Redistributive Outcomes Research Articles

Trying to find a balance: Energy excise duties in the context of climate targets, energy shocks, and redistributive goals

This study examines the implementation of an environmental tax reform in Italy, focusing on changes in excise duties on petrol, diesel and electricity. The reform is in line with the revised European Energy Tax Directive and aims to support European climate objectives. The main motivation of this research is to show how the additional revenues generated by the environmental reform can be used to mitigate its regressive impact on low-income households through cash transfers. The analysis uses a microsimulation model based on data from the Household Budget Survey. The environmental reform combined with the cash transfer is implemented for 2019 and 2022, this latter being a year significantly affected by the energy crisis. The results confirm the inherent regressivity of the environmental tax reform when considered in isolation, but they also reveal significant positive redistributive effects achieved by paying monetary transfers to households in the lowest three income deciles. In this case, the reform enhances redistributive outcomes that remain effective even when the structure of the transfers is modified. The paper also highlights the limited redistributive impact of the 2022 excise tax cuts on fuel, which aimed to address the regressive effects of the energy shock. Again, a targeted cash transfer would have been more effective for low-income households.

Income mobility and crime: a hierarchical cluster analysis on principal components for 27 OECD countries

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to investigate the linkages between intergenerational income mobility and crime for 27 OECD countries, considering different types of crime, family ties, enforcement, in terms of punishment rate and perceived quality of the legal system, redistributive outcomes and government expenditure.Design/methodology/approachUsing the Global Database of Intergenerational Mobility (GDIM), the empirical analysis is conducted by coupling the principal components analysis with the hierarchical clustering. The variance tests verify the robustness of the clusters.FindingsIncome mobility is higher in those countries where there is high public investment devoted to education and high perception of rule of law to buffer the adverse effects of crime on income mobility. The redistributive policies must be oriented to better the wealth distribution and not only income equality opportunity to decrease crime and to increase income mobility. A plausible existence of “hidden” income mobility emerges from the linkages between income mobility and frauds.Social implicationsMore redistributive policies for education, income and wealth equality should be applied in those countries with low income mobility and high violent crime rates; higher punishment rates should be applied to reduce the rates of thefts and frauds in high income mobility countries.Originality/valueThe main contribution is the identification of what type of crime leads to downward income mobility, as well as the role of perceived quality of the legal system, government and family ties in the association between income mobility and crime, suggesting also the potential existence of “hidden” income mobility.Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-07-2023-0520

The unequal conversion of intended redistribution into factual redistribution in Europe and its impact on social inequalities between families

Redistribution is one of the key elements of contemporary social order, and research has dealt with it in various ways. Most welfare state research mixes in its analysis the regulations on redistribution and actual outcomes. However, to adequately understand redistribution, one needs to distinguish between regulations and outcomes. Measuring unequal conversion in terms of deviations between redistributions as regulated and redistributive outcomes shows how far a redistribution corresponds to what has been officially agreed upon in societies and who is actually better or worse off in the end. Empirically focusing on family-related redistribution, our analysis was based on European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions data and the European microsimulation tool EUROMOD. First, we assumed that differences between regulations and outcomes vary depending on the family type. Thus, we compared the actual and simulated disposable household income for various family types. Second, we assumed that differences between regulations and outcomes vary by country. Consequently, we analysed a variety of European countries. Our findings showed that there are substantial differences between regulations on redistribution and outcomes. These differences increase income inequalities between families. This held true for all of our study countries, although to a different degree.

Not that basic: how level, design, and context matter for the redistributive outcomes of universal basic income

Abstract Proponents of a basic income (BI) claim that, on top of many other benefits, it could bring significant reductions in financial poverty. Using microsimulation analysis in a comparative two-country setting, we show that the potential poverty-reducing impact of BI strongly depends on exactly how and where it is implemented. Implementing a BI requires far more choices than advocates seem to realise. The level at which a BI is set matters, but its exact specification matters even more. The impact of a BI, be it a low or a high one, also strongly depends on the characteristics of the system that it is (partially) replacing or complementing, as well as the socio-economic context in which it is introduced. Some versions of BI could potentially help to reduce poverty but always at a significant cost and with substantial sections of the population incurring significant losses, which matters for political feasibility. A partial BI complementing existing provisions appears to make more potential sense than a full BI replacing them. The simplicity of BI, however, tends to be vastly overstated.

