Studies In Comparative International Development, 1987
... agrees that increased control over the local industry is possible but has doubts concerning t... more ... agrees that increased control over the local industry is possible but has doubts concerning the long-run possibility for increased returns) Girvan's (1976) study of the Caribbean bauxite industry 4 and Shafer's (1983) research on the copper industry in Zam-bia and Zaire, 5 for ...
Latin America has long lagged behind the East Asian Tigers in investment in education. In particu... more Latin America has long lagged behind the East Asian Tigers in investment in education. In particular, Latin American countries failed to invest heavily in public secondary education. This has had costs both in terms of economic growth and inequality. After some 20 years of democracy and particularly with the turn to the left, social investment in the form of increasing expenditures on education and health care and the spread of Conditional Cash Transfer Programs has received unprecedented attention. The CCTs are based on the recognition that investment in the human capital of the next generation requires that poverty in the present generation be addressed. We argue that in Latin America social investment, human capital stock and inequality and poverty are linked in a feedback causal process and present quantitative and qualitative evidence supporting our argument.
Letter from the President 1 News & Notes 3 Symposium Dirty Politics Introduction Daniel Treisman ... more Letter from the President 1 News & Notes 3 Symposium Dirty Politics Introduction Daniel Treisman 5 Displaying One’s Skeletons in One’s Cupboard: Why Norms Breed Corruption Diego Gambetta 6 Market-Based Extorion Halvor Melhum Karl Moene Ragnar Torvik 8 The New Political Economy of Corruption and the Motivation of Politicians: Progress and Some Open Questions Rafael Di Tella 11 Anticorruption Reform at the “Dirty” End of the New Corruption Continuum Melanie Manion 14 Dirty Politics in Latin America David Samuels 17 Book Review 19 Good Read 22 Letter from the President
Pre-tax and transfer, or market income distribution has grown more unequal over the past four dec... more Pre-tax and transfer, or market income distribution has grown more unequal over the past four decades and thus has put increasing demands for redistribution on the welfare state. We focus on one aspect of inequality, wage dispersion, investigating the factors that shape the ratio of wages at the 90th percentile to wages at the 10th percentile, and the ratio of wages at the median to wages at the 10th percentile. We analyze data for 21 advanced democracies for varying numbers of years between the 1960s and 2013, depending on data availability for both the dependent and the independent variables. We integrate a focus on structural changes in the economy with a focus on labor market institutions, partisan politics, and education policies. We argue that the same factors shape wage dispersion between both the top and the bottom and the middle and bottom, but some of those factors have a stronger effect on the distance between the bottom and the median income earner. Specifically, higher levels of capital market openness, Third World imports, and immigration are all associated with higher wage dispersion in the 90:10 and the 50:10 ratio, but these effects are much stronger for the 50:10 ratio. Among the countervailing factors, union density, wage coordination, employment legislation that regulates temporary work, and investment in human capital restrain the overall distance and the distance between the bottom and the middle of the income distribution. The effect of regulation of temporary employment, however, is stronger at the bottom.
Since we periodically update and correct the data, it is advisable to cite the date on which you ... more Since we periodically update and correct the data, it is advisable to cite the date on which you download the data. General Notes: All economic and financial figures are at current (i.e. market) prices unless otherwise noted. For those countries belonging to the Eurozone, all figures denoted in national currencies are expressed in euros. To convert a figure from euros to a legacy currency, use the appropriate irrevocable conversion rate (currency unit per euro):
For a long time, the discussion about the impact of economic globalisation on the full employment... more For a long time, the discussion about the impact of economic globalisation on the full employment/generous welfare state policies pursued by social democratic governments was characterised by doom and gloom. Glib neo-liberal arguments about the impossibility of maintaining social democratic policies, that were presumably hindering competitiveness through excessive wages and taxes in the new international environment were difficult to counter, because social democrats could not resort to an equally elaborate and internally consistent economic doctrine that could substitute for evidence, and the evidence was not yet in to counter these arguments on empirical grounds. Recently, careful and comprehensive comparative studies have provided evidence that, despite undeniable problems posed by economic internationalisation, social democratic welfare states and employment regimes have proven to be highly resilient (Scharpf and Schmidt, 2000; Huber and Stephens, 2001). Indeed, some kinds of tr...
The field of Latin American politics has undeniably achieved major advances in the last several d... more The field of Latin American politics has undeniably achieved major advances in the last several decades. Nevertheless, one detects a growing intellectual unease and a sense that the excitement engendered by the pathbreaking work and heated debates of previous decades—focusing on authoritarianism, democratization, and market restructuring and related structural transformations—has waned and perhaps given way to a certain “normalization” of our intellectual enterprise.
