IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/intecj/v23y2009i1p43-64.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Trade and the Redistributive State

Author

Listed:
  • Barbara Dluhosch

Abstract

According to popular belief, welfare-state arrangements will become unsustainable in face of low-cost competition from abroad. Yet, in contrast to much of the theoretical work that predicts a race-to-the-bottom, empirical studies do not seem to support the notion that globalization is necessarily the demise of the welfare state. Whereas most of the literature approaches the issue of globalization and the redistributive state from a normative angle, this paper provides a political-economy-explanation. It shows that, with majoritarian redistribution and endogenous labor supply, redistributive tax rates actually tend to be higher in the integrated as opposed to the isolated economy. Depending on factor differentials within the population as well as technology parameters, redistributive budget-to-GNP ratios may nevertheless be lower, even if the redistributive tax rate increases.

Suggested Citation

  • Barbara Dluhosch, 2009. "Trade and the Redistributive State," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(1), pages 43-64.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:intecj:v:23:y:2009:i:1:p:43-64
    DOI: 10.1080/10168730802696608
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10168730802696608
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/10168730802696608?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.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hiscox, Michael J., 2001. "Class Versus Industry Cleavages: Inter-Industry Factor Mobility and the Politics of Trade," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 55(1), pages 1-46, January.
    2. Dani Rodrik, 1998. "Why Do More Open Economies Have Bigger Governments?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(5), pages 997-1032, October.
    3. Dani Rodrik, 1998. "Has Globalization Gone Too Far?," Challenge, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(2), pages 81-94, March.
    4. Hansen, Jorgen Drud, 2003. "Immigration and income redistribution in welfare states," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 735-746, November.
    5. Wolfgang F. Stolper & Paul A. Samuelson, 1941. "Protection and Real Wages," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 9(1), pages 58-73.
    6. Kenneth Scheve & Matthew J. Slaughter, 2004. "Economic Insecurity and the Globalization of Production," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 48(4), pages 662-674, October.
    7. Roemer, John E., 1998. "Why the poor do not expropriate the rich: an old argument in new garb," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(3), pages 399-424, December.
    8. Meltzer, Allan H & Richard, Scott F, 1981. "A Rational Theory of the Size of Government," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(5), pages 914-927, October.
    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. Gordon H. Hanson & Kenneth Scheve & Matthew J. Slaughter, 2007. "Public Finance And Individual Preferences Over Globalization Strategies," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(1), pages 1-33, March.
    2. Kosack, Stephen & Tobin, Jennifer L., 2015. "Which Countries’ Citizens Are Better Off With Trade?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 95-113.
    3. Sijeong Lim & Brian Burgoon, 2017. "Globalization and Support for Unemployment Spending in Asia," Working Papers hal-01670983, HAL.
    4. Florian Dorn & Christoph Schinke, 2018. "Top income shares in OECD countries: The role of government ideology and globalisation," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(9), pages 2491-2527, September.
    5. Stephanie J. Rickard, 2006. "The Costs of Risk: Examining the Missing Link between Globalization and Social Spending," The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series iiisdp185, IIIS.
    6. Dani Rodrik, 2018. "Populism and the economics of globalization," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 1(1), pages 12-33, June.
    7. Thiemo Fetzer & Carlo Schwarz, 2021. "Tariffs and Politics: Evidence from Trump’s Trade Wars," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 131(636), pages 1717-1741.
    8. Gaston, Noel & Rajaguru, Gulasekaran, 2013. "International migration and the welfare state revisited," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 90-101.
    9. Marques II, Israel, 2018. "Firms and social policy preferences under weak institutions : Evidence from Russia," BOFIT Discussion Papers 7/2018, Bank of Finland, Institute for Economies in Transition.
    10. Jha, Priyaranjan & Gozgor, Giray, 2019. "Globalization and taxation: Theory and evidence," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 296-315.
    11. Christoph Schinke, 2014. "Government Ideology, Globalization, and Top Income Shares in OECD Countries," ifo Working Paper Series 181, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    12. repec:zbw:bofitp:2018_007 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Philip Nel, 2006. "When Can the Rabble Redistribute? Democratization and Income Distribution in Low- and Middle-income Countries," Working Papers 43, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    14. Kammas, Pantelis & Sarantides, Vassilis, 2019. "Do dictatorships redistribute more?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 176-195.
    15. Sergio Espuelas, 2015. "The inequality trap. A comparative analysis of social spending between 1880 and 1930," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 68(2), pages 683-706, May.
    16. Andros Kourtellos & Alex Lenkoski & Kyriakos Petrou, 2017. "Measuring the Strength of the Theories of Government Size," University of Cyprus Working Papers in Economics 11-2017, University of Cyprus Department of Economics.
    17. Harms, Philipp & Zink, Stefan, 2003. "Limits to redistribution in a democracy: a survey," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 651-668, November.
    18. Giuranno, Michele G. & Nocco, Antonella, 2020. "Trade tariff, wage gap and public spending," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 167-179.
    19. Israel Marques, 2014. "Firms And Social Policy In The Post-Communist Bloc: Evidence From Russia," HSE Working papers WP BRP 87/EC/2014, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    20. Marques II, Israel, 2018. "Firms and social policy preferences under weak institutions: Evidence from Russia," BOFIT Discussion Papers 7/2018, Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies (BOFIT).
    21. Carmignani, Fabrizio, 2009. "The distributive effects of institutional quality when government stability is endogenous," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 409-421, December.

    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:taf:intecj:v:23:y:2009:i:1:p:43-64. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RIEJ20 .

    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.