Inequality, Social Insurance, and Redistribution

Moene, Karle Ove; Wallerstein, Michael

doi:10.1017/s0003055400400067

Cited by 568 publications

(277 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Most economic models and the large body of literature in political science and sociology observe welfare policy, under which unemployment compensation is categorized, as fundamentally about redistribution from the rich to the poor (e.g., Meltzer and Richard 1981;Moene and Wallerstein 2001). Consequently, these studies emphasize the political strength of the working class in cross-national studies.…”

Section: Theory and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unemployment Risks and the Origins of Unemployment Compensation

Kim

2010

St Comp Int Dev

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This paper focuses on the distribution of sectoral unemployment risks and the role of political regimes in the foundational moments of unemployment compensation. The institutionalization of unemployment compensation is a function of two factors. First, it depends on the distribution of unemployment risks by economic sectors. Second, the effect of risk inequality is conditional upon the political regime type. I employ event history analysis of 144 countries throughout the world for the long historical period from 1880 to 2000. The results show that an overall societal level of unemployment risk and inequality of sectoral unemployment risks in a society are positively associated with the likelihood of the institutionalization of unemployment compensation. In addition, the effect of risk inequality is much higher under democracy than under dictatorship. A broader implication is that the creation of unemployment compensation is not only a function of homogeneous working class power but also a function of working class conflict that stems from the heterogeneity of unemployment risks among workers.

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Section: Theory and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unemployment Risks and the Origins of Unemployment Compensation

Kim

2010

St Comp Int Dev

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“…My point is different, namely, that the nature of production and the underlying features of the global economy that facilitated the rise of the welfare state in the 1950s and 1960s in Europe are wholly gone. Indeed, the literature on redistribution and insurance suggests that individuals' preferences for redistribution and social insurance are a function of their position in the income distribution and their exposure to risk (Moene and Wallerstein 2001), and related research (built largely on the experience of the OECD) emphasizes the importance of electoral systems and collective wage bargaining for fiscal policy and distributive outcomes. While these insights are not directly related to economic openness, it is the case that the operation of the global economy has important implications for national income and risk distributions.…”

Section: Redistribution Insurance and Social Democracy In The Peripmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…That said, the challenge for a new generation of dependency theorists will be to take the micro-logic of the literature on insurance and redistribution seriously, combine it with an understanding of how international markets work, and produce predictions about redistributive politics that reflect contemporary realities in the developing world. Inspired by the literature on risk and redistribution (Moene and Wallerstein 2001;Iversen 2005), dependistas might revisit Przeworski and Wallerstein's (1988) work on the dynamics of capital taxation in contexts of class conflict and extend Mosley's (2003) work on the policy preferences of international capital managers to examine how the network structure of international economic competition conditions domestic conflicts over fiscal policy.…”

Section: Redistribution Insurance and Social Democracy In The Peripmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cores, Peripheries, and Contemporary Political Economy

Wibbels

2009

St Comp Int Dev

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This note underscores the need for more precise causal theories linking the international division of labor, national economies, and public policies. To that end, the author recommends two literatures upon which a revised dependency theory might build, namely, those on economic geography and the political economy of redistribution.There could not be a better time to revisit Cardoso and Falleto's seminal contribution. As mortgage defaults in Los Vegas and Miami reverberate through complex financial ties to the centers of global finance, a global depression looms. And, as usual, this downturn will affect the developing world more severely. Thanks to declining demand in core economies and retrenched investments by capital in those same economies, developing economies will shrink more and suffer greater volatility than their rich counterparts. If you think stock markets in New York and Frankfurt have fallen sharply, you might consider looking at Russia, India, and China where values have fallen twice as severely. So we see, yet again, that the economies of developing nations are, in fact, dependent on their rich counterparts. Whether or not that translates into dependency, as originally articulated in Dependency and Development or as envisioned in these more recent contributions is a whole different matter.There is much to like in this collection of papers. I agree with several common themes that appear across the contributions-that the manner of international economic integration varies across countries, that reliance on external markets can be consistent with advanced forms of production and development, that the operation of international markets constrains choices, and that different forms of integration, therefore, produce different kinds of constraints. I also agree with the widely argued St Comp Int Dev (2009) 44:441-449

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“…The consideration of individual risks may alter this result. If higher income agents also face more risks, they may be in favour of a redistributive social insurance which would weaken the adverse income effects of job loss (Moene and Wallerstein 2001). Iversen and Soskice (2001) add another element, the difference in risk stemming from the type of skills of the agent: general or specific.…”

Section: Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

The Differentiation of Social Demands in Europe. The Social Basis of the European Models of Capitalism

Amable

2008

Soc Indic Res

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This paper tests the impact of various determinants of the preference for two key elements of the European social models: redistribution and trade unions, using individual data from the first round of the European Social Survey. The basic hypothesis is that the main determinant of an individual's support for these elements of the European models is the social position of the individual in terms of income, status and risks attached to their labour market insertion. The paper also considers the relative importance of less 'materialist' influences such as religion or other cultural determinants. The estimations show that 'materialist' determinants are by far the most important influences on individual preferences, contrary to what most social theories of modernisation contend.

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Inequality, Social Insurance, and Redistribution

Cited by 568 publications

References 44 publications

Unemployment Risks and the Origins of Unemployment Compensation

Unemployment Risks and the Origins of Unemployment Compensation

Cores, Peripheries, and Contemporary Political Economy

The Differentiation of Social Demands in Europe. The Social Basis of the European Models of Capitalism

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