Iskanje po katalogu digitalne knjižnice

Opis: High or rising economic inequality can exacerbate political inequalities and is plausibly linked with some social harms, such as health problems and declines in happiness and trust. Within-country income inequality increased sharply across most of the world since the 1980s. One prominent critical sociological account of this occurrence points toward institutions of free-market capitalism, or “neoliberalism,” as a key cause that unleashed inequality during the globalization age. This article empirically operationalizes free-market institutions with the use of Fraser Institute’s index of economic freedom and examines the issue with fixed-effects regressions in a novel dataset of 130 countries between the years 2000 and 2021. It finds a substantial positive correlation between the two variables in the developing, though not the developed, world. This finding is robust to a variety of alternative specifications. Moreover, across specifications, modest size of government and freedom of international trade stand out as the two clear components of economic freedom driving the aggregate relationship. Finally, mediation analysis suggests there also exists an indirect ameliorative relationship between economic freedom and inequality through the conduit of economic development.
Ključne besede: economic freedom, free-market capitalism, income inequality, neoliberalism, capitalism
Objavljeno v DKUM: 08.10.2025; Ogledov: 0; Prenosov: 3
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Opis: Cultural differences between societies have turned out to be crucial determinants of various salient political-economic processes, including eco-nomic development and governance. The persistent, deeply historically rooted individualism-collectivism divide is especially important in this respect. But does this cultural cleavage also matter for the size of the modern welfare state? Theoretically, the issue seems undetermined. On one side, critical scholars have been warning that individualism erodes social solidarity and cohesion, bolstering self-centered and self-seeking behavior, and thus undermining the prospects of a robust social safety net. On the other side, awealth of empirical evidence shows individualism is associated with highertrust, more cooperation, and increased prosociality, suggesting it might act as a key structural foundation of the welfare state. Empirically, macro-level studies on the topic performed with large, globally representative sources are sparse to nonexistent. The present study seeks to address this gap in the literature by constructing a panel dataset of 120–140 countries and using the latest comprehensive, non-WEIRD-biased measure of collectivism. A varietyof different statistical estimations, including causal instrumental-variable an-alyses based on the Parasite-Stress Theory of Values and Sociality, uncover noevidence to support the claim that individualism corrodes the welfare state.Instead, correlational random-effects regressions clearly suggest the opposite,with collectivism consistently and significantly negatively predicting thewelfare state. Causal instrumental-variable analyses reveal a more mixed result, with many estimates turning out to be non-significant in at least some of the specifications.
Ključne besede: individualism, collectivism, welfare state, size of government, economic freedom
Objavljeno v DKUM: 27.08.2025; Ogledov: 0; Prenosov: 5
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Opis: Does economic freedom come at the expense of women’s economic rights, or does it instead help improve them? Presently, there are almost no studies investigating this issue, and what evidence exists is mostly correlational. This paper presents findings from matching analyses with the explicit aim of addressing the likely endogenous relationship between economic freedom and respect for women’s economic rights. Using the latest data (up to 2022), estimates from matching methods, as well as supplementary regressions based on conditional mixed-processes, all point to economic freedom having an improving effect. Two components of economic freedom – sound money and freedom of international trade – seem most likely to drive the aggregate result. The uncovered positive aggregate effect is robust to an extensive set of control variables, tweaks in the operationalization of treatment, and varying the post-treatment period.
Ključne besede: economic freedom, women's economic rights, market liberalization, economic gender inequality, gender discrimination
Objavljeno v DKUM: 09.07.2025; Ogledov: 0; Prenosov: 5
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Opis: Background and purpose: Kelso’s quest to identify the economic counterpart of political democracy and, as a corollary, his concern about the nature of the economic system’s organisation needed to support the institutions of a politically free society, contributed two important terms: economic power and democracy. Following Kelso’s reasoning, my research study aims to understand the determinants of the implementation of economic democracy, measured by the incidence of employee share ownership plans, within European Union countries. Methodology: Setting out with the theory of one of the founding fathers of employee stock ownership plans, I perform a cross-country analysis spanning five years (2008-2012) to explain the incidence level of employee ownership by independent variables operationalizing the political, legal, socio-educational and economic structures of twenty European Union countries. Using secondary data from the European Federation of Employee Share Ownership, I explain the determinants’ pertinence, while accounting for severe data limitations. Results: I report a strong correlation between employee ownership incidence and the index of economic freedom. However, the labour market’s freedom, the trustworthiness of and confidence in financial markets and the quality of secondary and tertiary education do not deliver clear-cut results. Conclusion: Further research should comprehensively scrutinise country-specific factors regarding corporate governance issues and cross-cultural controls. Employee ownership researchers should consider this field of research to understand why countries that are so-called employee ownership champions are experiencing widening income inequality.
Ključne besede: employee ownership, economic democracy, free markets, economic freedom, equity markets
Objavljeno v DKUM: 22.01.2018; Ogledov: 1070; Prenosov: 156
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