Redistributive Policies Research Articles

Does weak enforcement deter tax progressivity?

In contexts with weak enforcement, the threat of tax evasion may constrain policy makers’ power to set tax policies optimally. This paper studies whether stricter tax enforcement affects the tax schedule set by local governments. I take advantage of an Italian policy that generated cross-municipality variation in the scope for tackling income and property tax evasion through stricter tax enforcement. Combining an event-study design with municipality-level panel data on statutory tax rates, I show that stricter tax enforcement tips the balance in favor of higher marginal tax rates for middle and top incomes, while the poor benefit of a lower marginal tax rate. The tax hike is larger in places with higher pre-program inequality and where intrinsic tax compliance attitudes are weaker. As a result of higher tax revenue, municipalities hire more workers and raise public spending. These results suggest that tax enforcement policies have not only the power to foster tax capacity, but also to enhance the ability to pursue redistributive policies.

RETRACTED] Land Redistribution Policy in Amhara National Regional State: The Case of Basoliben Woreda, East Gojjam Zone, North-Western Ethiopia

Abstract Land redistribution is the deliberate act of governments to handle the problems of social inequality and poverty. The objective of this study was to assess the 1996 land redistribution policy of Amhara National Regional State (ANRS) in terms of its process of implementation, the criteria used and the socio-economic effects of the policy, specifically in Basoliben woreda farmers. Employing a qualitative descriptive case study design, primary sources of data were collected through key informant interviews and focus group discussion (FGD) whereas secondary data was gathered from different documents. Both cross-case analysis and document analysis were used to analyze the collected data. The findings of the study implied that the redistribution policy in ANRS has resulted in both positive and negative effects on the socio-economic life of farmers. Among the positive effects, landless, women and marginalized sections of the society like artisans got access to land. The negative effects include political allegiance used as the mere criteria to allocate land, the reprisal rationale of the regional government to undertake the policy, implementation problems like lack of transparency, land corruption and lack of monitoring and evaluation systems which further resulted in inequality which needs to be addressed.

Unlikely Expropriators: Why Right-Wing Parties Implemented Agrarian Reform in Democratic Brazil

AbstractWhat motivated right-wing and conservative parties to endorse a policy of land expropriation and redistribution in Brazil? I argue that urban-dominated right-wing parties endorsed agrarian reform in order to: (i) reduce crime in wealthier metropolises by reversing rural–urban migration; and (ii) gain competitive advantage against left-wing challengers. To test this argument I conduct process tracing, analysing over 500 elite statements about agrarian reform, drawn from archival, interview and survey data. In addition, I model land expropriations at the municipal level and show how right-wing administrations disproportionately expropriated land in the states of origin of migrants and, within those, in localities where the Left was more competitive. My results portray how two externalities of inequality – crime and competition with the Left – motivated conservative support for agrarian reform in Brazil.

Missing Link - Assessing state redistribution capacity to understand the relationship between economic inequality and support for European radical right and left parties

Income inequality is a major driver of the growth of radical parties on both the left and right, as it exacerbates citizens' economic insecurities. However, few studies have explored how welfare policies from Member states of the European Union (EU) can help reduce these economic grievances by reducing income inequalities thereby affecting the support towards radical alternatives. In this article, we aim to understand how redistribution affects radical support. We argue that redistribution policies reduce the economic insecurities caused by income inequalities, and thus, the electoral support for radical political platforms is also reduced. To test this hypothesis, we performed multinomial regression models using the European Social Survey data from 17 countries over a period of more than a decade. Our findings reveal that redistribution reduces radical voting, but only for the radical right. We contribute to the literature on welfare policies and radical support by looking at the main welfare policy outcome: redistribution. Our results highlight the importance of redistributive policies in reducing radical right support in the EU, providing valuable insights for policymaking at the European level.

The Polls-Trends: Welfare Regimes and Support for Income Redistribution in Europe.

Income redistribution and changes in redistributive policies are highly contested issues that often have a bearing on societal debate and electoral competition. Using European Social Survey data, we trace trends in public attitudes toward income redistribution in 18 European countries from 2002 to 2019, a time period which included the Great Recession, the 2015 migrant crisis, and an increase in income inequality. Although attitudes toward income redistribution were relatively stable, trends presented by countries grouped by welfare regime display considerable variation both among countries and among welfare regimes. We also trace trends in public support for redistribution by income groups and gauge the strength of belief in meritocracy and egalitarianism. The level of redistribution support among middle-income residents is similar to redistribution support of low-income residents, most notably in post-communist and social-democratic regimes. While egalitarianism is most widespread in the Mediterranean regime, meritocracy is most common in liberal and conservative regimes.

