Replication data for: Political Economy of Redistribution in the United States in the Aftermath of World War II--Evidence and Theory

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Roel Beetsma; Alex Cukierman; Massimo Giuliodori

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
Replication			10/13/2019 03:30:AM
LICENSE.txt	text/plain	14.6 KB	10/12/2019 11:30:PM

Project Citation:

Beetsma, Roel, Cukierman, Alex, and Giuliodori, Massimo. Replication data for: Political Economy of Redistribution in the United States in the Aftermath of World War II--Evidence and Theory. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2016. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2019-10-13. https://doi.org/10.3886/E114611V1

Project Description

Summary: We present legislative, historical and statistical evidence of a substantial upward ratchet in transfers and taxes in the US due to World War II. This finding is explained within a political-economy framework with defense spending responding to a war threat and a median voter in the population who interacts with a (richer) agenda setter in Congress in setting redistribution. While the setter managed to cap redistribution before the War, the War itself raised the status quo tax burden and improved tax collection technology, strengthening the bargaining power of the median voter as defense spending receded. This permanently raised the level of redistribution.

Scope of Project

JEL Classification:
      D72 Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
      H11 Structure, Scope, and Performance of Government
      H23 Taxation and Subsidies: Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
      H56 National Security and War
      N32 Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: U.S.; Canada: 1913-
      N42 Economic History: Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation: U.S.; Canada: 1913-

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V1 [2019-10-13]

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DDI 2.5

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