scholarly journals The Structure of Inequality and the Politics of Redistribution

2011 ◽  
Vol 105 (2) ◽  
pp. 316-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
NOAM LUPU ◽  
JONAS PONTUSSON
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Lower Half ◽  
Social Spending ◽  
Present Survey ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Redistributive Policies ◽  
Preferences For Redistribution ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Advanced Capitalist

Against the current consensus among comparative political economists, we argue that inequality matters for redistributive politics in advanced capitalist societies, but it is the structure of inequality, not the level of inequality, that matters. Our theory posits that middle-income voters will be inclined to ally with low-income voters and support redistributive policies when the distance between the middle and the poor is small relative to the distance between the middle and the rich. We test this proposition with data from 15 to 18 advanced democracies and find that both redistribution and nonelderly social spending increase as the dispersion of earnings in the upper half of the distribution increases relative to the dispersion of earnings in the lower half of the distribution. In addition, we present survey evidence on preferences for redistribution among middle-income voters that is consistent with our theory and regression results indicating that left parties are more likely to participate in government when the structure of inequality is characterized by skew.

scholarly journals Vertical position can affect categorization of the rich and the poor in Chinese culture

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 183449092110257
Author(s):  
Qiong Li ◽  
Chen Deng ◽  
Bin Zuo ◽  
Xiaobin Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Chinese Culture ◽  
Social Categorization ◽  
High Income ◽  
Vertical Position ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Rich

This study explored whether vertical position affects social categorization of the rich and the poor. Experiment 1 used high- and low-income occupations as stimuli, and found participants categorized high-income occupations faster when they were presented in the top vertical position compared to the bottom vertical position. In Experiment 2, participants responded using either the “up” or “down” key to categorize high- and low-income occupations, and responded faster to high-income occupations with the “up” key and low-income occupations with the “down” key. In Experiment 3, names identified as belonging to either rich or poor individuals were presented at the top or bottom of a screen, and the results were the same as in Experiments 1 and 2. These findings suggest that social categorization based on wealth involved perceptual simulations of vertical position, and that vertical position affects the social categorization of the rich and the poor.

The effects of debt restructurings on income inequality in the developing world

2021 ◽  
pp. 135406612110014
Author(s):  
Glen Biglaiser ◽  
Ronald J. McGauvran
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Panel Data ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Income Distribution ◽  
Government Spending ◽  
Tax Reform ◽  
Social Spending ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Impact

Developing countries, saddled with debts, often prefer investors absorb losses through debt restructurings. By not making full repayments, debtor governments could increase social spending, serving poorer constituents, and, in turn, lowering income inequality. Alternatively, debtor governments could reduce taxes and cut government spending, bolstering the assets of the rich at the expense of the poor. Using panel data for 71 developing countries from 1986 to 2016, we assess the effects of debt restructurings on societal income distribution. Specifically, we study the impact of debt restructurings on social spending, tax reform, and income inequality. We find that countries receiving debt restructurings tend to use their newly acquired economic flexibility to reduce taxes and lower social spending, worsening income inequality. The results are also robust to different model specifications. Our study contributes to the globalization and the poor debate, suggesting the economic harm caused to the less well-off following debt restructurings.

Can democracy work for the poor?

Science ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 369 (6508) ◽  
pp. 1188-1192
Author(s):  
Rohini Pande
Keyword(s):  
Vulnerable Populations ◽  
Democratic Institutions ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Extreme Poverty ◽  
Playing Field ◽  
Redistributive Policies ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Catch 22

Millions of the world’s poorest people now live in middle-income democracies that, in theory, could use their resources to end extreme poverty. However, citizens in those countries have not succeeded in using the vote to ensure adequate progressive redistribution. Interventions aiming to provide the economically vulnerable with needed resources must go beyond assisting them directly, they must also improve democratic institutions so that vulnerable populations themselves can push their representatives to implement redistributive policies. Here, I review the literature on such interventions and then consider the “democracy catch-22”: How can the poor secure greater democratic influence when the existing democratic playing field is tilted against them?