Rising Income and Wealth Inequality in China: Empirical Assessments and Theoretical Reflections

ABSTRACT The lack of up-to-date data has hindered recent research on China’s income and wealth inequality. This article fills this void by bringing current official and private data sources looking at these inequalities. The authors further investigate the underlying structural and sectoral policies causing these disparities. They find that the top 1% income share roughly equals that of the bottom 50%. The personal wealth share going to the top 1% exceeds by 5 times the wealth going to the bottom 50%. Failures in redistributive policies have primarily caused these growing income and wealth gaps. Sectoral and national development policies favoring the real estate industry at the expense of the manufacturing industry have also resulted in large-scale wealth shifts, with Chinese households holding increasing housing assets and residential mortgages. This article shows that Piketty’s patrimonial capitalism not only applies to capitalist countries but also extends to China’s socialist market economy.

Attitudinal Ambivalence on Redistribution: Causes and Electoral Implications Across Europe

While support for redistribution remains high across Europe, voting for left-wing parties, traditionally identified with this agenda, has been under par. Past research explains this puzzle by class-based disagreements about redistributive priorities and by second-dimension attitudes. These explanations, however, assume coherent voter preferences reacting to structural changes. By contrast, I argue that part of the puzzle also lies in attitudinal ambivalence—simultaneous negative and positive evaluations—regarding redistributive policy. Using cross-sectional public opinion and party position data, I find that such ambivalence increases with lower political sophistication, greater value conflict, and weaker economic need. Electorally, it deepens detachment between support for redistribution and left-wing self-identification and increases voting for more economically and culturally right-wing parties. These patterns hold independently of class differences and second-dimension attitudes and replicate stably in earlier data. The findings contribute to ongoing debates about attitude structures and voting patterns and illuminate an additional challenge for economically progressive parties.

Can the ‘downward spiral’ of material conditions, mental health and faith in government be stopped? Evidence from surveys in ‘red wall’ constituencies

If policy preferences follow material interests, the experience of socioeconomic disadvantage ought to increase support for redistributive policies. However, experiencing disadvantage might also reduce faith in government’s ability to make things better, indirectly reducing support for redistributive action, and leading to a spiral of widening disadvantage and increasing political disengagement. Indeed, disadvantaged communities sometimes favour right-wing platforms over those offering redistribution, as in the taking of ‘red wall’ constituencies in the North and Midlands of England by the UK Conservative party in 2019. This article uses quantitative data from a survey of ‘red wall’ voters (n = 805) to examine the bases of people’s perceptions of redistributive policies. We find that even a radical redistributive policy, Universal Basic Income (UBI), receives consistently high levels of support (69.45 SD 27.24). Lower socioeconomic status, greater financial distress and greater risk of destitution all increase support. These effects are partly mediated by mental distress, which is markedly higher among the less well off. However, the same socioeconomic factors also reduce faith in government, which in turn is associated with lower support. Thus, those who stand to benefit most from redistribution are aware of their material interests, but are also the least confident in the ability of government to improve their lives. As such, there is a clear political challenge for progressive politicians: those whose support they depend upon require a significant redistributive offer, but also need to be persuaded of the viability of reform to support progressive change.

GENDER EQUALITY IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL 2006-2022; ECONOMY AND COMPETITIVENESS

Economic gender differences persist. Patriarchy theory assumes political power for women will bring economic equality. We evaluated Global Gender Gap for Spain and Portugal (2006-2022). We found women Ministers or in Parliament do not correlate with economic equality, women participation in workforce, same salary for men and women nor same income. Patriarchy theory does not seem useful to reduce gender economic inequality. We found no significant differences between PSOE and PP Governments nor positive correlation of economic equality with country GDP nor competitiveness. We recommend measuring power, not parity, fiscal redistribution policies and promoting providing-caring social role gender interchange.

