here is that ethnic and religious conflicts have economic causes and consequences. The inequality data constructed is used to test several interesting hypotheses about the initiation, duration, and intensity of ethnic and religious conflicts.Finally, the data collected will be used to investigate how economy-wide changes in income inequality affect the allocation of family resources along gender lines. Specifically, it will investigate how changes in economy-wide distribution of income affect parents' incentives to provide resources to their daughters and sons.