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dc.titleParty Age and Party Color: New Results on the Political Economy of Redistribution and Inequality
dc.contributor.authorKeefer, Philip
dc.contributor.authorMilanovic, Branko
dc.contributor.orgunitInstitutions for Development Sector
dc.coverageLatin America
dc.date.available2014-12-19T00:00:00
dc.date.issue2014-12-17T00:00:00
dc.description.abstractThis working paper advances research on inequality with unique, new data on income distribution in 61 countries, including 20 Latin American countries, to explore the effects of political parties on redistribution. First, consistent with a central, but still contested, assumption of the political economy literature, left-wing governments redistribute more. In addition, consistent with recent research on the importance of party organization and the organizational differences between younger and older parties, older left-wing parties are more likely to internalize the long-run costs of redistribution and to be more credible in their commitment to redistribution, leading them to redistribute less. With entirely different data, the paper also provides evidence on mechanisms: left-wing governments not only redistribute more; they also tax more. Older left-wing parties, though, tax less than younger ones.
dc.format.extent37
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.18235/0011666
dc.identifier.urlhttps://publications.iadb.org/publications/english/document/Party-Age-and-Party-Color-New-Results-on-the-Political-Economy-of-Redistribution-and-Inequality.pdf
dc.language.isoen
dc.mediumAdobe PDF
dc.publisherInter-American Development Bank
dc.subjectGovernance
dc.subjectTaxation
dc.subjectFiscal Policy
dc.subject.jelcodeD31 - Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions
dc.subject.jelcodeE62 - Fiscal Policy
dc.subject.jelcodeH0 - Public Economics: General
dc.subject.keywordsDemocracy;Political parties;Inequality;Redistribution
dc.typeWorking Papers
idb.identifier.pubnumberWorking Papers
idb.operationBK-C1063
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