IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/89170.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Burden sharing: income, inequality and willingness to fight

Author

Listed:
  • Anderson, Christopher Johannes
  • Getmansky, Anna
  • Hirsch-Hoefler, Sivan

Abstract

What explains citizens’ willingness to fight for their country in times of war? Using six waves of the World Values Survey, this study finds that individual willingness to fight is negatively related with country-level income inequality. When income inequality is high, the rich are less willing to fight than the poor. When inequality is low, the poor and rich differ little in their willingness to fight. This change in the willingness to fight between low and high inequality countries is greater among the rich than among the poor. This article explores several explanations for these findings. The data are consistent with the argument that high inequality makes it more attractive for the rich to buy themselves out of military service.

Suggested Citation

  • Anderson, Christopher Johannes & Getmansky, Anna & Hirsch-Hoefler, Sivan, 2020. "Burden sharing: income, inequality and willingness to fight," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 89170, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
  • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:89170
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/89170/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alesina, Alberto & Perotti, Roberto, 1996. "Income distribution, political instability, and investment," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 1203-1228, June.
    2. Kuhn, Patrick M. & Weidmann, Nils B., 2015. "Unequal We Fight: Between- and Within-Group Inequality and Ethnic Civil War," Political Science Research and Methods, Cambridge University Press, vol. 3(3), pages 543-568, September.
    3. John D. Huber & Laura Mayoral, 2015. "Inequality, Ethnicity and Civil Conflict," Working Papers 744, Barcelona School of Economics.
    4. Benno Torgler, 2003. "Why do people go to war?," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(4), pages 261-280.
    5. Frederick Solt, 2009. "Standardizing the World Income Inequality Database," LIS Working papers 496, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    6. Joan Esteban & Debraj Ray, 2011. "A Model Of Ethnic Conflict," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 9(3), pages 496-521, June.
    7. Matthew Singer & Christopher Anderson, 2008. "The Sensitive Left and the Impervious Right: Multilevel Models and the Politics of Inequality, Ideology, and Legitimacy in Europe," LIS Working papers 477, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    8. Eli Berman & Michael Callen & Joseph H. Felter & Jacob N. Shapiro, 2011. "Do Working Men Rebel? Insurgency and Unemployment in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Philippines," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 55(4), pages 496-528, August.
    9. Frederick Solt, 2009. "Standardizing the World Income Inequality Database," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 90(2), pages 231-242, June.
    10. Shayo, Moses, 2009. "A Model of Social Identity with an Application to Political Economy: Nation, Class, and Redistribution," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 103(2), pages 147-174, May.
    11. Scheve, Kenneth & Stasavage, David, 2010. "The Conscription of Wealth: Mass Warfare and the Demand for Progressive Taxation," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 64(4), pages 529-561, October.
    12. Robert Andersen & Tina Fetner, 2008. "Economic Inequality and Intolerance: Attitudes toward Homosexuality in 35 Democracies," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 52(4), pages 942-958, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Hamjediers, Maik, 2025. "A Threat Next Door? Causal Evidence that Russia's Invasion Increased Willingness to Fight in the Czech Republic but Not in Uruguay," SocArXiv p6xf4_v1, Center for Open Science.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. John D. Huber & Laura Mayoral, 2019. "Group inequality and the severity of civil conflict," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 1-41, March.
    2. Daron Acemoglu & Suresh Naidu & Pascual Restrepo & James A. Robinson, 2013. "Democracy, Redistribution and Inequality," NBER Working Papers 19746, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Jung-In Jo & Hyun Jin Choi, 2019. "Enigmas of grievances about inequality: Effects of attitudes toward inequality and government redistribution on protest participation," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 22(4), pages 348-368, December.
    4. Michael K Miller, 2013. "Electoral authoritarianism and democracy: A formal model of regime transitions," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 25(2), pages 153-181, April.
    5. Niclas Berggren & Therese Nilsson, 2013. "Does Economic Freedom Foster Tolerance?," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(2), pages 177-207, May.
    6. Bartak, Jakub & Jabłoński, Łukasz & Tomkiewicz, Jacek, 2022. "Does income inequality explain public debt change in OECD countries?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 211-224.
    7. Vladimir Gimpelson & Daniel Treisman, 2018. "Misperceiving inequality," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 27-54, March.
    8. Adalgiso Amendola & Roberto Dell�Anno, 2014. "Income inequality and economic growth: an empirical investigation in Mediterranean countries," RIEDS - Rivista Italiana di Economia, Demografia e Statistica - The Italian Journal of Economic, Demographic and Statistical Studies, SIEDS Societa' Italiana di Economia Demografia e Statistica, vol. 68(2), pages 35-58, April-Jun.
    9. Ọláyínká Oyèkọ́lá, 2024. "Life may be unfair, but do democracies make it any less burdensome?," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 22(3), pages 577-602, September.
    10. Gründler, Klaus & Scheuermeyer, Philipp, 2015. "Income inequality, economic growth, and the effect of redistribution," W.E.P. - Würzburg Economic Papers 95, University of Würzburg, Department of Economics.
    11. Tim Krieger & Daniel Meierrieks, 2016. "Does Income Inequality Lead to Terrorism?," CESifo Working Paper Series 5821, CESifo.
    12. Alessia Damonte & Fedra Negri, 2019. "Gauging fiscal worlds: how the EU countries balanced equality and wealth between 2007 and 2016," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 53(4), pages 1675-1692, July.
    13. Suresh Babu, M. & Bhaskaran, Vandana & Venkatesh, Manasa, 2016. "Does inequality hamper long run growth? Evidence from Emerging Economies," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 99-113.
    14. Florian Dorn, 2016. "On Data and Trends in Income Inequality around the World," ifo DICE Report, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 14(4), pages 54-64, December.
    15. Ann-Sofie Isaksson, 2011. "Social divisions and institutions: assessing institutional parameter variation," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 147(3), pages 331-357, June.
    16. Breunig, Robert & Majeed, Omer, 2020. "Inequality, poverty and economic growth," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 83-99.
    17. Brian Burgoon, 2013. "Inequality and anti-globalization backlash by political parties," European Union Politics, , vol. 14(3), pages 408-435, September.
    18. Brian Burgoon, 2011. "GINI DP 14: Inequality and anti-globalization backlash by political parties," GINI Discussion Papers 14, AIAS, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies.
    19. Jochen Hartwig, 2018. "Wachstumsfolgen von Einkommensungleichheit – Theorie, empirische Evidenz und Politikempfehlungen," Chemnitz Economic Papers 020, Department of Economics, Chemnitz University of Technology.
    20. Farzanegan, Mohammad Reza & Witthuhn, Stefan, 2017. "Corruption and political stability: Does the youth bulge matter?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 47-70.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • N0 - Economic History - - General

    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:ehl:lserod:89170. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    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.