DOCSLIB.ORG

WORKING on the ROBOT SOCIETY Examples Include Robot Vacuum Cleaners, Self-Scanning Checkouts, and Online Tools Enabling You to Draw up Legal Contracts Yourself

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
WORKING on the ROBOT SOCIETY Examples Include Robot Vacuum Cleaners, Self-Scanning Checkouts, and Online Tools Enabling You to Draw up Legal Contracts Yourself We are increasingly coming into contact with robots and far-reaching automation. WORKING ON THE ROBOT SOCIETY Examples include robot vacuum cleaners, self-scanning checkouts, and online tools enabling you to draw up legal contracts yourself. The debate about what this automa- tion will mean for future employment has now started in media, science, and politics. Some see opportunities with new possibilities for more comfort, health, and economic growth. Others worry about whether ‘smart technology’ will replace jobs. This report deals with this last question. What does the use of smart technology mean for employment? What tasks can smart technology take over from humans, and where do humans and machines complement one another? How is the organization of labour and production processes changing, and what impact does this have on the automa- tion of work? Are certain groups on the labour market more vulnerable than others? What policy measures can we adopt to exploit the opportunities of automation and prevent negative effects as far as possible? The report Working on the robot society sets out current scientifi c fi ndings for the relationship between technology and employment. It looks at the future and describes the policy options. In so doing, the report provides a joint fund of knowledge for societal and political debate on how the Netherlands can organize a robot society that is an enticing prospect for all. Working on the robot society Visions and insights from science concerning the relationship between technology and employment Rinie van Est & Linda Kool (eds.) RATHENAU INSTITUUT RATHENAU The Rathenau Instituut promotes the formation of political and public opinion on Who was Rathenau? science and technology. To this end, the institute studies the organization and The Rathenau Instituut is named after Professor G.W. Rathenau (1911-1989). development of science systems, publishes texts on the social impact of new Rathenau was consecutively Professor of Experimental Physics at the University technologies, and organizes debates on issues and dilemmas in science and of Amsterdam, Director of the Philips Physics Laboratory in Eindhoven, and a technology. member of the Scientifi c Advisory Council on Government Policy. He gained a national reputation as Chair of the committee given the task in 1978 of investigating the consequences for society of the advent of microelectronics. One of the recommendations in the report was the production of a systematic study of the signifi cance of technology for society. Rathenau’s activities contributed to the establishment of the Netherlands Organization for Technological Assessment (NOTA) in 1986. NOTA was renamed the Rathenau Instituut on 2 June 1994. Working on the robot society Visions and insights from science concerning the relationship between technology and employment © Rathenau Instituut, The Hague, 2015 Rathenau Instituut Anna van Saksenlaan 51 Postal address: Postbus 95366 2509 CJ The Hague The Netherlands Tel: +31 (0)70-342 15 42 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.rathenau.nl Publisher: Rathenau Instituut Processing of interview reports: Christine voor Taal Editing: Redactie Dynamiek Translation: Taalcentrum-VU Layout: Boven de Bank, Zeist Cover image: Hollandse Hoogte Infographics: Rikkers Infographics First impression: September 2015 ISBN/EAN: 978-90-77364-70-3 Preferred citation: Est, R. van & L. Kool (eds.). Working on the robot society: visions and insights from science concerning the relationship between technology and employ- ment, The Hague, Rathenau Instituut 2015 Original title: Werken aan de robotsamenleving. Visies en inzichten uit de wetenschap over de relatie technologie en werkgelegenheid The Rathenau Instituut operates an Open Access policy. Reports, background studies, scientific articles, and software are published so that they are freely available. Research data are made available in accordance with legal provisions and ethical standards for research relating to the rights of third parties, privacy, and copyright. © Rathenau Instituut 2015 The reproduction and/or publication of (parts of) this work for creative, personal or educational purposes is authorized provided that copies are not made or used for commercial purposes and on condition that the copies contain the full reference above. In all other cases, no part of this publication may be reproduced and/or published by means of print, photocopy, or otherwise without the prior written consent of the Rathenau Instituut. Working on the robot society Visions and insights from science concerning the relationship between technology and employment Editors Rinie van Est and Linda Kool Authors Rinie van Est, Ira van Keulen, Linda Kool, Arnoud van Waes, and Frans Brom (Rathenau Instituut) Frans van der Zee and Govert Gijsbers (TNO) Jan Korsten, Harry Lintsen and Johan Schot (Foundation for the History of Technology) Board of the Rathenau Instituut Mrs. G.A. Verbeet (chair) Prof. dr. E.H.L. Aarts Prof. dr. ir. W.E. Bijker Prof. dr. R. Cools Dr. H.J.M. Dröge Drs. E.J.F.B. van Huis Prof. dr. ir. H.W. Lintsen Prof. mr. J.E.J. Prins Prof. dr. M.C. van der Wende Dr. ir. M.M.C.G. Peters (secretary) Rathenau Instituut 5 Foreword Brigitte van der Burg Different ideas circulate within society about the impact of technological developments and globalization on our lives, jobs, and prosperity. There is uncertainty about the effects of breakthroughs such as nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, robotization, and 3D printing. Will these developments herald the destruction of jobs or, conversely, the