Diversity, solidarity and the construction of the ingroup among (post)colonial migrants in The Netherlands, 1945–1968

ABSTRACT Concerns about the impact of immigration (‘diversity’) on welfare states (‘solidarity’) are widespread among political economists. This article presents an alternative theoretical framework for understanding their relationship. Using social and cultural theory, I argue that it is tautological to suggest that diversity and solidarity covary; both emerge out of the same ideological and material efforts to construct an ‘ingroup.’ I probe this theory with a historical case study of the inclusion of (post)colonial migrants in the Netherlands from 1945 to 1968. Complementing secondary literature with original archival research, I show key state and non-state agents of the emergent Dutch welfare state constructing racial categories by fixing ‘Westernness’ or ‘rootedness’ as a salient determinant of ingroup membership, locating (post)colonial migrants in relation to it, and distributing entry, citizenship and social rights accordingly. An elusive metric of cultural proximity, ‘Westernness’ was under construction at the same time as it was in use, as state officials, social workers, and private charities negotiated its meaning with the public. The article not only compels European welfare scholarship to acknowledge race and racism in its recent past, but also builds theory regarding the influence of identity on redistributive outcomes.

Not that Basic: How Level, Design and Context Matter for the Redistributive Outcomes of Universal Basic Income

Not that Basic: How Level, Design and Context Matter for the Redistributive Outcomes of Universal Basic Income

Zimbabwe’s fast-track land reform at 20: exploring disability inclusion and the attendant policy implications

This article interrogates disability inclusion two decades after Zimbabwe’s fast-tracked land reform and the associated policy pathways for improving the situation of people with disabilities in an agrarian context. Exploring the country’s land reform through disability inclusion lenses is largely missing in literature and policy. Using disability inclusion and interpretivism as the evaluative conceptual framing and heuristic research approach in a rural district respectively, the article shows that latent and manifest politics of inclusion and exclusion influence people with disabilities’ formal and informal access to land and agrarian support. Accordingly, the article advances the significance of a sturdy transformative agenda that prioritizes this often-sidelined group in the productive, redistributive, reproductive, protective and social compact outcomes of the land reform. This approach tackles the structural causes of marginalization, inequality and poverty in pursuit of generating and sustaining the wellbeing of people with disabilities.

Two decades after Korpi and Palme’s “paradox of redistribution”: What have we learned so far and where do we take it from here?

AbstractOver two decades ago, Korpi and Palme (1998) published one of the most influential papers in the history of social policy discipline, in which they put forward a “paradox of redistribution”: the more countries target welfare resources exclusively at the poor, the less redistribution is actually achieved and the less income inequality and poverty are reduced. The current paper provides a state-of-the-art review of empirical research into that paradox. More specifically, we break down the paradox into seven core assumptions, which together form a causal chain running from institutional design to redistributive outcomes. For each causal assumption, we offer a comprehensive and critical review of the relevant empirical literature, also including a broader range of studies that do not aim to address Korpi and Palme’s paradox per se, but are nevertheless informative about it.

Refugee Migration and the Politics of Redistribution: Do Supply and Demand Meet?

Voter demand for less redistribution in the face of mass migration maps into actual outcomes insofar as politicians supplying these policies respond to it. We study whether establishing new asylum-seeker centers influences redistributive outcomes in Finnish local elections --a country where municipalities have a significant control over fiscal policies. The sudden and unprecedentedly large inflow of asylum-seekers in the fall 2015 and the resulting establishment of asylum centers allows for a difference-in-differences design. We examine simultaneously supply and demand for redistribution by focusing both on candidates' policy positions and also voters' preferences. On the supply side, we find that, on average, candidates do not respond to the presence of refugees by adopting anti-redistributive positions. Our estimates are precise enough to rule out even fairly small effects. In contrast, on the demand side, there is evidence of various voter responses against redistribution (and in favor of the anti-immigration party), on average suggesting that representative democracy filters the mapping of voter preferences on policy outcomes. But this political disequilibrium comes at the price of a \textit{populist backlash}: we find decreased support for insider elite candidates. We probe the mechanism behind the backlash: in the localities more intensely exposed to refugee migration, we observe also a supply-side response (candidates oppose redistribution) while a demand response is less heterogeneous. In the municipalities where the gap between demand and supply is wider also the backlash is larger.

The youth after land reform in Zimbabwe: exploring the redistributive and social protection outcomes from a transformative social policy perspective

ABSTRACT Focusing on the youth, this paper explores the social policy dimensions of Zimbabwe’s fast-track land reform programme (FTLRP) using the transformative social policy (TSP) theoretical framework. It shows that in rural Zimbabwe, the FTLRP has impacted the youth in diverse ways which are only becoming visible now. Using the TSP framework, the paper argues that land reform is a social policy instrument that can be used to transform livelihoods and bring about inclusive development in former settler colonies. It uses empirical evidence gathered in Goromonzi district in Zimbabwe to show that there are discernible redistribution, production and social protection outcomes of the FTLRP. In a context where some Southern African countries are grappling with how best to deal with their “land questions,” the paper argues that there are lessons to be learned from the Zimbabwean experience.

