Project description
The effect of economic inequality on societal openness
Economic inequality has long been thought to diminish societal openness. Empirical evidence to support the argument mostly comes from studies that compare societies with different levels of inequality at the same point in time. The few available studies that track changes in inequality over time and then relate these to changes in societal fundamentals have regularly failed to confirm the argument, however. To reexamine the question, the EU-funded POLAR project aims to create four new multilevel databases that combine microdata from over 30 countries and offer observation windows spanning as far back as the 1970s to gain leverage for a longitudinal empirical analysis. These newly constructed databases will be used for a detailed decomposition of inequality trends and for an analysis of the role of economic inequality for social mobility, support for democracy, and social cohesion in Western societies.
Objective
The project will examine the relationship between economic inequality and societal openness, one of the foundational elements of liberal society. Specifically, the project will provide new empirical evidence on the purportedly negative relationship between inequality and social mobility, support for democracy, and social cohesion in the West. The challenge addressed by the project is foremost empirical: for each dimension of openness, there are straightforward theoretical arguments to link rising inequality with declining openness. In each case, there is widely-known evidence to support a negative relationship in bivariate cross-sectional cross-country data. In each case, however, the best available research has regularly failed to confirm the negative relationships in longitudinal designs that sought to identify the causal impact from within-country changes in inequality. To possibly reconcile the discrepancies, the project will create four new multilevel databases that combine survey microdata across more than 30 countries and over observation windows possibly extending back to the 1970s to gain leverage for an encompassing and stringently longitudinal empirical analysis. The newly constructed databases will be used for a detailed decomposition of inequality trends, a disaggregated description of trends in social mobility, social cohesion and support for democratic governance, and for a differentiated causal analysis of the role of economic inequality for societal openness in the West. The latter rests on suitable multilevel regression specifications that distinguish between mechanical, power- and composition-dependent mechanisms and that involve temporal lags, effect thresholds, systematic treatment effect heterogeneity, and appropriate controls for concomitant trends in order to provide valid effect estimates, but also to contextualize effect occurrence and to possibly identify societal and institutional sources of resilience.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- social sciences sociology governance
- natural sciences computer and information sciences databases
- social sciences political sciences government systems democracy
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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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H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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.
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.
ERC-ADG - Advanced Grant
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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-2018-ADG
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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.
60323 FRANKFURT AM MAIN
Germany
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.