creation of different, and perhaps even more jobs? Are we creating winners and losers on the labour market? If so, who will these winners and losers be? Or will we, after a period of adaptation, perhaps all be better off? What can we learn from great periods of technological change in the past, such as the industrial revolution? And what is the role of politics? What should the political community do, and what should it allow? How can politics and society enable us to seize these opportunities and at the same time deal with the risks prudently? The House of Representatives of the Dutch Parliament, specifically the Standing Committee for Social Affairs and Employment, has felt it was necessary to gain a clearer understanding of the consequences of technological developments for the labour market. It wanted to address this important issue proactively. The House of Representatives accordingly asked the Rathenau Instituut to draw up a report to clarify current scientific knowledge concerning the impact of technological developments on the labour market, and on prosperity over time. A study of this kind is important to gain scientific insights and use the lessons of history to underpin political debate. This could dispel certain ‘myths’ and fill in gaps in our knowledge. As in many other areas, the close links between science and politics have again proven to be of huge value here. The present report by the Rathenau Instituut provides the insights requested. It thus constitutes a shared fund of knowledge on the basis of which everyone can, from his or her conception of society and political perspective, weigh up the opportunities and risks that technological developments may present for employment and economic growth, both now and in the future. Looking back, the report also shows us that such technological developments have often given us different jobs, more jobs, and greater prosperity as well. An important question continues to be whether, with current technological developments, things will turn out the same way. Change is inevitable and will affect every one of us, whether we want it or not. How we cope with change will determine future levels of employment and 6 Working on the robot society prosperity in our country. A pronouncement made by Franklin D. Roosevelt in the last century can guide us here: “The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith.” Brigitte van der Burg Chair of the House of Representatives’ Committee for Social Affairs and Employment Rathenau Instituut 7 Foreword Melanie Peters Before catching the train home, I sometimes pop into the AH To Go market at Den Haag Centraal railway station in the Dutch city of The Hague. I’m faced with long queues in front of the staffed checkouts, but there is nobody at the self-service checkouts. What makes people queue up when they have a train to catch? More and more frequently, we are coming into contact with robots or ongoing automation in our personal and professional lives. For a long time, develop- ments in robotics and artificial intelligence seemed a long way off. We laughed about the amateurish level of the applications. But developments now seem to have gone much faster than we expected. The speech recognition in my mobile phone works well, a robotic lawnmower is now affordable, nobody is fazed when a story about drones comes on the news, and soon a self-driving bus will be operating in the Dutch municipality of Wageningen. Robotization is affecting more areas of society than initially expected, including healthcare, transport, police, the armed forces, and the world of work, to name but a few. The Rathenau Instituut has considerable experience of research on robotiza- tion and computerization. These are issues which our Work Programme for 2015-2016 also addresses. In this study, we have – at the request of the House of Representatives’ Committee for Social Affairs and Employment – set out current scientific findings concerning the impact of information technology on employment in the past, present, and future. Strikingly, there is reasonable consensus among scientists about the relationship between information technology and work in the recent past. But there is very little consensus as regards predictions for the future. According to a recent survey conducted by the Dutch employment agency Intermediair, the average Dutch person describes the impact of artificial intelligence on the labour market as ‘alarming’.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Offshoring Domestic Jobs
    Offshoring Domestic Jobs Hartmut Egger Udo Kreickemeier Jens Wrona CESIFO WORKING PAPER NO. 4083 CATEGORY 8: TRADE POLICY JANUARY 2013 An electronic version of the paper may be downloaded • from the SSRN website: www.SSRN.com • from the RePEc website: www.RePEc.org • from the CESifo website: www.CESifoT -group.org/wp T CESifo Working Paper No. 4083 Offshoring Domestic Jobs Abstract We set up a two-country general equilibrium model, in which heterogeneous firms from one country (the source country) can offshore routine tasks to a low-wage host country. The most productive firms self-select into offshoring, and the impact on welfare in the source country can be positive or negative, depending on the share of firms engaged in offshoring. Each firm is run by an entrepreneur, and inequality between entrepreneurs and workers as well as intra- group inequality among entrepreneurs is higher with offshoring than in autarky. All results hold in a model extension with firm-level rent sharing, which results in aggregate unemployment. In this extended model, offshoring furthermore has non-monotonic effects on unemployment and intra-group inequality among workers. The paper also offers a calibration exercise to quantify the effects of offshoring. JEL-Code: F120, F160, F230. Keywords: offshoring, heterogeneous firms, income inequality. Hartmut Egger University of Bayreuth Department of Law and Economics Universitätsstr. 30 Germany – 95447 Bayreuth [email protected] Udo Kreickemeier Jens Wrona University of Tübingen University of Tübingen Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences Mohlstr. 36 Mohlstr. 36 Germany - 72074 Tübingen Germany - 72074 Tübingen [email protected] [email protected] January 8, 2013 We are grateful to Eric Bond, Jonathan Eaton, Gino Gancia, Gene Grossman, James Harrigan, Samuel Kortum, Marc Muendler, IanWooton, and to participants at the European Trade Study Group Meeting in Leuven, the Midwest International Trade Meetings in St.
