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We combine national accounts, surveys, and new tax data to study the accumulation and distribution of income and wealth in China from 1978 to 2015. The national wealth-income ratio increased from 350 percent in 1978 to 700 percent in 2015, while the share of public property in national wealth declined from 70 percent to 30 percent. We provide sharp upward revision of official inequality estimates. The top 10 percent income share rose from 27 percent to 41 percent between 1978 and 2015; the bottom 50 percent share dropped from 27 percent to 15 percent. China’s inequality levels used to be close to Nordic countries and are now approaching US levels.

One of the most puzzling social science findings in the past half century is the Easterlin paradox: Economic growth within a country does not always translate into an increase in happiness. We provide evidence that this paradox can be partly explained by income inequality. In two different data sets covering 34 countries, economic growth was not associated with increases in happiness when it was accompanied by growing income inequality. Earlier instances of the Easterlin paradox (i.e., economic growth not being associated with increasing happiness) can thus be explained by the frequent concurrence of economic growth and growing income inequality. These findings suggest that a more even distribution of growth in national wealth may be a precondition for raising nationwide happiness.

This article uncovers a new mechanism linking oil wealth to autocratic regime survival: the investigation tests whether increases in oil wealth improve the survival of autocracies by lowering the chances of democratization, reducing the risk of transition to subsequent dictatorship, or both. Using a new measure of autocratic durability shows that, once models allow for unit effects, oil wealth promotes autocratic survival by lowering the risk of ouster by rival autocratic groups. Evidence also indicates that oil income increases military spending in dictatorships, which suggests that increasing oil wealth may deter coups that could have caused a regime collapse.

Gross domestic product (GDP) and household income measures provide invaluable metrics of economic activity in an economy, but they tell us little about the sustainability of the economic trends. National wealth accounting can be utilised to determine the size of the underlying productive base, which provides insight into the sustainability of economic activities and indicates the potential for intergenerational well-being. An empirical methodology was developed to measure wealth and then used to analyse multiple Asian countries. A common theme found across the Asian countries was the depletion of natural capital (forests, minerals and energy) and the development of human and produced capital. A strong correlation between growth in GDP per capita and wealth per capita was also found, but there are instances of GDP growth and wealth growth having different signs.

There has long been interest in integrating the value of environmental stocks and flows into standard measures of economic activity and wealth, in particular through the development of adjusted measures of GDP and extended measures of national wealth. This paper examines how the valuation of ecosystem services and ecosystem assets can be undertaken in an integrated national accounting setting. We clarify the relevant valuation principles, most significantly the need to apply the concept of exchange values, and explain why the integration of ecosystem services necessitates an extension of the standard production boundary used in economic measurement. The main implications of an accounting approach are discussed including the need to distinguish benefits from services, the need for valuation methods that exclude consumer surplus, and the importance of aligning measures of income and degradation. Remaining challenges include the treatment of low or negative rents, accounting for ecosystem disservices, and the derivation of values for ecosystem assets. Meeting these challenges and advancing work in this area should be the joint focus of economists, ecologists and accountants.

Over the past four decades, violence against women (VAW) has come to be seen as a violation of human rights and an important concern for social policy. Yet government action remains uneven. Some countries have adopted comprehensive policies to combat VAW, whereas others have been slow to address the problem. Using an original dataset of social movements and VAW policies in 70 countries over four decades, we show that feminist mobilization in civil society—not intra-legislative political phenomena such as leftist parties or women in government or economic factors like national wealth—accounts for variation in policy development. In addition, we demonstrate that autonomous movements produce an enduring impact on VAW policy through the institutionalization of feminist ideas in international norms. This study brings national and global civil society into large-n explanations of social policy, arguing that analysis of civil society in general—and of social movements in particular—is critical to understanding progressive social policy change.

Because their assets and income represent such a small share of national wealth, the impacts of climate change on poor people, even if dramatic, will be largely invisible in aggregate economic statistics such as the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Assessing and managing future impacts of climate change on poverty requires different metrics, and specific studies focusing on the vulnerability of poor people. This special issue provides a set of such studies, looking at the exposure and vulnerability of people living in poverty to shocks and stressors that are expected to increase in frequency or intensity due to climate change, such as floods, droughts, heat waves, and impacts on agricultural production and ecosystem services. This introduction summarizes their approach and findings, which support the idea that the link between poverty and climate vulnerability goes both ways: poverty is one major driver of people's vulnerability to climate-related shocks and stressors, and this vulnerability is keeping people in poverty. The paper concludes by identifying priorities for future research.