Any account of the social and economic conditions of democracy must come to terms with the centra... more Any account of the social and economic conditions of democracy must come to terms with the central finding of the cross-national statistical research: a sturdy (though not perfect) association between economic development and democracy. To tackle these questions of causation, we adopted a strategy of analytic induction based on comparative historical research. Our program of comparative historical research confirmed the conclusion of the cross-national statistical analyses of the correlates of political democracy: the level of economic development is causally related to the development of political democracy. However, the underlying reason for the connection, in our view, is that capitalist development transforms the class structure, enlarging the working and middle classes and facilitating their self-organization, thus making it more difficult for elites to exclude them politically. Simultaneously, development weakens the landed upper class, democracy's most consistent opponent.
Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears... more Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
Average all country years 39.2 1 Oth percentile all country years 1 6.6 90th percentile all count... more Average all country years 39.2 1 Oth percentile all country years 1 6.6 90th percentile all country years 65.0 Cell entries are the percentage of individuals who live below the ECLAC-established poverty line, most recent date available.
The designations employed in UNRISD publications, which are in conformity with United Nations pra... more The designations employed in UNRISD publications, which are in conformity with United Nations practice, and the presentation of material therein do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNRISD concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The responsibility for opinions expressed in signed articles, studies and other contributions rests solely with their authors, and publication does not constitute an endorsement by UNRISD of the opinions expressed in them.
This article presents the first pooled time series analysis of the impact that politics and polic... more This article presents the first pooled time series analysis of the impact that politics and policy have on inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean. The authors build on models consisting of sociological and economic variables, adding the strength of the democratic tradition, long-term legislative partisan political power distribution, and social spending to explain variation in inequality. They analyze an unbalanced pooled time series data set for income distribution in 18 Latin American and Caribbean countries from 1970 to 2000. They show that the political variables add explanatory power. A strong record of democracy and a left-leaning legislative partisan balance are associated with lower levels of inequality, as are social security and welfare spending under democratic regimes. Thus, they replicate some and modify other well-established findings from studies of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries in the very different context of Latin Ame...
Using relative poverty measures based on micro-level data from the Luxembourg Income Study, in co... more Using relative poverty measures based on micro-level data from the Luxembourg Income Study, in conjunction with pooled time-series data for 14 advanced capitalist democracies between 1970 and 1997, the authors analyze separately the rate of pretax/transfer poverty and the reduction in poverty achieved by systems of taxes and transfers. Socioeconomic factors, including de-industrialization and unemployment, largely explain pre-tax/transfer poverty rates of the working-age population in these advanced capitalist democracies. The extent of redistribution (measured as poverty reduction via taxes and transfers) is explained directly by welfare state generosity and constitutional structure (number of veto points) and the strength of the political left, both in unions and in government.
Gender and Social Policy in a Global Context, 2006
The United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) is an autonomous agency eng... more The United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) is an autonomous agency engaging in multidisciplinary research on the social dimensions of contemporary problems affecting development. Its work is guided by the conviction that, for effective development policies to be formulated, an understanding of the social and political context is crucial. The Institute attempts to provide governments, development agencies, grassroots organizations and scholars with a better understanding of how development policies and processes of economic, social and environmental change affect different social groups. Working through an extensive network of national research centres, UNRISD aims to promote original research and strengthen research capacity in developing countries.
* This paper is a draft of the conclusion to a volume on Models of Capitalism and Latin American ... more * This paper is a draft of the conclusion to a volume on Models of Capitalism and Latin American Development, edited by the author. The volume assembles papers presented at two conferences on this topic, organized under the auspices of the Social Science Research Council in May and November of 1997. 1 Wade (199x) makes clear that not only dissenting economists but also the Japanese government disagreed with the World Bank's interpretation of the experience of the EANICs.
Latin American welfare states have undergone major changes over the past half century. As of 1980... more Latin American welfare states have undergone major changes over the past half century. As of 1980, there were only a handful of countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, and Uruguay) with social policy regimes that covered more than half of their population with some kind of safety net to insure adequate care during their old age and that provided adequate healthcare services. With few exceptions, access to social protection and to healthcare in these countries and others was based on formal employment and contributions from employees and employers. There were very few programs, and those few were poorly funded, for those without formal sector jobs and their dependents. The debt crisis and the ensuing neoliberal reforms then damaged the welfare state in all countries, including these leading nations. Deindustrialization, shrinking of the public sector, and cuts in public expenditures reduced both coverage and quality of transfers and services. Poverty and inequality rose, and...