    [Show full text]
  • African Development Report 2015 Growth, Poverty and Inequality Nexus
    African Development Report 2015 African Despite earlier periods of limited growth, African economies Sustaining recent growth successes while making future growth have grown substantially over the past decade. However, poverty more inclusive requires smart policies to diversify the sources African Development and inequality reduction has remained less responsive to growth of growth and to ensure broad-based participation across successes across the continent. How does growth affect poverty segments of society. Africa needs to adopt a new development and inequality? How can Africa overcome contemporary and trajectory that focuses on effective structural transformation. Report 2015 future sustainable development challenges? This 2015 edition Workers need to move from low productivity sectors to those of the African Development Report (ADR) offers analysis, where both productivity and earnings are higher. Key poverty- Growth, Poverty and Inequality Nexus: synthesis and recommendations that are relevant to these reducing sectors, such as agriculture and manufacturing, should Overcoming Barriers to Sustainable Development questions. The objective of this Report is to guide policy be targeted and accorded high priority for public and private Growth, Poverty Growth, Development and Inequality Sustainable to Nexus: Overcoming Barriers processes by contributing to the debate analysing what has investment. Adding value to many of Africa’s primary exports happened during recent years, what has worked well, what may earn the continent a competitive margin in international hasn’t worked well, and what needs to be done to address markets, while also meeting domestic market needs, especially further barriers to sustainable development in Africa? Africa’s with regard to food security. Apart from the need to prioritise recent economic growth has not been accompanied by a real certain sectors, other policy recommendations emanating from structural transformation.
    [Show full text]
  • Citizen-Focused Results Orientation in Citizen- Centered Reform
    Public Disclosure Authorized HANDBOOK ON PUBLIC SECTOR PERFORMANCE REVIEWS (IN SIX VOLUMES) Public Disclosure Authorized VOLUME 3: BRINGING CIVILITY IN Public Disclosure Authorized GOVERNANCE Edited by Anwar Shah Public Disclosure Authorized CONTENTS Handbook Series At A Glance Foreword Preface Acknowledgements Contributors to this Volume OVERVIEW by Anwar Shah Chapter 1: Public Expenditure Incidence Analysis by Giuseppe C. Ruggeri Introduction ..................................................................................1 General Issues ................................................................................2 The Concept of Incidence ...........................................................2 The Government Universe .........................................................5 What is Included in Government Expenditures ......................5 Disaggregation by Level of Government .................................6 The Database .............................................................................7 The Unit of Analysis ...................................................................8 Individuals, Households and Families ...................................8 Adjustment for Size ..............................................................10 Grouping by Age and by Income Levels ...............................11 The Concept of Income .............................................................12 2 Bringing Civility in Governance Annual versus Lifetime Analysis .............................................16 The Allocation
    [Show full text]
  • Inequality Measurement Development Issues No
    Development Strategy and Policy Analysis Unit w Development Policy and Analysis Division Department of Economic and Social Affairs Inequality Measurement Development Issues No. 2 21 October 2015 Comprehending the impact of policy changes on the distribu- tion of income first requires a good portrayal of that distribution. Summary There are various ways to accomplish this, including graphical and mathematical approaches that range from simplistic to more There are many measures of inequality that, when intricate methods. All of these can be used to provide a complete combined, provide nuance and depth to our understanding picture of the concentration of income, to compare and rank of how income is distributed. Choosing which measure to different income distributions, and to examine the implications use requires understanding the strengths and weaknesses of alternative policy options. of each, and how they can complement each other to An inequality measure is often a function that ascribes a value provide a complete picture. to a specific distribution of income in a way that allows direct and objective comparisons across different distributions. To do this, inequality measures should have certain properties and behave in a certain way given certain events. For example, moving $1 from the ratio of the area between the two curves (Lorenz curve and a richer person to a poorer person should lead to a lower level of 45-degree line) to the area beneath the 45-degree line. In the inequality. No single measure can satisfy all properties though, so figure above, it is equal to A/(A+B). A higher Gini coefficient the choice of one measure over others involves trade-offs.
