The Philippines aspires to become a predominantly middle-class society by 2040. Significant strides have been achieved in the reduction of extreme poverty. However, the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the fragility of recent gains and the vulnerability of many households to economic shocks. This study...

We characterize optimal climate policy in an economy with heterogeneous households and non-homothetic preferences. We focus on constrained efficiency, where the planner is restricted from transferring resources across households. We derive three results. First, the constrained-optimal carbon tax...

Die Dekade 2010 bis 2019 war ein Jahrzehnt mit starkem Wirtschaftswachstum: Löhne und Gehälter stiegen deutlich an, Erwerbslosigkeit sank auf ein sehr niedriges Niveau. Gleichzeitig lässt in diesem Zeitraum die Umverteilungskraft des Steuerund Transfersystems deutlich nach. Die hohe...

Das vorliegende Policy Paper befasst sich mit dem Zusammenhang zwischen Wahrnehmungen politischer Selbstwirksamkeit und ökonomischer Ungleichheit. Die aktuellen Daten des Konstanzer Ungleichheitsbarometers zeigen, dass viele Menschen ihre Einflussmöglichkeiten auf die Politik und auch die...

In Deutschland bestehen im Vergleich zu anderen Ländern hohe Bildungsungleichheiten nach sozialer Herkunft, wofür die frühe Aufteilung der Schülerinnen und Schüler in verschiedene Schulformen und die relativ geringe Durchlässigkeit des Bildungssystems als ein Erklärungsansatz diskutiert...

Financial student aid improves educational outcomes and reduces social inequality, yet many eligible students do not take it up. To examine whether correcting misperceptions increases take-up, I conducted an RCT with 6,225 university students across Germany who were not receiving aid. I find...

Economic development under capitalism is uneven, both socially and spatially. The existing literature, both mainstream social sciences and Marxist political economy, generally separates social inequality (inequality among classes and class-fractions) from spatial inequality. It also pays...

It can be argued that the rich world has long reached the social limits to growth, which were presciently seen by key figures in post-Keynesian economics. Reducing working hours, therefore, may have a greater potential to increase people's life satisfaction than more economic growth. One of the...

As financial globalization continues to evolve, it has played a pivotal role in the development of financial sectors in developing countries, enhancing efficiency and fostering competition. However, this trend has also raised concerns regarding its socio-economic impacts, particularly in...

Digitalization plays a critical role in economic development and ensuring social equity. The advancement of digitalization is expected to expand economic opportunities for previously underserved populations, thereby narrowing income disparities. However, it may also exacerbate inequality due to...

This paper constructs a new global historical database on public expenditure and revenue and their components—particularly education and health expenditure—covering all world regions over the 1800-2025 period. We document a large rise of human capital expenditure (as % of GDP) in all parts...

Inequality of opportunity is a critical issue that significantly impacts the socioeconomic landscape. Understanding the variations in income and educational attainment has become increasingly important, as these disparities are often shaped by social determinants such as individual effort and...

Inequality often arises from strategic interactions among individuals. This is so because risky investments can not only be resolved by chance (natural risk), but also by others' actions (social risk). We study how these different sources of inequality shape fairness judgments and the level of...

We investigate the effects of different components of government spending on inclusive growth. More specifically, we consider the inclusive impact of public spending on environmental protection, health, education, housing, and social protection, all of which can conceivably promote inclusive...

We study whether exposure to social movements campaigning against income and gender income inequality shifts individual beliefs about inequality, reshapes preferences for redistribution, and translates into political participation in the UK. Since the Great Recession of the 2010s, the UK has...

Regional economic conditions affect livelihoods and the geography of political resentment. Yet, individuals do not equally partake in their region’s economic fortunes, and their perceptions of relative deprivation need not be the same. Grievances are likely to be shaped not only by income...

Unequal consumption sharing within households is well-documented. However, there is limited evidence on the stability of within-household inequality over time. We combine a collective household model with consumption survey data spanning 24 years to study the evolution of within-household...