Are there systematic trends around the world in levels of creativity, aggressiveness, life satisfaction, individualism, trust, and suicidality? This article suggests a new field, latitudinal psychology, that delineates differences in such culturally shared features along northern and southern rather than eastern and western locations. In addition to geographical, ecological, and other explanations, we offer three metric foundations of latitudinal variations: replicability (latitudinal gradient repeatability across hemispheres), reversibility (north-south gradient reversal near the equator), and gradient strength (degree of replicability and reversibility). We show that aggressiveness decreases whereas creativity, life satisfaction, and individualism increase as one moves closer to either the North or South Pole. We also discuss the replicability, reversibility, and gradient strength of (a) temperatures and rainfall as remote predictors and (b) pathogen prevalence, national wealth, population density, and income inequality as more proximate predictors of latitudinal gradients in human functioning. Preliminary analyses suggest that cultural and psychological diversity often need to be partially understood in terms of latitudinal variations in integrated exposure to climate-induced demands and wealth-based resources. We conclude with broader implications, emphasizing the importance of north-south replications in samples that are not from Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) societies.

In the article, an application of the approach, based on the methodology of the indicative analysis, to the modeling of a condition of the national wealth of the Russia’s regions is proved, its main advantages are shown. Research purposes are: to define a quality and development level of the national capital components of constituent territories of the Russian Federation (the natural and resource, physical and human capitals); and to identify the reasons of a developing situation; to define a contribution of each subject of the Russian Federation in the developing of the country’s national wealth; to contribute to the individual approach development of the management of components of the national capital for all the Russia’s regions. The methodic allowing to transform the different indicative indicators of various measure to a balance, and also to receive and differentiate integrated estimates of components of the national capital of each territorial subject of the Russian Federation according to the offered classification is given. As an example of the assessment results of the human capital of the constituent territories of the Russian Federation in 2011 (in the rating form) and diagrams of its changing for 2000-2011 in the Russian Federation’s subjects of the first and last places in rating are presented. The assessment mechanism of contribution of particular components of human capital to the development of its integrated assessment is given, and such opportunity is shown.

Research Question: The paper examines the impact of specific Hofstede’s dimensions of national culture on entrepreneurial culture, depending on the wealth of the national economy. Motivation: Based on the results of some previous research focused on the relationship between national culture and various indicators associated with entrepreneurship (Hayton, George & Zahra, 2002; Pinillos & Reyes, 2011; Zhao, Li & Rauch, 2012; Hayton & Cacciotti, 2013), the paper analyses the impact of national culture on entrepreneurial culture, as a category closely related to entrepreneurship. The identification of the national culture's dimensions contributing to the affirmation of entrepreneurial culture, provides an insight into the entrepreneurial potential of a particular national economy. Idea: The main idea of the paper is to examine whether selected Hofstede’s dimensions of national culture (power distance - PD, uncertainty avoidance – UA, individualism – IDV) affect entrepreneurial culture (EC) in a manner identical to that affecting the other indicators of entrepreneurship. The mentioned relationship is not examined as unmediated, but in the context of the effect that national wealth (measured as Gross National Income per capita - GNI) has on it. Data: The survey covered a total of 108 countries for which the data on the values of three selected dimensions of national culture, the index of entrepreneurial culture and the Gross National Income per capita are available. Tools: In order to examine the effect of three selected Hofstede’s dimensions of national culture on entrepreneurial culture, correlation and standard multiple regression analyses were conducted. For data processing, statistical software SPSS (version 22.0) was used. Findings: The obtained results of the research show that in national economies with higher levels of IDV and lower levels of UA, higher scores of the EC index are manifested, regardless of the national wealth. On the other hand, the impact of PD on EC is determined by the level of a particular economy's wealth. In high-income economies (HIE), the index of EC is higher if PD is lower. In low- and middle-income economies (LIE), higher values of EC index are manifested if PD is higher. Contribution: The paper expands the knowledge and research base on entrepreneurial culture and the influence that national culture has on it.