IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unu/wpaper/wp-2025-32.html

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. repec:cup:apsrev:v:53:y:1959:i:01:p:69-105_00 is not listed on IDEAS
    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. John R. Barner & David Okech & Meghan A. Camp, 2014. "Socio-Economic Inequality, Human Trafficking, and the Global Slave Trade," Societies, MDPI, vol. 4(2), pages 1-13, April.
    3. Christopher Hartwell, 2022. "Institutions and trade‐related inequality," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(3), pages 3246-3264, July.
    4. Andreas T. Schmidt & Daan Juijn, 2024. "Economic inequality and the long-term future," Politics, Philosophy & Economics, , vol. 23(1), pages 67-99, February.
    5. Mahyudin Ahmad, 2017. "Economic Freedom and Income Inequality: Does Political Regime Matter?," Economies, MDPI, vol. 5(2), pages 1-28, June.
    6. Vladimir Hlásny, 2023. "The Implications of Inequality for Corruption: Does the MENA Region Stand Out?," Economia Internazionale / International Economics, Camera di Commercio Industria Artigianato Agricoltura di Genova, vol. 76(1), pages 1-40.
    7. Balcazar Salazar,Carlos Felipe, 2015. "Long-run effects of democracy on income inequality : evidence from repeated cross-sections," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7153, The World Bank.
    8. repec:fsu:wpaper:wp2013_12_01 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. 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.
    10. Kostas Rontos & Maria-Eleni Syrmali & Luca Salvati & Ioannis Vavouras, 2024. "Competitiveness, corruption, and income inequalities: approaching the ‘Janus’ face of development with simultaneous equation modelling," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 58(1), pages 343-364, February.
    11. Andrew J. Hussey & Michael Jetter & Dianne McWilliam, 2021. "The Fundamental Determinants of Economic Inequality in Average Income Across Countries: The Declining Role of Political Institutions," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 67(1), pages 104-133, March.
    12. Gründler, Klaus & Krieger, Tommy, 2021. "Using machine learning for measuring democracy: An update," ZEW Discussion Papers 21-012, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    13. 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.
    14. Marta Guerriero, 2019. "Democracy and the Labor Share of Income: A Cross-Country Analysis," ADB Institute Series on Development Economics, in: Gary Fields & Saumik Paul (ed.), Labor Income Share in Asia, chapter 0, pages 151-176, Springer.
    15. Kimana Zulueta†Fülscher, 2018. "Overcoming the ownership dilemma: Contributing to peace and democracy in El Salvador and the Philippines," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 36(S1), pages 220-246, March.
    16. Francis Andrianarison, 2023. "Human capital, infrastructure, and institutional quality: leapfrogging the spatial poverty gap," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 3(9), pages 1-26, September.
    17. Sangheon Lee & Megan Gerecke, 2015. "Economic development and inequality: revisiting the Kuznets curve," Chapters, in: Janine Berg (ed.), Labour Markets, Institutions and Inequality, chapter 2, pages 39-64, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    18. Houda Badri & Saïd Souam, 2022. "Inequality, education and democracy in Africa," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 42(4), pages 2010-2023.
    19. 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.
    20. 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.
    21. 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).

    More about this item

    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.