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Inequality, Redistribution, and Population

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  • Campante, Filipe

    (Harvard U)

  • Do, Quoc-Anh

Abstract

We document a negative relationship between population size and inequality in the cross-country data. We propose an explanation built on the existence of a size effect in the political economy of redistribution, particularly in the presence of different channels of popular request for redistribution, e.g. “institutional” channels and “revolutions”. Based on the assumption that the threat of revolution is directly related to the number of people that may attempt to revolt, the theory predicts that the stylized fact initially uncovered by the paper can be refined as follows: there is a negative relationship between population size, and its geographical concentration, and post-tax inequality in non-democracies. We subject these predictions to extensive empirical scrutiny in a cross-country context, and the data robustly confirm these patterns of inequality, population, and the interaction with democracy.

Suggested Citation

  • Campante, Filipe & Do, Quoc-Anh, 2007. "Inequality, Redistribution, and Population," Working Paper Series rwp07-046, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    • Handle: RePEc:ecl:harjfk:rwp07-046
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2009. "Five Centuries of Latin American Inequality," NBER Working Papers 15305, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Quoc-Anh Do & Filipe R. Campante, 2009. "Keeping Dictators Honest: the Role of Population Concentration," Working Papers 01-2009, Singapore Management University, School of Economics.
    3. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/7t0dp4mp8288lr2u6l7j8uk4li is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Edward Glaeser & Giacomo Ponzetto & Andrei Shleifer, 2007. "Why does democracy need education?," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 77-99, June.
    5. repec:got:cegedp:81 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Jochen Hartwig & Jan Egbert Sturm, 2019. "Do fiscal rules breed inequality? First evidence for the EU," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 39(2), pages 1508-1515.
    7. Filipe Campante & Quoc-Anh Do, 2010. "A Centered Index of Spatial Concentration: Expected Influence Approach," Working Papers hal-03460167, HAL.
    8. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/7t0dp4mp8288lr2u6l7j8uk4li is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Alberto Batinti & Joan Costa‐Font, 2020. "Do economic recessions “squeeze the middle class”?," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 335-355, November.
    10. Campante, Filipe Robin & Do, Quoc-Anh, 2009. "A Centered Index of Spatial Concentration: Axiomatic Approach with an Application to Population and Capital Cities," Scholarly Articles 4481653, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
    11. Federico Attili, 2020. "Within-between decomposition of the Gini index: a novel proposal," Working Papers wp1153, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    12. Filipe Campante & Edward L. Glaeser, 2018. "Yet another tale of two cities: Buenos Aires and Chicago," Latin American Economic Review, Springer;Centro de Investigaciòn y Docencia Económica (CIDE), vol. 27(1), pages 1-33, December.
    13. Sitthiyot, Thitithep & Holasut, Kanyarat, 2016. "On Income Inequality and Population Size," MPRA Paper 73684, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Williamson, Jeffrey G., 2009. "History without evidence: Latin American inequality since 1491," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 81, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.
    15. Quoc-Anh Doy & Filipe R. Campante, 2009. "Keeping Dictators Honest : the Role of Population Concentration," Governance Working Papers 22076, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    16. John C. Anyanwu, 2016. "Empirical Analysis of the Main Drivers of Income Inequality in Southern Africa," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 17(2), pages 337-364, November.
    17. Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2009. "History without Evidence: Latin American Inequality since 1491," NBER Working Papers 14766, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution

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