Black economic empowerment policy and state–business relations in South Africa: the case of mining

ABSTRACTThe article analyses contestation of black economic empowerment ownership transfer policies in South Africa’s mining industry. Using case study material from platinum, the article examines the transition between the first Mining Charter of 2004 and the third Mining Charter of 2018. It argues that the inherent fragilities of this financialised redistribution mechanism have generated poor redistributive outcomes and achieved limited progress in the formation of a black capitalist class aligning political and economic power. This has contributed to increased factional and ideological contestation over the pace and method of economic transformation, and a deterioration in relations between the state and big business in mining.

The heterogeneous effect of diversity: Ascriptive identities, class and redistribution in developed democracies

AbstractThe current consensus among comparative political scientists postulates that diverse democracies redistribute less than do homogeneous ones. However, whereas homogeneous democracies do redistribute more on average, diverse democracies exhibit high variation in redistributive outcomes. Why does ascriptive heterogeneity stifle redistribution in some cases but not in others? In this article, it is argued that diversity undermines redistributive outcomes when identity groups differ more starkly in their income levels. More importantly, under these conditions, the policy outcomes are not uniform: rather than general cutbacks, richer groups selectively under‐prioritise benefits and access for poorer, minority‐heavy groups while keeping their own redistributive interests protected. The result is not simply less redistribution aggregately, but a more exclusionary and regressive welfare state that prioritises the special needs of better‐off identity groups. Empirical support is found in these hypotheses using macro‐comparative panel data on multiple redistributive aspects in 22 developed democracies in the years 1980–2011. The article thus outlines a conditional and more nuanced relationship between diversity and redistributive outcomes than commonly assumed, as well as several broader lessons for research of identity politics and social policy.

Social limits to redistribution and conspicuous norms

AbstractIn this article the author considers an economy in which individuals are matched into pairs and the desirability of an individual depends on her position on the distribution of wealth. He assumes that individuals show their relative standing by consuming a conspicuous good and he shows that there exist different social norms supporting different matching arrangements. In addition, individuals have to vote over a redistributive policy and the author shows that, despite the desirability of the full redistributive outcomes, under some economic conditions the medium class is able to match with the high class in exchange of a minimum level of redistribution of wealth which keeps the low class far from economic and social opportunities.

The Measurement of Targeting Design in Complex Welfare States: A Proposal and Empirical Applications

The extent to which welfare states target resources to the poor and the effect this may have on redistribution and public support remains an important question in contemporary social policy and welfare state research. Usually in this line of research, targeting is measured as the extent of transfers accruing to the lowest income groups. Such an outcome measure depends on both policy design and contextual factors, such as the composition of the population. For some research questions however, researchers may want to separate the effect of the design of benefit schemes, i.e. targeting design, from the context in which targeting takes place. For instance to assess the effect of policy design on redistributive outcomes, or to track whether policymakers resorted to more or less targeting in their benefit schemes over time. Therefore, in this article we develop an institutional targeting indicator that captures the policy intention to target towards the poor. Our indicator summarizes policy design into one parameter, and captures the complexity of benefit design in contemporary welfare states in a meaningful way. Drawing on the OECD Benefits and Wages data that capture the rules and legislation of tax benefit systems, we demonstrate different empirical applications for this indicator.

Balancing informality and need – policy responses to informal East-West migration in Austria, the Netherlands and Sweden

ABSTRACTThe article provides an analysis of policy responses to mobile EU citizens without legal residence in the Netherlands, Austria and Sweden. A comparative case study design uses qualitative survey and interview data to identify national and local policy responses to the implications of EU citizens from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) living without legal residence in the aforementioned countries. The theoretical framework specifies how the institutional logic of welfare regimes is likely to generate policy responses that address need, sanction informality or do both. The choice indicates the priority given to redistributive outcomes, administrative procedures, or both. The results reveal similar responses to those implications relating to the labour market, but slightly different approaches to the implications in the social domain. Policy responses to labour market implications have predominantly focused on sanctioning informality. Swedish and Austrian policy responses in the social domain have focused on addressing need. Dutch policy responses to social issues instead focused on sanctioning informality, prioritizing procedure. The results indicate that local and national policy responses to implications of informal intra-EU migration may be fruitfully understood through the prism of welfare regimes and related approaches to need and informality.

Introducing social protection in the Middle East and North Africa: Prospects for a new social contract?