Studies In Comparative International Development, 1987
... agrees that increased control over the local industry is possible but has doubts concerning t... more ... agrees that increased control over the local industry is possible but has doubts concerning the long-run possibility for increased returns) Girvan's (1976) study of the Caribbean bauxite industry 4 and Shafer's (1983) research on the copper industry in Zam-bia and Zaire, 5 for ...
Latin America has long lagged behind the East Asian Tigers in investment in education. In particu... more Latin America has long lagged behind the East Asian Tigers in investment in education. In particular, Latin American countries failed to invest heavily in public secondary education. This has had costs both in terms of economic growth and inequality. After some 20 years of democracy and particularly with the turn to the left, social investment in the form of increasing expenditures on education and health care and the spread of Conditional Cash Transfer Programs has received unprecedented attention. The CCTs are based on the recognition that investment in the human capital of the next generation requires that poverty in the present generation be addressed. We argue that in Latin America social investment, human capital stock and inequality and poverty are linked in a feedback causal process and present quantitative and qualitative evidence supporting our argument.
Letter from the President 1 News & Notes 3 Symposium Dirty Politics Introduction Daniel Treisman ... more Letter from the President 1 News & Notes 3 Symposium Dirty Politics Introduction Daniel Treisman 5 Displaying One’s Skeletons in One’s Cupboard: Why Norms Breed Corruption Diego Gambetta 6 Market-Based Extorion Halvor Melhum Karl Moene Ragnar Torvik 8 The New Political Economy of Corruption and the Motivation of Politicians: Progress and Some Open Questions Rafael Di Tella 11 Anticorruption Reform at the “Dirty” End of the New Corruption Continuum Melanie Manion 14 Dirty Politics in Latin America David Samuels 17 Book Review 19 Good Read 22 Letter from the President
Pre-tax and transfer, or market income distribution has grown more unequal over the past four dec... more Pre-tax and transfer, or market income distribution has grown more unequal over the past four decades and thus has put increasing demands for redistribution on the welfare state. We focus on one aspect of inequality, wage dispersion, investigating the factors that shape the ratio of wages at the 90th percentile to wages at the 10th percentile, and the ratio of wages at the median to wages at the 10th percentile. We analyze data for 21 advanced democracies for varying numbers of years between the 1960s and 2013, depending on data availability for both the dependent and the independent variables. We integrate a focus on structural changes in the economy with a focus on labor market institutions, partisan politics, and education policies. We argue that the same factors shape wage dispersion between both the top and the bottom and the middle and bottom, but some of those factors have a stronger effect on the distance between the bottom and the median income earner. Specifically, higher levels of capital market openness, Third World imports, and immigration are all associated with higher wage dispersion in the 90:10 and the 50:10 ratio, but these effects are much stronger for the 50:10 ratio. Among the countervailing factors, union density, wage coordination, employment legislation that regulates temporary work, and investment in human capital restrain the overall distance and the distance between the bottom and the middle of the income distribution. The effect of regulation of temporary employment, however, is stronger at the bottom.
Since we periodically update and correct the data, it is advisable to cite the date on which you ... more Since we periodically update and correct the data, it is advisable to cite the date on which you download the data. General Notes: All economic and financial figures are at current (i.e. market) prices unless otherwise noted. For those countries belonging to the Eurozone, all figures denoted in national currencies are expressed in euros. To convert a figure from euros to a legacy currency, use the appropriate irrevocable conversion rate (currency unit per euro):
For a long time, the discussion about the impact of economic globalisation on the full employment... more For a long time, the discussion about the impact of economic globalisation on the full employment/generous welfare state policies pursued by social democratic governments was characterised by doom and gloom. Glib neo-liberal arguments about the impossibility of maintaining social democratic policies, that were presumably hindering competitiveness through excessive wages and taxes in the new international environment were difficult to counter, because social democrats could not resort to an equally elaborate and internally consistent economic doctrine that could substitute for evidence, and the evidence was not yet in to counter these arguments on empirical grounds. Recently, careful and comprehensive comparative studies have provided evidence that, despite undeniable problems posed by economic internationalisation, social democratic welfare states and employment regimes have proven to be highly resilient (Scharpf and Schmidt, 2000; Huber and Stephens, 2001). Indeed, some kinds of tr...
The field of Latin American politics has undeniably achieved major advances in the last several d... more The field of Latin American politics has undeniably achieved major advances in the last several decades. Nevertheless, one detects a growing intellectual unease and a sense that the excitement engendered by the pathbreaking work and heated debates of previous decades—focusing on authoritarianism, democratization, and market restructuring and related structural transformations—has waned and perhaps given way to a certain “normalization” of our intellectual enterprise.
