Juan Antonio Duro

Inequality of energy intensities across OECD countries: a note

Abstract This paper proposes the use of Theils second measure to analyze international energy intensity differences. This index allows differences to be broken down within and between groups of countries in a consistent manner. An analysis of OECD countries for the period 1971–1999 shows some basic points: first, the fall in energy intensities differences is attributable both to within-group and between-group inequality components; second, between-group inequalities are currently the main contributor to the whole inequality value; finally, a detailed exploration on within-group inequalities reveals the significant explanatory role played by EU-countries.

Ecological Footprint Inequality across Countries: The Role of Environment Intensity, Income and Interaction Effects

Recently, White (2007) analysed the international inequalities in Ecological Footprints per capita (EF hereafter) based on a two-factor decomposition of an index from the Atkinson family (Atkinson (1970)). Specifically, this paper evaluated the separate role of environment intensity (EF/GDP) and average income as explanatory factors for these global inequalities. However, in addition to other comments on their appeal, this decomposition suffers from the serious limitation of the omission of the role exerted by probable factorial correlation (York et al. (2005)). This paper proposes, by way of an alternative, a decomposition of a conceptually similar index like Theil’s (Theil, 1967) which, in effect, permits clear decomposition in terms of the role of both factors plus an inter-factor correlation, in line with Duro and Padilla (2006). This decomposition might, in turn, be extended to group inequality components (Shorrocks, 1980), an analysis that cannot be conducted in the case of the Atkinson indices. The proposed methodology is implemented empirically with the aim of analysing the international inequalities in EF per capita for the 1980-2007 period and, amongst other results, we find that, indeed, the interactive component explains, to a significant extent, the apparent pattern of stability observed in overall international inequalities.

Factor decomposition of cross-country income inequality, 1960-1990

Abstract In this paper we present Estebans 1994 [Esteban, J., 1994. La desigualdad interregional en Europa y en Espana: descripcion y analisis. In: Esteban, J.M a ., Vives, X. (dirs.), Crecimiento y convergencia regional en Espana y en Europa, Vol. 2, Instituto de Analisis Economico] decomposition of the Theil index of inequality over per capita incomes into the (unweighted) sum of the inequality indices of (i) the productivity per employed worker, (ii) the employment rate, (iii) the active over working-age population rate, and (iv) the working-age over total population rate. Each of these factors clearly have different meanings for analysis as well as for policy. We apply this factoral decomposition to a set of 120 countries. We also contrast the empirical findings with the results obtained for the 23 OECD countries. [OECD, Labour Force Statistics, Several issues, Paris].

Ecological Footprint Inequality: A Methodological Review and Some Results

Scarcities of environmental services are no longer merely a remote hypothesis. Consequently, analysis of their inequalities between nations becomes of paramount importance for the achievement of sustainability in terms either of international policy, or of Universalist ethical principles of equity. This paper aims, on the one hand, at revising methodological aspects of the inequality measurement of certain environmental data and, on the other, at extending the scarce empirical evidence relating to the international distribution of Ecological Footprint (EF), by using a longer EF time series. Most of the techniques currently important in the literature are revised and then tested on EF data with interesting results. We look in depth at Lorenz dominance analyses and consider the underlying properties of different inequality indices. Those indices which fit best with environmental inequality measurements are CV2 and GE(2) because of their neutrality property, however a trade-off may occur when subgroup decompositions are performed. A weighting factor decomposition method is proposed in order to isolate weighting factor changes in inequality growth rates. Finally, the only non-ambiguous way of decomposing inequality by source is the natural decomposition of CV2, which additionally allows the interpretation of marginal term contributions. Empirically, this paper contributes to the environmental inequality measurement of EF: this inequality has been quite stable and its change over time is due to per capita vector changes rather than population changes. Almost the entirety of the EF inequality is explainable by differences in the means between the countries of the World Bank group. This finding suggests that international environmental agreements should be attempted on a regional basis in an attempt to achieve greater consensus between the parties involved. Additionally, source decomposition warns of the dangers of confining CO2 emissions reduction to crop-based energies because of the implications for basic needs satisfaction.