Hegemonic world orders, distributional (in)justice and global social change

Abstract Focusing on the relationship between distributional justice and hegemonic world orders, this article turns attention to a fundamental contradiction in historical capitalism between profitability and legitimacy that manifests itself in successive creative destructions of hegemonic orders. Through a comparative–historical analysis of world hegemonies, I show that increasing distributional injustices during periods of ‘legitimacy crisis’ compel new hegemonic powers to pragmatically address some of these injustices as a part of their hegemony-building strategies. Despite growing efforts by world hegemonic powers to address such distributional injustices, social and global inequalities in the capitalist world-economy tend to increase over time. As social and global inequalities increase, new hegemonic powers are compelled to make greater promises and to undertake much greater efforts to address distributional injustices in order to gain intellectual and moral leadership in an emergent new world order. Yet, none of these efforts become successful in the long run because even the partial successes of redistribution policies pave the way for ‘profitability crises’ and undermined world hegemonies. This dynamic poses several challenges to achieving global distributional justice in an emergent new capitalist world order.

Improving economic security for older persons by public pension schemes: evidence from National Transfer Accounts for India.

This paper develops a framework for analysis of distribution related policy issues (i.e. inequality, poverty and inequity) for ensuring economic security for India's older persons by the public old-age pension systems with special reference to Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme (IGNOAPS). The analysis is focused on (a) measurement of age-specific and intra-generational inequity by Lifecycle Deficit in the framework of National Transfer Accounts (NTA), (b) relationship between this inequity and poverty and inequalities in distribution of income and consumption and (c) role of current public funded IGNOAPS to improving economic security or reducing inequity for the elderly generation. The entire analysis is based on the benchmark year 2004-05 and a comparative analysis between 2004-05 and 2011-12. Main results show (a) remarkable age and intra-generational patterns for the older persons in labour income, consumption, income and consumption inequalities, consumption poverty and inequality-adjusted inequity and (b) efficacy of poverty-linked universal IGNOAPS to improve economic security or reducing the inequity for the older persons at a national cost of less than 0.20% of total revenueor consumption expenditure of Government of India. These results offer empirical evidence for design and implementation of redistributive policies for the older persons by integrating the objectives of reduction in economic inequalities, poverty and inequity. Such policies have wider implications for attainment of select UN-SDG goals, especially goals related to age-specific reduction in poverty and inequalities. The approach, results and implications of this paper are of general relevance for other developing countries in Asia and Africa if their economic policies aim at improving economic security of the older person in the framework of NTA methodology.

The Challenge of Exposing and Ending Health Inequalities through Social and Policy Change: Canadian Experiences

The Canadian health system is often perceived as excellent. However, a closer examination of the political economy of health in Canada shows a radically different picture. It is a picture of persistent inequality and a history of the inability to address such inequality. Despite numerous public policy interventions to address preventable health inequalities—that is, health inequities—this societal problem persists. This research addresses how and why health inequities, especially class, race/ethnicity, and gender health inequities, persist in Canada and how to reduce such differences through public policy action. To address these questions, I performed a critical realist review, focusing on the political economy of health and policy change. Then I conducted a thematic analysis of the interview data gathered from 23 semi-structured interviews with leading Canadian policy academics, activists, and advocates. The results demonstrate that the capitalist economic system; the co-constitutives of capitalism, namely colonialism, racism, and sexism; and maldistributive public policies primarily cause health inequities in Canada. Canada's health inequities reduction requires pushing for redistributive public policies; uniting and strengthening labor unions, civil society groups, and social movements; and engaging in electoral politics. Reducing health inequities may involve struggling within and against capitalism and struggling for socialism.

Regional industrial redistribution and carbon emissions: a dynamic analysis for China

ABSTRACT To facilitate and balance regional economic development and to reduce carbon emissions, China has implemented a series of policies to promote the redistribution of industries and economic activities across regions since 2000. This paper employs a logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) to analyse the dynamic net effect on carbon emissions of Chinese policies promoting economic redistribution across sub-national regions, using a panel data of five sectors in 30 provinces during 1995–2017. The results of our analysis show that the redistribution of industry in particular, but also business and construction activities, leads to an increase in CO2 emissions, while the relocation of agriculture and transportation activities reduces emissions. We also find that the emission increase effect of the transfer of carbon intensive industries to new (host) regions is higher than the emission reduction effect induced by the agglomeration of clean industries in the original (home) regions. However, from 2014–2017, alongside the gradual industrial redistribution, China has also reduced aggregate CO2 emissions by 58.6 MT. In addition, the results show that population migration, which is due to redistribution of industry and other economic activity, has caused higher emission increases than emission reductions due to redistribution policies. We further calculate the marginal effect of industrial redistribution on CO2 emissions and draw out relevant policy implications. Key policy insights Industrial (and other economic activity) redistribution within a county can be not only an economic policy, but also an important policy instrument to mitigate CO2 emissions. This is the case in China. In the process of regional industrial redistribution, policymakers should aim to reduce the emission increase effect of transfer of carbon-intensive industries to host regions and to raise the emission reduction effect induced by an agglomeration of clean industries in home regions. Industrial redistribution is usually a long-term strategy for regional development within a county, and any reduction effects on CO2 emissions are likely to need time to appear.

