Integration, social distress, and policy formation

Oded Stark

No 120179, Discussion Papers from University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF)

Abstract: I study the integration of regions in the form of a merger of populations, which I interpret as a revision of people’s social space and their comparison set; I illustrate the way in which a merger can aggravate social distress; and I consider policy responses. Specifically, I view the merger of populations as a merger of income vectors; I measure social distress by aggregate relative deprivation; I demonstrate that a merger increases aggregate relative deprivation; and I show that a social planner is able to reverse this increase by means of least-cost, post-merger increases in individual incomes, but is unable to counter it by relying exclusively on a self-contained income redistribution that retains individual levels of wellbeing at their pre-merger levels.

Keywords: Community/Rural/Urban Development; International Relations/Trade (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 8
Date: 2012-01
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Related works:
Journal Article: Integration, social distress, and policy formation (2012)
Working Paper: Integration, social distress, and policy formation (2012)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:ubzefd:120179

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.120179

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