IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/poleco/v50y2017icp106-121.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The creation of effective states in the OECD since 1870: The role of inequality

Author

Listed:
  • Madsen, Jakob B.
  • Wang, Cong
  • Steiner, Bodo

Abstract

Research shows that state capacity is crucial for economic development, yet the impact of inequality on state capacity is not well understood. This paper examines the impact of income inequality on three key dimensions of state capacity, namely legal, fiscal and collective capacity using annual data for a core of 21 OECD countries over the period 1870–2013. We find that the marked reduction in inequality over most of the last century starting from 1916 was pivotal to the significant improvements in legal, fiscal and collective capacity in the OECD countries over the same period.

Suggested Citation

  • Madsen, Jakob B. & Wang, Cong & Steiner, Bodo, 2017. "The creation of effective states in the OECD since 1870: The role of inequality," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 106-121.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:poleco:v:50:y:2017:i:c:p:106-121
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2017.03.007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0176268016301483
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2017.03.007?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mehdi El Herradi & Jakob Haan & Aurélien Leroy, 2023. "Inflation and the Income Share of the Rich: Evidence for 14 OECD Countries," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 69(1), pages 170-194, March.
    2. Cong Wang & Bodo Steiner, 2020. "Can social capital explain business performance in Denmark?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 59(4), pages 1699-1722, October.
    3. Mehdi el Herradi & Jakob de Haan & Aurélien Leroy, 2020. "Inflation and the Income Share of the Rich: Evidence for 12 OECD Countries," CESifo Working Paper Series 8203, CESifo.
    4. Cong Wang & Amjad Naveed, 2021. "Can Women Empowerment Explain Cross-Country Differences in Inequality? A Global Perspective," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 158(2), pages 667-697, December.
    5. Amjad Naveed & Cong Wang, 2018. "Can religion explain cross-country differences in inequality? A global perspective," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 50(3), pages 481-518, March.
    6. Geloso, Vincent J. & Salter, Alexander W., 2020. "State capacity and economic development: Causal mechanism or correlative filter?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 372-385.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Inequality; Institutions; State capacity; OECD countries;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H00 - Public Economics - - General - - - General
    • N20 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions - - - General, International, or Comparative
    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:poleco:v:50:y:2017:i:c:p:106-121. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505544 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.