scholarly journals A registered report on how implicit pro-rich bias is shaped by the perceiver's gender and socioeconomic status

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (8) ◽  
pp. 191232
Author(s):  
Bradley D. Mattan ◽  
Jasmin Cloutier
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Low Income ◽  
High Status ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Rich ◽  
And Control ◽  
Beliefs And Attitudes

Although high status is often considered a desirable quality, this may not always be the case. Different factors may moderate the value of high status along a dimension such as wealth (e.g. gender, perceiver income/education). For example, studies suggest men may value wealth and control over resources more than women. This may be especially true for high-income men who already have control over substantial resources. Other work suggests that low-income men and women may have different experiences in educational contexts compared to their richer peers who dominate norms at higher levels of education. These experiences may potentially lead to different attitudes about the wealthy among low-income men and women. In this registered report, we proposed two key predictions based on our review of the literature and analyses of pilot data from the Attitudes, Identities and Individual Differences (AIID) study ( n = 767): (H1) increasing income will be associated with increased pro-wealthy bias for men more than for women and (H2) income will also moderate the effect of education on implicit pro-wealthy bias, depending on gender. Overall, men showed greater implicit pro-wealthy bias than did women. However, neither of our hypotheses that income would moderate the effects of gender on implicit pro-wealthy bias were supported. These findings suggest implicit pro-wealthy bias among men and are discussed in the context of exploratory analyses of gender differences in self-reported beliefs and attitudes about the rich and the poor.

scholarly journals Inequality and Fiscal Redistribution in Middle Income Countries: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Indonesia, Mexico, Peru and South Africa

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nora Lustig
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Fiscal Policy ◽  
Health Spending ◽  
Social Spending ◽  
Income Poverty ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Incidence Analysis ◽  
Consumption Taxes

AbstractThis paper examines the redistributive impact of fiscal policy for Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Indonesia, Mexico, Peru and South Africa using comparable fiscal incidence analysis with data from around 2010. The largest redistributive effect is in South Africa and the smallest in Indonesia. Success in fiscal redistribution is driven primarily by redistributive effort (share of social spending to GDP in each country) and the extent to which transfers/subsidies are targeted to the poor and direct taxes targeted to the rich. While fiscal policy always reduces inequality, this is not the case with poverty. When pensions are not considered a transfer, fiscal policy increases poverty in Brazil (over and above market income poverty) due to high consumption taxes on basic goods. Total spending on education is pro-poor except for Indonesia, where it is neutral in absolute terms. Health spending is pro-poor in Brazil, Chile and South Africa, roughly neutral in absolute terms in Mexico, and not pro-poor in Indonesia and Peru.

scholarly journals Nanomedicine for the poor: a lost cause or an idea whose time has yet to come?

Nanomedicine ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vuk Uskoković
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Gdp Per Capita ◽  
Lost Cause ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Scientific Innovation ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
To Come

The most effective COVID-19 vaccines, to date, utilize nanotechnology to deliver immunostimulatory mRNA. However, their high cost equates to low affordability. Total nano-vaccine purchases per capita and their proportion within the total vaccine lots have increased directly with the GDP per capita of countries. While three out of four COVID-19 vaccines procured by wealthy countries by the end of 2020 were nano-vaccines, this amounted to only one in ten for middle-income countries and nil for the low-income countries. Meanwhile, economic gains of saving lives with nano-vaccines in USA translate to large costs in middle-/low-income countries. It is discussed how nanomedicine can contribute to shrinking this gap between rich and poor instead of becoming an exquisite technology for the privileged. Two basic routes are outlined: (1) the use of qualitative contextual analyses to endorse R&D that positively affects the sociocultural climate; (2) challenging the commercial, competitive realities wherein scientific innovation of the day operates.

