Abstract
In recent decades, the growth of finance and rising income inequality has become a pervasive feature of the political economies in affluent capitalist democracies. This study investigates the long-run effects of financialization on three measures of income inequality—market-generated income inequality, redistribution, and state-mediated income inequality—in 18 affluent capitalist democracies from 1981 to 2011. We focus on three aspects of financialization (finance, insurance, and real estate employment; credit expansion; and financial crises). We find support for our claims that all three measures of financialization increase market-generated and state-mediated income inequality. The results for redistribution are mixed: credit expansion decreases redistribution as expected, but financial crises increase redistribution—a finding that supports the welfare state stabilization hypothesis.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 193-211 |
| Number of pages | 19 |
| Journal | Social Currents |
| Volume | 5 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Apr 1 2018 |
| Externally published | Yes |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- General Social Sciences
Keywords
- economic sociology
- inequality
- methodology
- poverty and mobility