Perceptions of Distributive Justice in Latin America during a Period of Falling Inequality
This paper explores perceptions of distributive justice in Latin America during the 2000s and their relationship with income inequality. In line with the fall in income inequality in the region, the paper documents a widespread, although modest, de...
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| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2017
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/195301495562129856/Perceptions-of-distributive-justice-in-Latin-America-during-a-period-of-falling-inequality http://hdl.handle.net/10986/26844 |
| Summary: | This paper explores perceptions of
distributive justice in Latin America during the 2000s and
their relationship with income inequality. In line with the
fall in income inequality in the region, the paper documents
a widespread, although modest, decrease in the share of the
population that believes income distribution is unfair. The
fall in the perception of unfairness holds across very
heterogeneous groups of the population. Moreover,
perceptions evolved in the same direction as income
inequality for 17 of the 18 countries for which microdata
are available. The analysis reveals that unfairness
perceptions are more correlated with relative measures of
income inequality than absolute ones, and that individual
characteristics are correlated with distributive
perceptions. On average, individuals who are older, more
educated, unemployed, and left-wing tend to perceive income
distribution as more unfair. The paper shows that the
decrease in unfairness perceptions during the past decade
was due to changes in inequality, rather than to composition
effects. Finally, the paper shows that individuals who
perceive income distribution as very unfair are more prone
to mobilize and protest. |
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