    [Show full text]
  • Income and Poverty in the United States: 2018 Current Population Reports
    Income and Poverty in the United States: 2018 Current Population Reports By Jessica Semega, Melissa Kollar, John Creamer, and Abinash Mohanty Issued September 2019 Revised June 2020 P60-266(RV) Jessica Semega and Melissa Kollar prepared the income section of this report Acknowledgments under the direction of Jonathan L. Rothbaum, Chief of the Income Statistics Branch. John Creamer and Abinash Mohanty prepared the poverty section under the direction of Ashley N. Edwards, Chief of the Poverty Statistics Branch. Trudi J. Renwick, Assistant Division Chief for Economic Characteristics in the Social, Economic, and Housing Statistics Division, provided overall direction. Vonda Ashton, David Watt, Susan S. Gajewski, Mallory Bane, and Nancy Hunter, of the Demographic Surveys Division, and Lisa P. Cheok of the Associate Directorate for Demographic Programs, processed the Current Population Survey 2019 Annual Social and Economic Supplement file. Andy Chen, Kirk E. Davis, Raymond E. Dowdy, Lan N. Huynh, Chandararith R. Phe, and Adam W. Reilly programmed and produced the historical, detailed, and publication tables under the direction of Hung X. Pham, Chief of the Tabulation and Applications Branch, Demographic Surveys Division. Nghiep Huynh and Alfred G. Meier, under the supervision of KeTrena Phipps and David V. Hornick, all of the Demographic Statistical Methods Division, conducted statistical review. Lisa P. Cheok of the Associate Directorate for Demographic Programs, provided overall direction for the survey implementation. Roberto Cases and Aaron Cantu of the Associate Directorate for Demographic Programs, and Charlie Carter and Agatha Jung of the Information Technology Directorate prepared and pro- grammed the computer-assisted interviewing instrument used to conduct the Annual Social and Economic Supplement.
    [Show full text]
  • University of Nevada, Reno the Effects of Fiscal Reforms On
    University of Nevada, Reno The Effects of Fiscal Reforms on Economic Growth in Chinese Provinces: 1985-2007 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Economics by Xingchen Wang Dr. Mehmet Tosun/Thesis Advisor May, 2010 THE GRADUATE SCHOOL We recommend that the thesis prepared under our supervision by XINGCHEN WANG entitled The Effects of Fiscal Reforms on Economic Growth in Chinese Provinces: 1985-2007 be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Mehmet Tosun, Advisor Elliott Parker, Committee Member Jiangnan Zhu, Graduate School Representative Marsha H. Read, Ph. D., Associate Dean, Graduate School May, 2010 i Abstract Fiscal reforms have played an important role in China’s development for the last thirty years. This paper mainly examines the effects of fiscal decentralization on China’s provincial growth. Through constructing indicators for revenue and expenditure decentralization respectively, regression results indicate that they are both positively affecting economic growth in Chinese provinces. Along with the rapid development, the inequality issue has drawn much concern that fiscal reforms have indirectly hindered China’s even regional growth. Another model is set up to support this conclusion. However, as a distinct form of inequality, poverty has been largely alleviated in this process. Especially in the reform era of China, the absolute number of poverty population has declined dramatically. ii Acknowledgement I would like to express the deepest appreciation to my committee chair, Professor Mehmet Tosun, with whose patient guidance I could have worked out this thesis. He has offered me valuable suggestions and ideas with his profound knowledge in Economics and rich research experience.