‘They Take Our Houses’: Benefit Competition and the Erosion of Support for Immigrants' Social Rights

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Gerda Hooijer
Keyword(s):  
Panel Data ◽  
Social Housing ◽  
Electoral Politics ◽  
Institutional Context ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Lower Income ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Rich

Abstract Does benefit competition affect voters' support for immigrants' social rights? While scholars in political economy expect that benefit competition lowers support among the poor, the evidence is limited. This seems to be largely due to the reliance on highly aggregated analyses and the neglect of the institutional context in which individuals form their preferences. This article argues that lower-income voters are more likely to reduce their support due to competition when benefit eligibility depends on income. Using individual-level panel data from the Netherlands and a novel way to measure benefit competition, the study shows that lower-middle-income voters become less supportive of immigrants' social rights when more social housing in their municipality is allocated to refugees. By contrast, competition does not reduce support among the rich or the very poor. The findings suggest that benefit competition can erode support for immigrants' social rights and influence electoral politics.

scholarly journals Externality Analysis of Community Forest Management

2009 ◽  
pp. 62-69
Author(s):  
Mahesh Raj Dahal
Keyword(s):  
Community Forest Management ◽  
Community Forest ◽  
Net Benefit ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Poor Households ◽  
Net Benefits ◽  
Forest Use ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Externality Analysis

This paper attempts to analyze the positive and negative externality effects of community forest management with the help of household level monetary value of benefits and costs derived from the sixteen community forest user groups of households in Arun River Valley. Monetary benefits of major types of forest products and total costs of forest use and management were calculated classifying into labour cost, transaction cost and membership fees to derive monetary estimation for the purpose of externality analysis. With the help of summary statistics of calculated gross benefits and costs including net benefits and the benefit-cost ratios (B/C) the externality effects of use and management of community forest were examined. The results of externality analysis shows that the poor income households are completely failed to internalize the benefit from CF as per the total gross cost per household incurred equivalent by negative net benefits (-4.0 percent). The middle income households are being able to internalize by equalize both of gross benefit (37.0 percent and the total gross cost (37.0 percent) from CF. The rich income households are being able to externalize the total gross cost on the poor income households to gain disproportionate net benefits (4.0) from CF. The benefit-cost ratios (B/C) for the poor (0.81 < 1), medium (1=1) and rich households (1.09 > 1) also have justified that the rich households are getting higher percentage of net benefits and paying less percentage of gross cost without providing any compensation to the poor households. The middle income households appeared in a position of no more gain nor more loss or zero net benefit. Since even a benefit loser, the poor households should take part in overall total gross cost of forest use, operation and management. Thus, the net externality effect of CF in terms of benefits accrued (positive externality) minus total gross cost incurred (negative externality) i.e. net benefit is negatively related to the poor income households and positively related to richer households in the study area. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ttp.v5i0.1955 The Third Pole, Vol. 5-7, PP 62-69:2007

scholarly journals Through the pyramid: implications of interconnectedness in Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 289-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerry Chipp ◽  
Marcus Carter ◽  
Manoj Chiba
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Insurance Cover ◽  
Value Propositions ◽  
Vicarious Consumption ◽  
Economic Ties ◽  
Low And Middle Income

Purpose Many markets are conceptualized as a stratified low- and middle-income “pyramid” of consumers. Emerging markets are sites of rapid consumer mobility, and thus the middle class there is connected to, and often supports, low-income relatives and employees. Therefore, this paper aims to establish that African income groups are not insular, but rather interrelated and have strong social ties reinforced with longstanding communal values, such as ubuntu. Design/methodology/approach Using a between-subjects experimental vignette design, the propensity of the middle class to cover low-income individuals on an insurance product was assessed. Findings Income strata are interrelated and can inform value propositions, which is demonstrated in this paper with insurance, where the middle class are willing to include others, depending on their social proximity, on their insurance cover. Research limitations/implications The context for this study was personal home insurance; hence, the generalisability of the results is circumscribed. Other more tangible forms of cover, such as medical, funeral or educational insurance, may engender far stronger effects. Practical implications Marketers tend to view low- and middle-income consumers as independent. A view of their interrelation will change the design of many products and services, such as a service catered to the poor but targeted at their support networks. An example of such a service is insurance, which is traditionally hard to sell to the poor. A less atomistic approach to income strata could have implications for vicarious consumption, as well as a reconsideration of the disposable income of both groups. Originality/value The pyramid is an interconnected network of social and economic ties.

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