Research Insights: Can Governance Factors Explain Persistent Inequality in Latin America?
Peer Reviewed
Date issued
Jun 2024
Subject
Democracy;
Equality;
Trust;
Governance;
Economy;
Taxation;
Fiscal Policy;
Public Expenditure;
Social Protection;
Debtor Finance;
Economic Equality
JEL code
D63 - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement;
D72 - Political Processes: Rent-Seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior;
H20 - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue: General;
H41 - Public Goods;
O10 - Economic Development: General
Category
Catalogs and Brochures
Governance factors on both the demand side (e.g., low voter trust) and supply side (e.g., vote buying) have limited the extent of redistributive policies in Latin America. Countries with stronger democracies have adopted more redistributive policies, even though post-tax inequality remains high in all the regions democracies. Electoral participation has risen in the more democratic countries, while economically motivated protests have increased in weakly institutionalized settings.
NO