Any account of the social and economic conditions of democracy must come to terms with the centra... more Any account of the social and economic conditions of democracy must come to terms with the central finding of the cross-national statistical research: a sturdy (though not perfect) association between economic development and democracy. To tackle these questions of causation, we adopted a strategy of analytic induction based on comparative historical research. Our program of comparative historical research confirmed the conclusion of the cross-national statistical analyses of the correlates of political democracy: the level of economic development is causally related to the development of political democracy. However, the underlying reason for the connection, in our view, is that capitalist development transforms the class structure, enlarging the working and middle classes and facilitating their self-organization, thus making it more difficult for elites to exclude them politically. Simultaneously, development weakens the landed upper class, democracy's most consistent opponent.
Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears... more Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
Average all country years 39.2 1 Oth percentile all country years 1 6.6 90th percentile all count... more Average all country years 39.2 1 Oth percentile all country years 1 6.6 90th percentile all country years 65.0 Cell entries are the percentage of individuals who live below the ECLAC-established poverty line, most recent date available.
The designations employed in UNRISD publications, which are in conformity with United Nations pra... more The designations employed in UNRISD publications, which are in conformity with United Nations practice, and the presentation of material therein do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNRISD concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The responsibility for opinions expressed in signed articles, studies and other contributions rests solely with their authors, and publication does not constitute an endorsement by UNRISD of the opinions expressed in them.
This article presents the first pooled time series analysis of the impact that politics and polic... more This article presents the first pooled time series analysis of the impact that politics and policy have on inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean. The authors build on models consisting of sociological and economic variables, adding the strength of the democratic tradition, long-term legislative partisan political power distribution, and social spending to explain variation in inequality. They analyze an unbalanced pooled time series data set for income distribution in 18 Latin American and Caribbean countries from 1970 to 2000. They show that the political variables add explanatory power. A strong record of democracy and a left-leaning legislative partisan balance are associated with lower levels of inequality, as are social security and welfare spending under democratic regimes. Thus, they replicate some and modify other well-established findings from studies of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries in the very different context of Latin Ame...
Using relative poverty measures based on micro-level data from the Luxembourg Income Study, in co... more Using relative poverty measures based on micro-level data from the Luxembourg Income Study, in conjunction with pooled time-series data for 14 advanced capitalist democracies between 1970 and 1997, the authors analyze separately the rate of pretax/transfer poverty and the reduction in poverty achieved by systems of taxes and transfers. Socioeconomic factors, including de-industrialization and unemployment, largely explain pre-tax/transfer poverty rates of the working-age population in these advanced capitalist democracies. The extent of redistribution (measured as poverty reduction via taxes and transfers) is explained directly by welfare state generosity and constitutional structure (number of veto points) and the strength of the political left, both in unions and in government.
Gender and Social Policy in a Global Context, 2006
The United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) is an autonomous agency eng... more The United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) is an autonomous agency engaging in multidisciplinary research on the social dimensions of contemporary problems affecting development. Its work is guided by the conviction that, for effective development policies to be formulated, an understanding of the social and political context is crucial. The Institute attempts to provide governments, development agencies, grassroots organizations and scholars with a better understanding of how development policies and processes of economic, social and environmental change affect different social groups. Working through an extensive network of national research centres, UNRISD aims to promote original research and strengthen research capacity in developing countries.
* This paper is a draft of the conclusion to a volume on Models of Capitalism and Latin American ... more * This paper is a draft of the conclusion to a volume on Models of Capitalism and Latin American Development, edited by the author. The volume assembles papers presented at two conferences on this topic, organized under the auspices of the Social Science Research Council in May and November of 1997. 1 Wade (199x) makes clear that not only dissenting economists but also the Japanese government disagreed with the World Bank's interpretation of the experience of the EANICs.
Latin American welfare states have undergone major changes over the past half century. As of 1980... more Latin American welfare states have undergone major changes over the past half century. As of 1980, there were only a handful of countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, and Uruguay) with social policy regimes that covered more than half of their population with some kind of safety net to insure adequate care during their old age and that provided adequate healthcare services. With few exceptions, access to social protection and to healthcare in these countries and others was based on formal employment and contributions from employees and employers. There were very few programs, and those few were poorly funded, for those without formal sector jobs and their dependents. The debt crisis and the ensuing neoliberal reforms then damaged the welfare state in all countries, including these leading nations. Deindustrialization, shrinking of the public sector, and cuts in public expenditures reduced both coverage and quality of transfers and services. Poverty and inequality rose, and...
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