Spatial Polarization of the Ecological Footprint Distribution

The international allocation of natural resources is determined, not by any ethical or ecological criteria, but by the dominance of market mechanisms. From a core-periphery perspective, this allocation may even be driven by historically determined structural patterns, with a core group of countries whose consumption appropriates most available natural resources, and another group, having low natural resource consumption, which plays a peripheral role. This article consists of an empirical distributional analysis of natural resource consumption (as measured by Ecological Footprints) whose purpose is to assess the extent to which the distribution of consumption responds to polarization (as opposed to mere inequality). To assess this, we estimate and decompose different polarization indices for a balanced sample of 119 countries over the period 1961 to 2007. Our results points toward a polarized distribution which is consistent with a core-periphery framework.

International income polarization: a note

International income polarization is mainly analysed through the use of EGR (Esteban et al., 1999). The main empirical results can be summarized as follows: first, polarization followed a curvilinear trajectory over time, with a slight increase up until the mid-1970s followed by a significant decrease; secondly, the evidence indicates that distributive inequality followed a similar pattern; and finally, the data suggest that the best simplified description of international income distribution, based on this approach, would be one structured around three income groups.

Cross-country inequalities in welfare and its decomposition by Sen factors: the virtues of the Theil index

In this study a new decomposition of the Theil index is proposed using multiplicative factors, which improves on that suggested in Duro (2001), and that, in particular, makes it possible to obtain, in isolation, the role attributable to the elements of factorial correlation. The Theil index, as a referential index in analysis, seems more attractive to us than log variance (Ezcurra and Pascual, 2005) for a variety of reasons. The application of the said decomposition for the analysis of international inequalities in terms of welfare levels, taking the Sens factors (Sen, 1974, 1976), demonstrates that the bulk of these are determined by disparities in income per capita as well as their recent decrease.

Tourist seasonality in Catalonia: The relevance of demand factors

Tourist seasonality is one of the main imbalances in the mass destinations. This article seeks to provide more information on seasonality through an analysis of the situation in Catalonia, the most important Spanish region with respect to international tourism. This work focuses on a specific inspection of the main empirical factors. To achieve this, the traditional model of tourism demand has been used primarily as a reference, before an empirical application of a dynamic panel data model of markets for the 2000–2014 period (specifically using the Generalised Method of Moments). Results reveal the significance of the inertial factor and the relevance of income and price factors as well as observable behavioural differentials for some of the main source markets. We believe that the results obtained may be interesting with respect to tourism policies.

The causal factors of international inequality in co2 emissions per capita: a regression-based inequality decomposition analysis

This paper uses the possibilities provided by the regression-based inequality decomposition (Fields, 2003) to explore the contribution of different explanatory factors to international inequality in CO2 emissions per capita. In contrast to previous emissions inequality decompositions, which were based on identity relationships (Duro and Padilla, 2006), this methodology does not impose any a priori specific relationship. Thus, it allows an assessment of the contribution to inequality of different relevant variables. In short, the paper appraises the relative contributions of affluence, sectoral composition, demographic factors and climate. The analysis is applied to selected years of the period 1993–2007. The results show the important (though decreasing) share of the contribution of demographic factors, as well as a significant contribution of affluence and sectoral composition.

Seasonality of tourism: A new decomposition

Seasonality is a central problem for the sustainability of tourism in mass destinations. Among the main challenges for academic research are aspects related to its measurement and decomposition. This article proposes a novel way to decompose seasonality by multiplicative factors. Specifically, as an illustrative example, we decompose the seasonal concentration of tourism revenues into three components: revenue per tourist per day, average length of stay and tourist numbers. In addition, the methodology has been applied to Spain as a whole, where the results obtained indicate the predominant and increasing weight of tourist numbers in the recently heightened seasonality. These results suggest some concerns about the seasonality pattern and its impacts.