Frank Cowell - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Frank Cowell

Oxford University Press eBooks, Jan 27, 2011

Research on economic inequality, May 19, 2004

Research on economic inequality, Dec 2, 2021

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, Mar 1, 2007

Elsevier eBooks, Dec 1, 2014

This Chapter is about the techniques, formal and informal, that are commonly used to give quantit... more This Chapter is about the techniques, formal and informal, that are commonly used to give quantitative answers in the field of distributional analysis - covering subjects including inequality, poverty and the modelling of income distributions. It deals with parametric and non-parametric approaches and the way in which imperfections in data may be handled in practice.

Health Economics, May 4, 2021

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, Aug 1, 2013

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2021

In this paper we compare the level, composition and distribution of household wealth in five indu... more In this paper we compare the level, composition and distribution of household wealth in five industrial countries: the UK, US, Italy, Finland and Sweden. We exploit the harmonized data within the Luxembourg Wealth Study, which we have extended to allow us to examine trends in the UK and the US between the mid-1990s and the mid-2000s. Remaining differences between surveys, variable definitions and coverage are highlighted to the extent that they impact on cross-country comparisons. We find that the Nordic countries have lower average wealth holdings, smaller absolute gaps between low wealth and high wealth households but high relative measures of wealth inequality. Italian households hold very little debt and are much more likely to own their homes outright, leading to relatively high median levels of wealth. In contrast American households tend to hold much more housing debt well into retirement. Increases in owner occupation and house prices 2000-05 in the UK has led to substantial...

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2007

Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics, 2019

This chapter proposes to examine the impact of technological progress on employment in developing... more This chapter proposes to examine the impact of technological progress on employment in developing countries. Using the World Enterprise Survey data, the focus is laid on the manufacturing sector. On employment, the impact of foreign technology, imported inputs, and foreign ownership are positive. Domestic innovation also results in higher levels of employment. Hence, foreign technology and better quality imported inputs can be beneficial for the firms as new opportunities may come up for expansion in activities though the joint effect turns out to be negative. Furthermore, the skilled labor demand responds positively to technology and input acquisition from abroad while the unskilled labor demand does not rise significantly. Domestic innovation also shows positive effect on skilled labor. Hence, it seems that the dampening effect of new technology on employment in absolute sense seems to be rather exaggerated while the concern may be justified in relative terms or in reference to unskilled labor particularly.

Economica, 2017

The standard theory of inequality measurement assumes that the equalisand is a cardinal quantity,... more The standard theory of inequality measurement assumes that the equalisand is a cardinal quantity, with known cardinalization. However, one often needs to make inequality comparisons where either the cardinalization is unknown or the underlying data are categorical. We propose an alternative approach to inequality analysis that is rigorous, has a natural interpretation, and embeds both the ordinal data problem and the well‐known cardinal data problem. We show how the approach can be applied to the inequality of happiness and of health status.

Research on Economic Inequality

Oxford University Press eBooks, Jan 27, 2011

Research on economic inequality, May 19, 2004

Research on economic inequality, Dec 2, 2021

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, Mar 1, 2007

Elsevier eBooks, Dec 1, 2014

This Chapter is about the techniques, formal and informal, that are commonly used to give quantit... more This Chapter is about the techniques, formal and informal, that are commonly used to give quantitative answers in the field of distributional analysis - covering subjects including inequality, poverty and the modelling of income distributions. It deals with parametric and non-parametric approaches and the way in which imperfections in data may be handled in practice.

Health Economics, May 4, 2021

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, Aug 1, 2013

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2021

In this paper we compare the level, composition and distribution of household wealth in five indu... more In this paper we compare the level, composition and distribution of household wealth in five industrial countries: the UK, US, Italy, Finland and Sweden. We exploit the harmonized data within the Luxembourg Wealth Study, which we have extended to allow us to examine trends in the UK and the US between the mid-1990s and the mid-2000s. Remaining differences between surveys, variable definitions and coverage are highlighted to the extent that they impact on cross-country comparisons. We find that the Nordic countries have lower average wealth holdings, smaller absolute gaps between low wealth and high wealth households but high relative measures of wealth inequality. Italian households hold very little debt and are much more likely to own their homes outright, leading to relatively high median levels of wealth. In contrast American households tend to hold much more housing debt well into retirement. Increases in owner occupation and house prices 2000-05 in the UK has led to substantial...

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2007

Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics, 2019

This chapter proposes to examine the impact of technological progress on employment in developing... more This chapter proposes to examine the impact of technological progress on employment in developing countries. Using the World Enterprise Survey data, the focus is laid on the manufacturing sector. On employment, the impact of foreign technology, imported inputs, and foreign ownership are positive. Domestic innovation also results in higher levels of employment. Hence, foreign technology and better quality imported inputs can be beneficial for the firms as new opportunities may come up for expansion in activities though the joint effect turns out to be negative. Furthermore, the skilled labor demand responds positively to technology and input acquisition from abroad while the unskilled labor demand does not rise significantly. Domestic innovation also shows positive effect on skilled labor. Hence, it seems that the dampening effect of new technology on employment in absolute sense seems to be rather exaggerated while the concern may be justified in relative terms or in reference to unskilled labor particularly.

Economica, 2017

The standard theory of inequality measurement assumes that the equalisand is a cardinal quantity,... more The standard theory of inequality measurement assumes that the equalisand is a cardinal quantity, with known cardinalization. However, one often needs to make inequality comparisons where either the cardinalization is unknown or the underlying data are categorical. We propose an alternative approach to inequality analysis that is rigorous, has a natural interpretation, and embeds both the ordinal data problem and the well‐known cardinal data problem. We show how the approach can be applied to the inequality of happiness and of health status.

Research on Economic Inequality