    [Show full text]
  • The Challenge of Measuring Poverty and Inequality: a Comparative Analysis of the Main Indicators
    A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics Martín-Legendre, Juan Ignacio Article The challenge of measuring poverty and inequality: a comparative analysis of the main indicators European Journal of Government and Economics (EJGE) Provided in Cooperation with: Universidade da Coruña Suggested Citation: Martín-Legendre, Juan Ignacio (2018) : The challenge of measuring poverty and inequality: a comparative analysis of the main indicators, European Journal of Government and Economics (EJGE), ISSN 2254-7088, Universidade da Coruña, A Coruña, Vol. 7, Iss. 1, pp. 24-43, http://dx.doi.org/10.17979/ejge.2018.7.1.4331 This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/217762 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. personal and scholarly purposes. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle You are not to copy documents for public or commercial Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, If the documents have been made available under an Open gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence.
    [Show full text]
  • TRENDS in INCOME INEQUALITY: GLOBAL, INTER-COUNTRY, and WITHIN COUNTRIES Zia Qureshi1 Over the Last Three Decades, Inequality Be
    TRENDS IN INCOME INEQUALITY: GLOBAL, INTER-COUNTRY, AND WITHIN COUNTRIES Zia Qureshi1 Over the last three decades, inequality between countries has decreased while inequality within countries has increased. Global inequality, which is the sum of inequality between and within countries, has declined modestly but remains high. Latest estimates put the Gini coefficient of global income distribution at around 0.7. Global inequality rose for much of the period between the Industrial Revolution and the early part of the twentieth century (Figure 1). Both between-country and within-country inequalities widened. The dominant contribution to the rise in global inequality during this period came from rising inequality between countries. Gaps in national mean incomes widened as the economies of Western Europe and North America, spurred by the Industrial Revolution, increasingly pulled away from the rest of the world. Global inequality continued to rise for much of the post-war period in the twentieth century but at a slower pace. Inequality between countries widened further and then stabilized. However, within-country inequality declined in the industrialized economies, starting with the impact of the wars and depressions on higher incomes and then helped by rising demand for labor as economic growth strengthened, improved education, more progressive fiscal regimes and the creation of welfare states. Global inequality peaked around 1980 and has since shown a modest decline. This decline reflects the balance of two opposing trends. First, inter-country inequality reversed course and has been declining as economic growth picked up in the developing world (Figure 2). Average per capita economic growth in developing and emerging economies has exceeded that of advanced economies for most of the period since the early 1980s, allowing their mean incomes to begin to converge toward those of advanced economies (Figure 3).
    [Show full text]
  • How Unequal Were the Latins? the “Strange” Case of Portugal, 1550-1770
    How unequal were the Latins? The “strange” case of Portugal, 1550-1770 Jaime Reis* Álvaro Santos Pereira** Conceição Andrade Martins* *Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Universidade de Lisboa ** Simon Fraser University For help and advice, the authors wish to express their gratitude to Maria Antónia Pires de Almeida, Inês Amorim, Raquel Berredo, Leonor Freire Costa, Rui Esperança, Carlos Faísca, João Ferrão, João Fialho, António Castro Henriques, Bruno Lopes, Filomena Melo, Esteban Niccolini, Susana Pereira, Amélia Polónia, Isabel dos Guimarães Sá and Ana Margarida Silva. Address for correspondence: [email protected] 1 1. Introduction Latin countries are perceived by much of the literature nowadays as having always been more unequal economically than others with similar levels of income. In part, this view is accounted for by contemporary economic inequalities, which show that Latin countries both in Europe and in the Americas exhibit comparatively higher degrees of income or wealth disparity (Lopez and Perry, 2008). At the same time, it has been supported by the work of Engerman and others on the different paths of long term development in the New World (Engerman and Sokoloff, 1997, Engerman, Haber and Sokoloff, 2000). Their claim is that differing patterns of inequality go back a very long way and are in fact evident already in the earliest colonial period. Over time they became more firmly entrenched and ultimately were a powerful determinant of macro divergence between, respectively, Latin America, and Canada and the USA. This colonial legacy has thus become a central part of the conventional wisdom which explains the economic differences displayed by post colonial societies (Frankema, 2009).
