Welfare state development, individual deprivations and income inequality: a cross-country analysis in Latin America and the Caribbean
Loading...
Full text at PDC
Publication date
2017
Advisors (or tutors)
Editors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Springer
Citations
Exportar
Citation
Cruz-Martínez, Gibrán (2017). Welfare State Development, Individual Deprivations and Income Inequality: A Cross-Country Analysis in Latin America and the Caribbean. Social Indicators Research. 134, 955-976. DOI: 10.1007/s11205-016-1465-4
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to re-examine from a multidimensional perspective the possible
existence of a single path that could have conditioned the degree of welfare state
development (WSD) in Latin America. Economic/industrial development, trade-openness,
democracy and the strength of leftist parties-labour movement are used as explanatory
variables in the qualitative comparative analysis. In contrast to previous findings, this paper
shows that there is no evidence of a common path followed by countries with a relatively
high/medium WSD. Nevertheless, countries that experienced a low economic/industrial
development combined with a low democratic experience were conditioned to have a low
WSD.
Description
Several scholars have confirmed the role that the welfare state (WS) plays in reducing poverty,
promoting equality and ensuring the common wellbeing. One of the limitations of the scholarship has
been the conceptualization and operationalization of the WS and poverty as one-dimensional variables.
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between welfare state development –as a onedimensional and multidimensional variable-, single-dimensions deprivations and income inequality in
Latin America and the Caribbean, before and after controlling for demographic and cyclical factors.
The WS is operationalized taking into account its multidimensional nature. Three individual
deprivations suffered by people on poverty and two income inequality indicators are used as dependent
variables. Three pooled time-series cross-section regression analyses with panel-corrected standard
errors models were carried out on 18 countries in the region around 2000, 2005 and 2010. This paper
shows that the development of social-welfare programs and institutions seems to be an effective way
of tackling individual deprivations suffered by people on poverty in the region. On the other hand, the
WS development didn’t appear to be effective to reduce income inequality. The outcomes of welfare
institutions appear to be the pivotal dimension to reduce income inequality and income deprivations in
the region.