Declining social and economic inequalities since the late 1990s coincided with several basic shifts in Latin America's political landscape, including an electoral turn to the left and a revival of social mobilization from below. These shifts helped to 'repoliticize' inequality and return...

Income inequality in Colombia has declined since the early 2000s but remains very high by international standards. While most of the inequality originates from the labour market, wealth – and thus capital income – is also highly concentrated and the tax and transfer system has little...

Richard Epstein has argued that, in a fairly broad range of circumstances, governments should pay compensation for regulatory actions which impose costs on a subset of society. I develop a model in which there are two groups, one of whom benefits from a regulation, and one of whom bears the...

One of the fundamental questions in the social sciences is whether modern welfare states can be sustained as countries welcome more immigrants. On theoretical grounds, the relationship between immigration and support for redistribution is ambiguous. Immigration may increase ethnic diversity,...

One of the fundamental questions in the social sciences is whether modern welfare states can be sustained as countries welcome more immigrants. On theoretical grounds, the relationship between immigration and support for redistribution is ambiguous. Immigration may increase ethnic diversity,...

One of the fundamental questions in the social sciences is whether modern welfare states can be sustained as countries welcome more immigrants. On theoretical grounds, the relationship between immigration and support for redistribution is ambiguous. Immigration may increase ethnic diversity,...

This paper analyzes the effects of immigration by skill on the outcome of a majority vote among natives on both the size and the composition of public spending. Public spending can be of two types, spending on rival goods (transfers) and on nonrival goods (public goods). I find that the effect...

Two results follow from the standard workhorse model of tax competition. One is that tax competition between countries leads to underprovision of public consumption goods (see Zodrow and Mieszkowski 1986). The other that tax competition lowers capital taxes and may lead to less redistribution...

This paper is an analytical attempt to isolate and differentiate the concepts of "redistributive politics" and "corruption". Such analytical distinction helps us in understanding how redistributive politics can adversely affect the quality of public investment in a poor region. We highlight the...

James Michael Curley, a four-time mayor of Boston, used wasteful redistribution to his poor Irish constituents and incendiary rhetoric to encourage richer citizens to emigrate from Boston, thereby shaping the electorate in his favor. Boston as a consequence stagnated, but Curley kept winning...