Project description
New study of income inequality through workplace settings
Income inequality is an increasingly pressing issue. Although social sciences provide numerous explanations for its growth, two critical factors significantly reduce their effectiveness. First, the study of income inequality often overlooks data related to benefits and corporate profits. Second, social science tends to focus on national or individual levels, neglecting the workplaces that can often be centres of significant conflict. The ERC-funded DIWA project seeks to address income inequality through an innovative methodology of distributional workplace accounts. This approach involves analysing all income components, both for employees and employers, at the workplace level. It also considers statistics and the relative bargaining powers at play, thereby revolutionizing the field of social sciences in its study of income inequality.
Objective
Social science explanations for rising inequality are incomplete in two significant ways. First, they commonly study income inequality through the narrow prism of earnings, overlooking key sources originating in the labor market, such as employee benefits and corporate profits. Second, and related to the first, research on rising inequality is still frequently conducted at the individual or national levels, neglecting workplaces, and in particular power relations at work. Conflicts arise and compromises are forged not primarily at the national level but within specific institutional settings, including the workplace. As a consequence of these two limitations, social science explanations of rising inequality neglect the complex fabric of workers’ and employers’ relative bargaining power, their multidimensionality and interdependence, and their resulting incomes.
I propose to formulate an original account of income inequality that is new in three ways. First, by constructing what I refer to as “distributional workplace accounts” (DIWA), I plan to bring together for the first time all components of income – earnings, fringe benefits, and capital – of both employees and employers, at the workplace level. Second, based on DIWA, I will estimate the first statistics on the scope and dynamics of the division of earnings, fringe benefits, capital, and total workplace income to different social or income classes. Third, I will develop a novel theory explaining the institutional, structural, and status-based mechanisms of workers’ and employers’ relative bargaining power. Based on the new theory and an innovative empirical approach I will analyze the relations between relative bargaining power and the income shares of different social and income classes.
The proposed project will make a significant contribution to the social science disciplines debating the upswing in inequality, and to public policy seeking to confront the resurgence of income inequality.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2022-COG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
31905 HAIFA
Israel
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.