Contesting Europe: Eurosceptic Dissent and Integration Polarization in the European Parliament

AbstractThis article provides a comprehensive analysis of Eurosceptic contestation within the legislative arena of the European Parliament (EP) from 2009 to 2019. Under what conditions do Eurosceptics vote differently from their Europhile peers? The literatures on European integration, party competition and policy types lead us to expect variation in Eurosceptic contestation across policy areas. Drawing on roll‐call votes in the EP, we introduce two new measures of such contestation: Eurosceptic dissent, that is, the extent to which Eurosceptics diverge from the Europhile plurality, and integration polarization, that is, the extent to which Eurosceptics and Europhiles oppose each other as cohesive camps. Our two indicators show that Eurosceptic contestation is particularly pronounced when the EP votes on cultural, distributive and constituent issues. When voting on redistributive policies, in contrast, dissent and polarization are curbed by national and ideological diversity.

Public Policies for Renewable Energy: A Review of the Perspectives for a Circular Economy

The development and implementation of public policies towards renewable energies are crucial in order to address the contemporary challenges faced by humanity. The 3Rs (reduce, reuse, and recycle), as a circular economic practice, are often cited as one of the best solutions for sustainable development. Therefore, this study analyzed public policies for renewable energy from the perspective of the circular economy. Accordingly, a systematic review of the literature was carried out with respect to the beneficiaries and convergences of circularities, with a focus on public policies for renewable energies. The sample had public policies classified into three types (distributive, redistributive, and regulatory policies). The results showed that the first studies began in 1999, with a significant increase in publications during the 2010s, in which Germany was the country with the greatest contribution. The analyses associated with space showed the countries committed to the use of renewable energies and the 3Rs of the circular economy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The economic analyses revealed that the circular economy for the generation of renewable energy has a positive economic return in terms of social well-being and the mitigation of environmental degradation. There is a barrier to the circular economy’s development posed by the cost of its implementation in the private sector and the resistance to raising awareness in society, requiring strong public sector engagement in decision making and the constant evaluation of public policies. It is concluded that the circular economy facilitates more efficient, productive structures and public policies, promoting alternatives for energy security and sustainability for the world energy matrix.

Tax-and-Transfer Progressivity and Business Cycles

This paper studies how transfer progressivity influences aggregate fluctuations when interacted with household heterogeneity. Using a simple static model of the extensive margin labor supply, we analytically characterize how transfer progressivity influences differential labor supply responses to aggregate conditions across heterogeneous households. We then build a quantitative dynamic general equilibrium model with both idiosyncratic and aggregate productivity shocks and show that the model delivers moderately procyclical average labor productivity and a large cyclical volatility of aggregate hours relative to output. Counterfactual exercises indicate that redistributive policies have very different implications for business cycle fluctuations, depending on whether tax progressivity or transfer progressivity is used. Finally, we provide empirical evidence on the heterogeneity of employment responses across the wage distribution, which supports the key mechanism of our model.

