IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/econom/v89y2022is1ps137-s159.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Second World War, Inequality and the Social Contract in Britain

Author

Listed:
  • Leander Heldring
  • James A. Robinson
  • Parker Whitfill

Abstract

What is the impact of warfare on inequality and the social contract? Using local data on bombing, the evolution of wealth inequality and vote shares for the Labour Party in Britain around the Second World War, we establish two results. First, on average, we find no impact of bombing on inequality. However, there is considerable heterogeneity, and this result is driven by southern Britain. In northern Britain, bombing led to significant falls in inequality. Second, heavier bombing led to a significant increase in the vote share for Labour after the war everywhere, but this effect is transitory in the south while it is permanent in the north. Our results obtain both in a simple difference‐in‐differences framework as well as in a panel‐regression discontinuity framework in which we exploit the limited range of German fighter escort planes. Our results provide novel causal evidence for the inequality‐reducing impact of warfare, and we interpret them as consistent with the notion that the impact of the war also led to a reconfiguration of the social contract in Britain.

Suggested Citation

  • Leander Heldring & James A. Robinson & Parker Whitfill, 2022. "The Second World War, Inequality and the Social Contract in Britain," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 89(S1), pages 137-159, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:econom:v:89:y:2022:i:s1:p:s137-s159
    DOI: 10.1111/ecca.12419
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ecca.12419
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/ecca.12419?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alvaredo, Facundo & Atkinson, Anthony B. & Morelli, Salvatore, 2018. "Top wealth shares in the UK over more than a century," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 26-47.
    2. Aidt, Toke S. & Jensen, Peter S., 2009. "The taxman tools up: An event history study of the introduction of the personal income tax," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(1-2), pages 160-175, February.
    3. Aidt, Toke S. & Jensen, Peter S., 2014. "Workers of the world, unite! Franchise extensions and the threat of revolution in Europe, 1820–1938," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 52-75.
    4. Cummins, Neil, 2021. "Where Is the Middle Class? Evidence from 60 Million English Death and Probate Records, 1892–1992," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 81(2), pages 359-404, June.
    5. Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez, 2014. "Inequality in the long run," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) halshs-01053609, HAL.
    6. Daron Acemoglu & James A. Robinson, 2000. "Why Did the West Extend the Franchise? Democracy, Inequality, and Growth in Historical Perspective," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(4), pages 1167-1199.
    7. repec:hal:pseose:halshs-01053609 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Thomas Piketty, 2003. "Income Inequality in France, 1901-1998," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 111(5), pages 1004-1042, October.
    9. Donald R. Davis & David E. Weinstein, 2002. "Bones, Bombs, and Break Points: The Geography of Economic Activity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(5), pages 1269-1289, December.
    10. Robert E. Goodin & John S. Dryzek, 1995. "Justice Deferred: Wartime Rationing and Postwar Welfare Policy," Politics & Society, , vol. 23(1), pages 49-73, March.
    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. Munroe, Ellen & Nosach, Anastasiia & Pedrozo, Moises & Guarnieri, Eleonora & Riano, Juan Felipe & Tur-Prats, Ana & Valencia Caicedo, Felipe, 2023. "The Legacies of War for Ukraine," CEPR Discussion Papers 17841, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Berman, Nicolas & Brey, Björn & Laurent-Lucchetti, Jeremy, 2023. "Panic Politics in the US West Coast," CEPR Discussion Papers 17874, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Eslava Saenz, Francisco & Valencia Caicedo, Felipe, 2023. "Origins of Latin American Inequality," CEPR Discussion Papers 18263, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

    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. Stanley L. Winer, 2016. "The Political Economy of Taxation: Power, Structure, Redistribution," Carleton Economic Papers 16-15, Carleton University, Department of Economics.
    2. Atanu Ghoshray & Issam Malki & Javier Ordóñez, 2022. "On the long-run dynamics of income and wealth inequality," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 62(2), pages 375-408, February.
    3. Vassilis Sarantides & Pantelis Kammas, 2017. "Democratisation and tax structure: Greece versus Europe from a historical perspective," Working Papers 17008, Economic History Society.
    4. Madsen, Jakob & Strulik, Holger, 2020. "Technological change and inequality in the very long run," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    5. Baten, Joerg & Mumme, Christina, 2013. "Does inequality lead to civil wars? A global long-term study using anthropometric indicators (1816–1999)," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 56-79.
    6. Toke Aidt & Peter Jensen, 2013. "Democratization and the size of government: evidence from the long 19th century," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 157(3), pages 511-542, December.
    7. Kammas, Pantelis & Sarantides, Vassilis, 2020. "Democratisation and tax structure in the presence of home production: Evidence from the Kingdom of Greece," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 219-236.
    8. Daron Acemoglu & Suresh Naidu & Pascual Restrepo & James A. Robinson, 2013. "Democracy, Redistribution and Inequality," NBER Working Papers 19746, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Goksu Aslan, 2017. "The Effects of Income Inequality and Redistribution in Democracies: A Dynamic Panel Data Approach," Dynamic Econometric Models, Uniwersytet Mikolaja Kopernika, vol. 17, pages 19-39.
    10. Laura Seelkopf & Moritz Bubek & Edgars Eihmanis & Joseph Ganderson & Julian Limberg & Youssef Mnaili & Paula Zuluaga & Philipp Genschel, 2021. "The rise of modern taxation: A new comprehensive dataset of tax introductions worldwide," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 239-263, January.
    11. Dorsch, Michael T. & Maarek, Paul, 2020. "Economic downturns, inequality, and democratic improvements," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    12. Bertrand Garbinti & Jonathan Goupille-Lebret & Thomas Piketty, 2017. "Income Inequality in France, 1900-2014: Evidence from Distributional National Accounts," PSE Working Papers halshs-02658875, HAL.
    13. Anna & Leonardo Weller, 2018. "Was Cold War A Constraint To Income Inequality?," Anais do XLIV Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 44th Brazilian Economics Meeting] 94, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].
    14. Daron Acemoglu & James A. Robinson, 2013. "Economics versus Politics: Pitfalls of Policy Advice," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 27(2), pages 173-192, Spring.
    15. Schäfer, Andreas & Prettner, Klaus, 2016. "The fall and rise of inequality," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145806, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    16. Hans Degryse & Thomas Lambert & Armin Schwienbacher, 2018. "The Political Economy of Financial Systems: Evidence from Suffrage Reforms in the Last Two Centuries," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 128(611), pages 1433-1475, June.
    17. Zissimos, Ben, 2017. "A theory of trade policy under dictatorship and democratization," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 85-101.
    18. Bravo-Ortega, Claudio & Eterovic, Nicolas A. & Paredes, Valentina, 2018. "What do women want? Female suffrage and the size of government," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 132-150.
    19. Calabuig, Vicente & Olcina, Gonzalo, 2023. "The elite, inequality and the emergence of progressive taxation," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    20. Lucas Chancel, 2019. "Ten facts about income inequality in advanced economies," Working Papers hal-02876982, HAL.

    More about this item

    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:bla:econom:v:89:y:2022:i:s1:p:s137-s159. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (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.