IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unu/wpaper/wp-2025-32.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Inequality, income, and democracy in perspective: Insights from novel data analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Rute Martins Caeiro
  • Rachel M. Gisselquist
  • Klarizze Anne Martin Puzon

Abstract

The relationship between economic development, inequality, and democratization has long been debated in the literature. Yet empirical analyses of this interplay have been limited and have yielded overall mixed and inconsistent results. This paper seeks to address this gap by examining the impact of income inequality on democracy, focusing particularly on the influential theory proposed by Acemoglu and Robinson, which predicts an inverted U-shaped relationship between inequality and democracy.

Suggested Citation

  • Rute Martins Caeiro & Rachel M. Gisselquist & Klarizze Anne Martin Puzon, 2025. "Inequality, income, and democracy in perspective: Insights from novel data analysis," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2025-32, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2025-32
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/Publications/Working-paper/PDF/wp2025-32-inequality-income-democracy-perspective.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Savoia, Antonio & Easaw, Joshy & McKay, Andrew, 2010. "Inequality, Democracy, and Institutions: A Critical Review of Recent Research," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 142-154, February.
    2. Dorsch, Michael T. & Maarek, Paul, 2020. "Economic downturns, inequality, and democratic improvements," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    3. Lipset, Seymour Martin, 1959. "Some Social Requisites of Democracy: Economic Development and Political Legitimacy1," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 53(1), pages 69-105, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Lewkowicz, Jacek & Woźniak, Michał & Wrzesiński, Michał, 2022. "COVID-19 and erosion of democracy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    2. Samuel Adams & Edem Kwame Mensah Klobodu, 2019. "Urbanization, Economic Structure, Political Regime, and Income Inequality," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 142(3), pages 971-995, April.
    3. Antonio Ciccone & Adilzhan Ismailov, 2022. "Rainfall, Agricultural Output and Persistent Democratization," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 89(354), pages 229-257, April.
    4. Schlumberger, Oliver, 2021. "Puzzles of political change in the Middle East: Political liberalisation, authoritarian resilience and the question of systemic change," IDOS Discussion Papers 5/2021, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    5. Dmitry Ryvkin & Anastasia Semykina, 2015. "The chicken or the egg: An experimental study of democracy survival, income, and inequality," Working Papers wp2015_11_01, Department of Economics, Florida State University.
    6. repec:fsu:wpaper:wp2013_12_01 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Houda Badri & Saïd Souam, 2022. "Inequality, education and democracy in Africa," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 42(4), pages 2010-2023.
    8. Nobel Prize Committee, 2024. "Scientific Background to the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2024," Nobel Prize in Economics documents 2024-2, Nobel Prize Committee.
    9. Dmitry Ryvkin & Anastasia Semykina, 2017. "An experimental study of democracy breakdown, income and inequality," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 20(2), pages 420-447, June.
    10. Roberto Ezcurra & Izaskun Zuazu, 2022. "Political equality and quality of government," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(2), pages 269-293, May.
    11. Carlos Felipe Balcázar, 2016. "Long-run effects of democracy on income inequality in Latin America," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 14(3), pages 289-307, September.
    12. Janus, Thorsten, 2023. "Short and long run democracy diffusion," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    13. Sajad Rahimian, 2021. "The Determinants of Democracy Revisited: An Instrumental Variable Bayesian Model Averaging Approach," Papers 2103.04255, arXiv.org.
    14. Robert MacCulloch & Silvia Pezzini, 2010. "The Roles of Freedom, Growth, and Religion in the Taste for Revolution," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 53(2), pages 329-358, May.
    15. Jian-Guang Shen, 2002. "Democracy and growth: An alternative empirical approach," Development and Comp Systems 0212002, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Ahmet Faruk AYSAN & Mustapha Kamel NABLI & Marie‐Ange VÉGANZONÈS‐VAROUDAKIS, 2007. "Governance Institutions And Private Investment: An Application To The Middle East And North Africa," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 45(3), pages 339-377, September.
    17. Christopher Hartwell, 2022. "Institutions and trade‐related inequality," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(3), pages 3246-3264, July.
    18. Torsten Persson & Guido Tabellini, 2009. "Democratic Capital: The Nexus of Political and Economic Change," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 1(2), pages 88-126, July.
    19. Yong Glasure & Aie-Rie Lee & James Norris, 1999. "Level of economic development and political democracy revisited," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 5(4), pages 466-477, November.
    20. Emilia Justyna Powell & Steven Christian McDowell & Robert O’Brien & Julia Oksasoglu, 2021. "Islam-based legal language and state governance: democracy, strength of the judiciary and human rights," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 32(3), pages 376-412, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Democracy; Inequality; Income;
    All these keywords.

    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:unu:wpaper:wp-2025-32. 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: Siméon Rapin (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/widerfi.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.