For centuries it has been believed that the extension of the franchise in unequal societies would lead to relatively high levels of redistribution. According to international rankings, how- ever, among the fourteen most unequal countries in the world, nine have been democratic for at least the...

Economic and political decisions usually involve a trade-off between efficiency and equality considerations. While some inequality is expected to prevail in our soci- eties, high levels of it are objectionable on various grounds. One of the fundamental roles of government is to collect and...

We estimate the role of openness and integration in welfare generation in a cross country framework. Once controlling for institutions, openness is generally associated with increased wage inequalities across nations. However the results for trade policy are mixed. Decrease in import taxes...

The paper finds that trade is insignificant in explaining income inequality. The results also suggest institutions are good for inequality mitigation for a larger sample of developed and developing countries. Though, the results do not change for some institutions like rule of law when the...

The paper finds that countries which practice democracy are less prone to unequal outcomes especially when it comes to wage inequality and income inequality whereas autocracy is associated with higher level of wage inequalities but its impact on income inequalities are insignificant. Though...

The paper analyses the relationship between the popular Barro and Lee (2001) ‘Average years of Schooling’ with income inequality, wage inequality, and income deciles and income percentiles for the sample of developed and developing countries. The results suggest that countries where students...