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Long-Run Effects of Democracy on Income Inequality : Evidence from Repeated Cross-Sections

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2015-01
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2015-01-07
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This paper assesses the link between democracy and inequality. Inequality is measured at the cohort level with pseudo-panel data built from nine Latin American countries' household surveys (1995-2009, biannual). Democracy is measured as a stock during long periods of time both before and after each cohort's year of birth. The paper presents evidence that long-run historical patterns in the degree of democracy relate to income inequality. However, this relationship is non-monotonic: inequality first increases with the stock of democracy before falling. The paper also presents evidence that education may be a mechanism explaining this result.
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Balcazar, Carlos Felipe. 2015. Long-Run Effects of Democracy on Income Inequality : Evidence from Repeated Cross-Sections. Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7153. © http://hdl.handle.net/10986/21150 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.
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