Andrea Sáenz de Viteri: Do Populist Governments Really Reduce Inequality?
Populist politicians often promise to redistribute resources from powerful elites to ordinary citizens. The article “Populism and Inequality: Does Reality Match the Populist Rhetoric?”, published in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, examines whether these promises lead to measurable reductions in inequality once populist leaders take office.
The research compares changes in income and consumption inequality under populist and non-populist governments in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Together with Martin Strobl, Martin Rode, and Christian Bjørnskov, Andrea Sáenz de Viteri finds little evidence that populist governments consistently reduce inequality after coming to power. Although redistribution is often central to populist political messaging, the results suggest that these promises do not usually translate into significant changes in income or consumption inequality.
Main findings include:
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Inequality does not systematically decline once populist leaders take office.
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The same pattern is found for both income and consumption inequality.
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Strong redistributive promises do not necessarily lead to measurable redistribution.
The full article was published in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Volume 207, in March 2023. You can find the full article >>> here <<< .
