We investigate the adoption and characteristics of social welfare policies in autocracies. If one considers social policies merely as a tool for progressive redistribution to those in need, one might not expect autocratic regimes to spend resources on them. Empirically, however, several...

Are migrants self-selected and sorted according to their views about what constitutes a fair level of redistribution? A major challenge in answering this question is that fairness concerns and self-interest are intertwined. We present a theoretical framework that allows us to test whether...

Nationalism and income inequality are two of the most pressing economic and political issues of the time. This paper establishes how these two variables are interconnected. A theoretical model combines a two-dimensional policy space with social identification to explain the optimal nationalism...

The Netherlands has a unique tradition in which all major Dutch political parties provide CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis with highly detailed proposals for the tax benefit system in every national election. This information allows us to quantitatively measure the...

Greater democracy increases the voice of the people, creating political contestation and participation, and leading to pro-labor institutional changes, higher wages and lower inequality. Political voice may therefore have a redistributive effect that is independent of redistribution through...

This paper analyzes the political sustainability of the welfare state in an environment where immigration is the main demographic force and where governments are able to influence the size and skill composition of immigration flows. Specifically, I present a dynamic political-economy model where...