Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PERGAP (The (Mis)Perception of Economic Inequality: The Impact of Welfare State Institutions on Social Perception and Preference Formation)
Reporting period: 2022-12-01 to 2025-05-31
The rise of economic inequality is causing societal and political concern, triggering public and academic debates on the consequences for societal welfare and social cohesion, government intervention, and the legitimacy of social policies. But how are welfare state institutions connected to the perception and justification of economic inequality? In fact, do welfare state institutions define how the public perceives and justifies economic inequality? While it is well established in the literature that the distribution and redistribution of economic resources is directly tied to the welfare state and its institutional arrangements, empirical studies have remained remarkably silent on the connection of welfare state institutions to the public’s perception and justification of economic inequality.
The project PERGAP aims to advance knowledge on the socio-political causes leading to the (mis)perception of economic inequality by developing new instruments for the assessment and comparison of the institutional structure of social security systems and investigating their impact on perception and justification processes – over time and across different structural and cultural settings. The project will unite approaches from neo-institutional theory and empirical social justice research to investigate the proposal that ideas about inequality and the distribution of resources are imprinted in the institutional setting of social security systems and this determines the public’s perception and justification of economic inequality. Moreover, as these institutional imprints are far more complex than classic welfare state typologies suggest, PERGAP argues that a more sophisticated measurement of the institutional setting and its underlying conceptions of inequality is required.
This project will produce a novel dataset for the empirical study of public institutions. By collecting, systematising, and quantifying legal information on the institutional framework provided by country experts, novel indicators for the quantitative study of social security systems and their potential consequences are developed. Furthermore, and by combining institutional indicators with existing country-comparative survey data it will explore how institutional structures are interrelated with perceptions of inequality and distributive justice within and across societies and over time.
The project PERGAP aims to advance knowledge on the socio-political causes leading to the (mis)perception of economic inequality by developing new instruments for the assessment and comparison of the institutional structure of social security systems and investigating their impact on perception and justification processes – over time and across different structural and cultural settings. The project will unite approaches from neo-institutional theory and empirical social justice research to investigate the proposal that ideas about inequality and the distribution of resources are imprinted in the institutional setting of social security systems and this determines the public’s perception and justification of economic inequality. Moreover, as these institutional imprints are far more complex than classic welfare state typologies suggest, PERGAP argues that a more sophisticated measurement of the institutional setting and its underlying conceptions of inequality is required.
This project will produce a novel dataset for the empirical study of public institutions. By collecting, systematising, and quantifying legal information on the institutional framework provided by country experts, novel indicators for the quantitative study of social security systems and their potential consequences are developed. Furthermore, and by combining institutional indicators with existing country-comparative survey data it will explore how institutional structures are interrelated with perceptions of inequality and distributive justice within and across societies and over time.
During the first reporting period, the project has been successfully launched and has completed five core tasks critical for meeting the overall project objectives that are the creation of a database on “institutional imprints of social disparities” in social security systems and the empirical study of the institutions-perception link using country comparative survey data: 1) recruitment of research staff, 2) creation of literature reviews and theory overviews for the development of a comprehensive theoretical framework for the study of the interrelationship between institutions and social perceptions and preference formation, 3) preparation of the necessary groundwork for initiating the data-collection process of legal information, 4) conduction of first empirical analyses on the interrelationship between public institutions and perceptions of inequality and justice using available macro indicators and existing survey data, 5) creation of a novel online platform – the Inequality Hub – with the main objective to promote research and communicate knowledge on the project’s most critical topics: the perception, legitimation and institutionalisation of socio-economic inequalities across societies.
How do social security systems differ in their conceptions of socio-economic inequality? How can we assess and quantify these differences empirically? And can these institutional differences explain – at least partly, why societies and social groups within society differ systematically in their perception and justification of economic inequality? This project proposes a long-term research effort with the aim of answering these research questions.
By advancing our understanding of the different manifestations of social disparities in social security systems, and by analysing the impact of public institutions on social perception and preference formation, the project has important implications for scientists and non-scientists alike: (1) The project will add to institutional scholarship. By conceptualizing and systematizing legal information on the ‘institutional imprints of social disparities’ in the different fields of social protection, this project represents a pioneering advance in welfare state research. The quantification of legal information will open new pathways for comparative research on social policy and will provide novel instruments that can be used by scholars to explain the origins and consequences of different policy designs. (2) Understanding how institutional structures interact with principles of human cognition will produce new knowledge of the contextual ‘conditions’ in which inequality perceptions and justification processes arise and potentially provoke emotional and behavioural responses. Going beyond current research on inequality perceptions across various disciplines, PERGAP will develop a theoretical framework for the study of the institutional determinants of the perception and justification of inequality. This will allow us to make predictions about the self-legitimizing mechanisms of public institutions, political behaviour and the stability of political systems. This is particularly important in a time of profound insecurity, including threats posed by rising populism, democratic instability, and a global pandemic. (3) By comparing perceptions and justifications of inequalities over time and across a wide range of countries, PERGAP will generate new knowledge on the consequences of economic inequality and its institutional manifestations. This may raise the awareness for the public protection of social risks and the reduction of economic inequalities, and the need for solidarity, thus opening an arena for political and societal discourse on the ‘public good’ and societal welfare.
By advancing our understanding of the different manifestations of social disparities in social security systems, and by analysing the impact of public institutions on social perception and preference formation, the project has important implications for scientists and non-scientists alike: (1) The project will add to institutional scholarship. By conceptualizing and systematizing legal information on the ‘institutional imprints of social disparities’ in the different fields of social protection, this project represents a pioneering advance in welfare state research. The quantification of legal information will open new pathways for comparative research on social policy and will provide novel instruments that can be used by scholars to explain the origins and consequences of different policy designs. (2) Understanding how institutional structures interact with principles of human cognition will produce new knowledge of the contextual ‘conditions’ in which inequality perceptions and justification processes arise and potentially provoke emotional and behavioural responses. Going beyond current research on inequality perceptions across various disciplines, PERGAP will develop a theoretical framework for the study of the institutional determinants of the perception and justification of inequality. This will allow us to make predictions about the self-legitimizing mechanisms of public institutions, political behaviour and the stability of political systems. This is particularly important in a time of profound insecurity, including threats posed by rising populism, democratic instability, and a global pandemic. (3) By comparing perceptions and justifications of inequalities over time and across a wide range of countries, PERGAP will generate new knowledge on the consequences of economic inequality and its institutional manifestations. This may raise the awareness for the public protection of social risks and the reduction of economic inequalities, and the need for solidarity, thus opening an arena for political and societal discourse on the ‘public good’ and societal welfare.