Housing justice as expansion of people’s capabilities for housing

Housing inequality is a growing concern in our society. In recent decades, this inequality has been exacerbated by the phenomenon of housing being financialized and commodified as a means for wealth accumulation. Management of financial institutions and housing markets has become the centre of attention in policy discussion. The questions of how to promote the moral values tied to housing, such as human rights, dignity and freedom, and how to better enable people to access suitable housing have been marginalized. As a way forward, the states’ re-intervention and redistribution policies, and the human rights-based approach to housing policies are discussed, but this thesis advocates for a more ambitious paradigm shift. By extending Amartya Sen’s capability approach to housing, the thesis argues for resetting the primary goal of housing policies as expansion of people’s capabilities for housing—expanding opportunity, ability and security to lead their valued ways of residing—beyond the distribution of monetary and material resources for housing, such as housing benefits and dwelling units. This thesis presents the theoretical foundations of this argument and proposes basic principles to guide housing policies, which can serve as a normative basis of housing debates on necessary policy actions. An essential tool to guide housing policies towards this newly proposed goal is to evaluate policy outcomes and housing affairs of people—well-being, deprivation and inequality in housing—with capability considerations. The thesis suggests how this evaluation can be done and can help policies address the inequalities in what people can do to pursue their suitable housing options and how well they are actually residing.

Redistributive policies and elites in the crisis context. Argentina and Mexico (2020-2022)

RESUMEN Introducción: La pandemia por COVID-19 afectó críticamente a América Latina. La contracción económica incrementó la desigualdad, la pobreza y el desempleo. En este contexto, los diferentes países movilizaron recursos para mitigar los impactos negativos de la pandemia e implementaron distintas políticas socioeconómicas. Por su parte, cuando las políticas afectaron los intereses de las élites, éstas respondieron con acciones diversas. En este artículo analizamos la influencia de las élites económicas y sus acciones frente a las políticas redistributivas que implementaron los gobiernos de Argentina y México entre 2020 y 2022. Materiales y métodos: A partir de un análisis empírico comparativo, utilizamos dos originales bases de datos de fuentes primarias. Una de ellas se constituyó con las declaraciones y las comunicaciones públicas de las principales cámaras empresariales; la otra, con las políticas públicas implementadas en ambos países. Resultados: El carácter fragmentado de las élites en Argentina permitió al gobierno implementar políticas redistributivas. Sin embargo, las élites poseen un doble poder de veto, político y económico, y condicionaron el marco de la economía, conduciendo a la sociedad hacia un juego de suma cero. Por el contrario, en México la cohesión de las élites condicionó a los decisores de política pública limitando la posibilidad de llevar a cabo medidas tendientes hacia la redistribución. Discusión: El estudio es una contribución a la discusión sobre el poder estructural e instrumental de las élites en América Latina, adoptando una visión situada e histórica del poder con un enfoque multicausal.

Egalitarianism and redistributive reform in Serbia after 2000

We investigate post-communist redistributive policies in Serbia, focusing particularly on the period after 2000. Our main argument is that market fundamentalism, which posits that the market is the most efficient solution for the postcommunist transition, has failed to deliver on its promises. The expectation was that, after a temporary transitional sacrifice, the worse-off would benefit equally with the better-off by reaping the rewards of market economic reforms. The anticipated faster growth was supposed to generate more quality jobs as the most effective means to alleviate poverty. Unfortunately, growth has been sluggish, while inequalities in Serbia have experienced rapid and persistent growth since 2000. We look into redistributive reform measures to understand the reasons behind this outcome. Our approach combines applied political philosophy with economic policy analysis - a unique intersection of two social science disciplines. Firstly, our research explores the implicit and explicit normative foundations of postcommunist economic reforms. Secondly, we identify and analyse a pivotal juncture of policy reform in the early 2000s. During this period, the newly-adopted neoliberal taxation and social policies were combined with class- and ethnic-based discriminatory approaches inherited from the pre-1990s socialist era and the post-socialist 1990s, respectively. This combination resulted in distinct, notably pro-rich redistributive patterns in Serbia.

Macroeconomic and environmental impacts of circular economy innovation policy

In this paper, we quantify the macroeconomic and environmental impacts of an innovation-driven shift towards a circular economy, with specific emphasis on distribution impacts across regions and sectors. In contrast to most of the existing literature, we use a very wide range of circular economy objectives, taken from recently published Circular Economy Strategic Research Agenda, developed for the European Commission. We first quantify the qualitative objectives, and then use a multi-region Computable General Equilibrium model to estimate economic and environmental impacts of the entire agenda and its sub-components. We show that although many elements of a circular future have strong positive economic and environmental effects, only a wide-ranging portfolio of measures can address a wide range of pollutants. We also show that a shift to a circular economy can have large distributional effects, geographically but especially between individual sectors. This demonstrates that circular economy policy is unlikely to be feasible and socially accepted without the support of complementary re-distributional policies.