City Research Online

Abstract

Scholars have explored the factors responsible for shaping people’s attitudes towards economic inequality. Yet, this research has focused exclusively on Western countries. This is an important limitation: only by looking at the different world regions, scholars can fully elucidate the major factors involved. To address this, the paper examines data from the World Value Survey, a database of representative samples drawn from more than one hundred countries. The analyses reveal that people tolerate economic inequalities more when they have higher salary, are better educated, are male, and live in poorer countries. The data also indicates that a country’s level of income inequality has no impact on the attitude towards economic inequality reported by citizens. Altogether, these findings elucidate the general factors shaping people’s views on inequality worldwide, contributing to understanding in which conditions people support egalitarian policies.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Reproduction, posting, transmission or other distribution or use of the article or any material therein, in any medium as permitted by a CC BY-NC-ND license.
Publisher Keywords:	attitude economic inequality; equality; global; self-expression; world value survey
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform J Political Science J Political Science > JZ International relations
Departments:	School of Health & Psychological Sciences School of Health & Psychological Sciences > Psychology
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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