The paper examines three issues in the identification of a possible “middle class” using data from LIS. It considers first definitions based purely on income, examining the rationale for different approaches and illustrating the implications for changes over time. It argues that any interpretation in terms of “class” requires the examination of dimensions other than income. The second part of t...

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This paper argues that the conflicting results in the voluminous recent literature on inequality and growth are missing the big picture on inequality and long-run economic development. Consistent with the provocative hypothesis of Engerman and Sokoloff 1997 and Sokoloff and Engerman 2000, this paper confirms with cross-country data that commodity endowments predict the middle class share of inc...

INTRODUCTION Recent initiatives aim to improve public awareness of health disparities. However, little research has actually documented the US public's awareness of racial/ethnic and socioeconomic health disparities. We sought to determine 1) whether the US public is aware of racial, educational, and income disparities in health, 2) whether awareness differs across these disparity domains, and ...

Background As middle-income countries become more affluent, economically sophisticated and productive, health expenditure patterns are likely to change. Other socio-demographic and political changes that accompany rapid economic growth are also likely to influence health spending and financial protection.   Methods This study investigates the relationship between growth on per-capita healthcare...

IS THE GREAT WHITE MIDDLE CLASS endangered in Australia? If it is, does it matter greatly? Michael Pusey answers ‘Yes’ on both counts. He argues that we are seeing a ‘hollowing out of the middle’. If he is right, this hollowing out has significant consequences. Both major political parties have spent decades courting the wannabe middle class — from Robert Menzies’ ‘forgotten people’ to Gough Wh...

Educational equality has been an important and relevant issue in recent years, especially as tuition increases at colleges and universities make it increasingly difficult for low and middleincome families to afford education for their children. There are even more issues of educational equality that come into play once a student matriculates at a chosen school. This paper focuses on this area, ...

BACKGROUND To examine the combined effects of education level and perceived social class on self-rated health and life satisfaction in South Korea. METHODS We used data drawn from the 8 to 15th wave of the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study (KLIPS). Using wave 8 at baseline, data included 11,175 individuals. We performed a longitudinal analysis at baseline estimating the prevalence of self-r...

BACKGROUND Sarcopenia is a syndrome characterized by progressive and generalized loss of skeletal muscle mass and strength. It imposes significant costs on health care systems. Socioeconomic status is also the root cause of healthy challenges among the elderly. Therefore, investigating the association between sarcopenia and socioeconomic status is very important to improve healthy ageing of the...