We study whether exposure to social movements campaigning against income and gender income inequality shifts individual beliefs about inequality, reshapes preferences for redistribution, and translates into political participation in the UK. Since the Great Recession of the 2010s, the UK has seen significant growth in social movements, particularly those mobilizing against inequality. We focus on income and gender income inequality, two persistent and politically contested forms of inequality in advanced democracies like the UK. Responses to social movements can diverge sharply between them. Using observational data, we show that exposure to protests against inequality is strongly correlated with increased support for redistribution. To identify causal effects, we complement this evidence with an online experiment in which we randomly assign 1,436 UK citizens to follow real social movement content focused on either income or gender income inequality over a two-week period on Facebook. Participants exposed to information about income inequality increase support for reducing income disparities, while those exposed to gender income inequality support targeted measures to address gender gaps. Both groups favor higher taxes on the wealthy and are more likely to take political action, including signing a petition, contacting a politician, or meeting a public official.

This paper seeks to understand the impact of terrorism on taxation in Cabo Delgado Province, Mozambique; its effects on state-building and consolidation; the reasons that led the terrorist group to collect taxes illegally; and finally, the role of the solidarity of the (Muslim) elite in the face of the advance of violent terrorism. We argue that in terms of taxation, violent terrorism affected the government’s ability to collect taxes and fees and provide services to the population locally, especially in places constantly devastated by terrorist attacks or under terrorist control. However, at provincial level, terrorism had no negative impact on taxation performance due to the fact that Mocimboa da Praia, the epicentre of violent terrorism, contributed only marginally to the total provincial taxes. We also find that counterterrorism measures corroded the traditional financing means of terrorists, who felt forced into illegal taxation imposed in the areas under their control, especially along the main roads, as their traditional financing basis was under attack. Finally, we postulate that terrorism helps to strengthen the solidarity of the Muslim elite that dominates economic activities. This study is both qualitative and quantitative, with an emphasis on difference-in-differences analysis. The study systematically uses the comparative method to understand the behaviour of taxation according to the dynamics of terrorism and counterterrorism.

We revisit the iconic Kuznets (1955) paper, which postulated a clear positive relationship between inequality and economic development in the early stages of structural transformation. Using a newly released global dataset on income inequality-the WIID Companion-we set out the stylized facts of the Kuznets curve for a range of developing and developed countries. We examine the relationship between the net income Gini and per capita income, as well as the relationship between the net income Gini and structural transformation. Our main findings are that there is a clear inverted U-shaped relationship between the Gini and per capita income for the global sample, though the slope of the Kuznets curve differs substantially by income region. With respect to manufacturing-driven structural transformation, we see a clear negative relationship between the Gini and manufacturing employment share. However, when we broaden our concept of structural transformation to include financial and insurance services, we do see some evidence of the Kuznets curve. Further, national Kuznets curves produce mixed results-some follow the inverted U shape, and others do not. Overall, our findings suggest that while the Kuznets curve remains an important stylized fact, at least for some country contexts, inequality is not an inevitable consequence of economic development.