    [Show full text]
  • Quantitative Approaches to Multidimensional Poverty
    Quantitative Approaches to Multidimensional Poverty Measurement Also by Nanak Kakwani and Jacques Silber: Nanak Kakwani and Jacques Silber (editors) THE MANY DIMENSIONS OF POVERTY Also by Nanak Kakwani: Nanak Kakwani (author) INCOME INEQUALITY AND POVERTY Methods of Estimation and Policy Applications Nanak Kakwani (author) ANALYZING REDISTRIBUTION POLICIES A Study Using Australian Data Also by Jacques Silber: Jacques Silber (editor) HANDBOOK ON INCOME INEQUALITY MEASUREMENT Y. Flückiger and Jacques Silber (authors) THE MEASUREMENT OF SEGREGATION IN THE LABOR FORCE Quantitative Approaches to Multidimensional Poverty Measurement Edited by Nanak Kakwani University of Sydney Former Director, International Poverty Centre, Brazil and Jacques Silber Bar-Ilan University, Israel UNDP financial support to the International Poverty Centre for holding the International Conference on ‘The Many Dimensions of Poverty’ and the preparation of the papers in this volume is gratefully acknowledged. © United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) 2008 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2008 978-0-230-00489-4 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
    [Show full text]
  • Poverty and Inequality Prof. Dr. Awudu Abdulai Department of Food Economics and Consumption Studies
    Poverty and Inequality Prof. Dr. Awudu Abdulai Department of Food Economics and Consumption studies Poverty and Inequality Poverty is the inability to achieve a minimum standard of living Inequality refers to the unequal distribution of material or immaterial resources in a society and as a result, different opportunities to participate in the society Poverty is not only a question of the absolute income, but also the relative income. For example: Although people in Germany earn higher incomes than those in Burkina Faso, there are still poor people in Germany and non-poor people in Burkina Faso -> Different places apply different standards -> The poor are socially disadvantaged compared to other members of a society in which they belong Measuring Poverty How to measure the standard of living? What is a "minimum standard of living"? How can poverty be expressed in an index? Ahead of the measurement of poverty there is the identification of poor households: ◦ Households are classified as poor or non-poor, depending on whether the household income is below a given poverty line or not. ◦ Poverty lines are cut-off points separating the poor from the non- poor. ◦ They can be monetary (e.g. a certain level of consumption) or non- monetary (e.g. a certain level of literacy). ◦ The use of multiple lines can help in distinguishing different levels of poverty. Determining the poverty line Determining the poverty line is usually done by finding the total cost of all the essential resources that an average human adult consumes in a year. The largest component of these expenses is typically the rent required to live in an apartment.
    [Show full text]
  • Income and Poverty in the United States: 2017 Issued September 2018
    IncoIncomeme andand P Povertyoverty in in the theUn Unitedited State States:s: 2017 2017 CurrentCurrent Population Reports ByBy KaylaKayla Fontenot,Fontenot, JessicaJessica Semega,Semega, andand MelissaMelissa KollarKollar IssuedIssued SeptemberSeptember 20182018 P60-263P60-263 Jessica Semega and Melissa Kollar prepared the income sections of this report Acknowledgments under the direction of Jonathan L. Rothbaum, Chief of the Income Statistics Branch. Kayla Fontenot prepared the poverty section under the direction of Ashley N. Edwards, Chief of the Poverty Statistics Branch. Trudi J. Renwick, Assistant Division Chief for Economic Characteristics in the Social, Economic, and Housing Statistics Division, provided overall direction. Susan S. Gajewski and Nancy Hunter, Demographic Surveys Division, and Lisa P. Cheok, Associate Directorate Demographic Programs, processed the Current Population Survey 2018 Annual Social and Economic Supplement file. Kirk E. Davis, Raymond E. Dowdy, Shawna Evers, Ryan C. Fung, Lan N. Huynh, and Chandararith R. Phe programmed and produced the historical, detailed, and publication tables under the direction of Hung X. Pham, Chief of the Tabulation and Applications Branch, Demographic Surveys Division. Nghiep Huynh and Alfred G. Meier, under the supervision of KeTrena Farnham and David V. Hornick, all of the Demographic Statistical Methods Division, con- ducted statistical review. Tim J. Marshall, Assistant Survey Director of the Current Population Survey, provided overall direction for the survey implementation. Lisa P. Cheok and Aaron Cantu, Associate Directorate Demographic Programs, and Charlie Carter, Agatha Jung, and Johanna Rupp of the Application Development and Services Division prepared and programmed the computer-assisted interviewing instru- ment used to conduct the Annual Social and Economic Supplement. Additional people within the U.S.
    [Show full text]