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Electoral Uncertainty, Income Inequality and the Middle Class

Mitra, Anirban, Mitra, Shabana (2016) Electoral Uncertainty, Income Inequality and the Middle Class. Economic Journal, 127 (602). pp. 1119-1152. ISSN 0013-0133. E-ISSN 1468-0297. (doi:10.1111/ecoj.12318) (KAR id:59851)

Abstract

We investigate how electoral competition affects the income distribution in society. We utilise a standard probabilistic voting setup where parties compete at two stages. Our model delivers that greater electoral competition in a district results in equalisation of incomes therein. We check for these relationships using data from Indian national elections which are combined with consumption expenditure data rounds from the National Sample Survey Organization (1987–8 and 2004–5) to yield a district level panel. Our OLS, 2-SLS and IIV analyses consistently inform that close elections lead to lower inequality and polarisation indicating a larger middle class.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1111/ecoj.12318
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Economics
Depositing User: Anirban Mitra
Date Deposited: 13 Jan 2017 08:11 UTC
Last Modified: 09 Dec 2022 05:14 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/59851 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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