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The Determinants of Redistribution Around The World
Author(s) -
Jäntti Markus,
Pirttilä Jukka,
Rönkkö Risto
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
review of income and wealth
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.024
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1475-4991
pISSN - 0034-6586
DOI - 10.1111/roiw.12406
Subject(s) - redistribution (election) , inequality , economics , econometrics , economic inequality , redistribution of income and wealth , public economics , demographic economics , macroeconomics , mathematics , political science , unemployment , mathematical analysis , politics , law
This paper reexamines the determinants of redistribution in light of improved data and methods relative to earlier literature. In particular, we use the latest version of the UNU‐WIDER’s Income Inequality Database to have the best available estimates of both pre‐ and post‐redistribution inequality for the largest set of countries and periods. We tackle head‐on problems related to model specification that risk generating large biases in estimates because of mechanical associations between the dependent and explanatory variables. The results suggest that the bias in the earlier work can be substantial. The descriptive analysis highlights, in addition, how scarce the data are when it comes to information about the extent of redistribution in developing countries.