IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eme/jespps/v38y2011i2p132-143.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On the dynamics of poverty and income inequality in US states

Author

Listed:
  • Nicholas Apergis
  • Oguzhan Dincer
  • James E. Payne

Abstract

Purpose - This study seeks to provide answers to the following questions: Is there a relationship between poverty and income inequality in the short run/long run? Is the relationship unidirectional from income inequality to poverty as the previous studies assume, or is it bidirectional? Design/methodology/approach - The paper investigates the causality between income inequality and poverty within a multivariate framework using a panel data set of 50 US states over the period 1980 to 2004. Findings - The results reveal that a bidirectional relationship exists between poverty and income inequality both in the short run and in the long run. With respect to the short-run dynamics associated with poverty, both income inequality and the unemployment rate have a positive and statistically significant impact on poverty, a negative and statistically significant impact for real per capita personal income and level of education, while corruption is insignificant. In terms of the short-run dynamics associated with income inequality, poverty, the unemployment rate, real per capita personal income, and the level of education have a positive and statistically significant impact, while corruption has a statistically insignificant impact on income inequality. With regard to the long-run dynamics, the statistically significant error correction terms indicate the presence of a feedback relationship between poverty and income inequality. Originality/value - This study contributes to the existing empirical literature on several fronts. First, while previous studies rely on cross-country data, both the cross-sectional and time series variation of a panel data set of all 50 US states spanning the period 1980 to 2004 is exploited. Second, while the previous studies implicitly assume unidirectional causality from income inequality and poverty in their model specifications, the short-run and long-run causal dynamics between poverty and income inequality within a panel vector error correction model are explicitly examined.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicholas Apergis & Oguzhan Dincer & James E. Payne, 2011. "On the dynamics of poverty and income inequality in US states," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 38(2), pages 132-143, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:eme:jespps:v:38:y:2011:i:2:p:132-143
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/01443581111128370?utm_campaign=RePEc&WT.mc_id=RePEc
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dollar, David & Kraay, Aart, 2002. "Growth Is Good for the Poor," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 7(3), pages 195-225, September.
    2. Pedroni, Peter, 2004. "Panel Cointegration: Asymptotic And Finite Sample Properties Of Pooled Time Series Tests With An Application To The Ppp Hypothesis," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(03), pages 597-625, June.
    3. Kaddour Hadri, 2000. "Testing for stationarity in heterogeneous panel data," Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 3(2), pages 148-161.
    4. Fisman, Raymond & Gatti, Roberta, 2002. "Decentralization and Corruption: Evidence from U.S. Federal Transfer Programs," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 113(1-2), pages 25-35, October.
    5. Dincer, Oguzhan C., 2008. "Ethnic and religious diversity and corruption," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 99(1), pages 98-102, April.
    6. Glaeser, Edward L. & Saks, Raven E., 2006. "Corruption in America," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(6-7), pages 1053-1072, August.
    7. Peter Pedroni, 2000. "Fully Modified OLS for Heterogeneous Cointegrated Panels," Department of Economics Working Papers 2000-03, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    8. Im, Kyung So & Pesaran, M. Hashem & Shin, Yongcheol, 2003. "Testing for unit roots in heterogeneous panels," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 115(1), pages 53-74, July.
    9. Kalwij, Adriaan & Verschoor, Arjan, 2007. "Not by growth alone: The role of the distribution of income in regional diversity in poverty reduction," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(4), pages 805-829, May.
    10. Pedroni, Peter, 1999. " Critical Values for Cointegration Tests in Heterogeneous Panels with Multiple Regressors," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 61(0), pages 653-670, Special I.
    11. Fredriksson, Per G. & List, John A. & Millimet, Daniel L., 2003. "Bureaucratic corruption, environmental policy and inbound US FDI: theory and evidence," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(7-8), pages 1407-1430, August.
    12. Nicholas Apergis & Oguzhan Dincer & James Payne, 2010. "The relationship between corruption and income inequality in U.S. states: evidence from a panel cointegration and error correction model," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 145(1), pages 125-135, October.
    13. Timothy Besley & Robin Burgess, 2003. "Halving Global Poverty," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 17(3), pages 3-22, Summer.
    14. Engle, Robert & Granger, Clive, 2015. "Co-integration and error correction: Representation, estimation, and testing," Applied Econometrics, Publishing House "SINERGIA PRESS", vol. 39(3), pages 106-135.
    15. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, 1986. "Testing for Individual Effects in Dynamic Models Using Panel Data," NBER Technical Working Papers 0057, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Choi, In, 2001. "Unit root tests for panel data," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 249-272, April.
    17. Rajeev Goel & Daniel Rich, 1989. "On the economic incentives for taking bribes," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 61(3), pages 269-275, June.
    18. Josep Lluís Carrion-i-Silvestre & Tomás del Barrio-Castro & Enrique López-Bazo, 2005. "Breaking the panels: An application to the GDP per capita," Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 8(2), pages 159-175, July.
    19. Levin, Andrew & Lin, Chien-Fu & James Chu, Chia-Shang, 2002. "Unit root tests in panel data: asymptotic and finite-sample properties," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 108(1), pages 1-24, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ke-Mei Chen & Te-Mu Wang, 2015. "Determinants of Poverty Status in Taiwan: A Multilevel Approach," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 123(2), pages 371-389, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eme:jespps:v:38:y:2011:i:2:p:132-143. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Virginia Chapman). General contact details of provider: http://www.emeraldinsight.com .

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.