AbstractThe introductory article of this special issue looks at the genesis, characteristics and challenges of social protection schemes in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). It argues that social protection policies in the MENA should be seen as a key ingredient of the social contract that governments offered to their citizens after independence. To compensate for the lack of political participation and accountability, free public health and education systems, generous food, energy and water subsidies, social insurance and assistance schemes and mass public‐sector employment were established. This was possible because MENA countries benefitted from substantial windfall profits (from the export of oil, gas and minerals; Suez Canal user fees), as well as from income from remittances from migrant workers and income from politically motivated aid. The decline of income from some of these sources and population growth has led MENA governments to focus more closely their social protection spending on strategically important social groups: typically, the urban upper middle class. As a result, social protection systems in MENA countries currently suffer from severe weaknesses in terms of social fairness, efficiency and sustainability. Although MENA countries still spend a very considerable share of gross domestic product on their social protection schemes, these have only very limited effects on the reduction of poverty, vulnerability and inequality – and some even exhibit perverse “bottom‐up” redistributive outcomes. The articles that comprise this special issue selectively spotlight a number of opportunities and challenges for the development of sustainable social protection in the MENA countries.

What Do Trade Agreements Really Do?

Economists have a tendency to associate “free trade agreements” all too closely with “free trade.” They may be unaware of some of the new (and often problematic) beyond-the-boarder features of current trade agreements. As trade agreements have evolved and gone beyond import tariffs and quotas into regulatory rules and harmonization— intellectual property, health and safety rules, labor standards, investment measures, investor–state dispute settlement procedures, and others—they have become harder to fit into received economic theory. It is possible that rather than neutralizing the protectionists, trade agreements may empower a different set of rent-seeking interests and politically well-connected firms—international banks, pharmaceutical companies, and multinational firms. Trade agreements could still result in freer, mutually beneficial trade, through exchange of market access. They could result in the global upgrading of regulations and standards, for labor, say, or the environment. But they could also produce purely redistributive outcomes under the guise of “freer trade.” As trade agreements become less about tariffs and nontariff barriers at the border and more about domestic rules and regulations, economists might do well to worry more about the latter possibility.

Ideology and redistribution through public spending

For a panel of OECD economies (1980–2013) we analyse the scope of government ideology to shape patterns of public expenditures. To address if public expenditures are used to channel redistributive outcomes, we adopt a flexible panel error correction model and proceed in two steps: Firstly, we analyse if ideological positions matter for the sizing of the public sector. Secondly, we address the actual impact of government ideology on two disjoint categories of public expenditure that are characterized by distinguished redistributive effects. Under both, left-wing and right-wing governments, public spending shows progressively redistributive effects which are indirectly channelled through their policy response to changing macroeconomic, fiscal and demographic fundamentals. While right-wing governments act progressively redistributive under favourable socio-economic conditions, their left-wing counterparts do so under unfavourable conditions. Comparing the two effects in terms of their explanatory content, we find that the latter is stronger than the former.

Participatory citizenship in the making? The multiple citizenship trajectories of participatory budgeting participants in Brazil

ABSTRACTMost scholarship on participatory budgeting (PB) has highlighted its impact on democratic processes and redistributive outcomes, but there is also an implicit argument associating it with citizenship learning processes at the individual and collective levels. As a mechanism for social interactions, it is often called a ‘school of citizenship’ nurturing the development of ‘better citizens’ who participate as agents and members of a political community. This relation is, however, more ambiguous in practice. The article looks at this relationship and at the rise of so-called participatory democratic citizenship. Drawing from surveys conducted among PB participants in two Brazilian cities in 2009 (Porto Alegre) and 2014 (Belo Horizonte), the article shows that, at the individual level, multiple trajectories of citizenship can emerge among participants and can coexist in participatory processes. Contrary to the common wisdom, the article brings to light the complexity of differentiated citizenship learning processes among individuals active in participatory mechanisms. These cases thus show that PB does not necessarily contribute to the creation of a civic community, that is, a durable and active form of social organization that fosters the rise of a participatory and democratic citizenship.

When Are Federations More Unequal? The Political Economy of Interregional Redistribution in Developing Federations

Why do some countries redistribute more to poorer regions than others? This paper explores which factors explain variation in the degree of interregional redistribution among countries between 1983 and 2010. The main argument is that interregional redistribution increases with the need and capacity of strong presidents to build territorial coalitions with governors from poorer regions and, by implication, decreases with the ability of strong governors in rich districts to resist pressures to extract resources from their units. Using a multilevel structural equation model (the Generalized Linear Latent Multilevel Model, GLLAMM), the study analyzes these and competing claims on the determinants of interregional redistribution using original data from the subnational units of four types of cases, ranging from decentralized and federal to centralized, unitary countries. Empirical results indicate that the type of redistributive coalition between presidents and governors complement purely structural and institutional models to explain fiscal redistributive outcomes in the context of sharp regional inequality.