Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-04T19:44:52.693Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On the Squeezing of the Middle Class: Overview and Prospects for the EU-15

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 February 2020

Olga Salido  and
Julio Carabaña
Olga Salido
Affiliation:
Facultad de Ciencias Políticas y Sociología, Campus Somosaguas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28223 Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid, Spain. Email: [email protected]
Julio Carabaña
Affiliation:
Facultad de Educacion, c/ Rector Royo Vilanova, s/n, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040Madrid, Spain
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article was inspired by Atkinson and Brandolini’s work on the economic middle classes and deals with the evolution of the income share of the middle class compared with that of the extreme classes in the EU-15 (the EU’s first 15 member states) over the last two decades. Our research draws on the paradox of the EU officially assuming dominant ideas about rising inequalities and the squeezing of middle-class income produced by globalization and technological change while at the same time producing and disseminating empirical evidence contrary to this view. We first synthesize this evidence, also contributing some additional analyses of Eurostat data, confirming that the income share of the middle class has not changed in the past two decades, as could be expected from the invariance in income inequality. We finally put forward some considerations about the theoretical implications of these empirical results and the interaction between ideas and empirical evidence in political societies and organizations.

Type
Articles
Information
European Review , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , April 2020 , pp. 325 - 342
Copyright
© Academia Europaea 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Atkinson, AB and Brandolini, A (2011) On the identification of the middle class. Working Paper 217, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.Google Scholar
Atkinson, AB and Brandolini, A (2013) On the identification of the middle class. In Gornick, JC and Jäntti, M (eds), Income Inequality. Economic Disparities and the Middle Class in Affluent Countries. Stanford: Stanford University Press, pp. 77–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ballarino, G, Bogliacino, F, Braga, M, Bratti, M, Checchi, D, Filippin, A, Maestri, V, Meschi, E and Scervini, F (2012) Drivers of Growing Inequality. AIAS, GINI Intermediate Work Package 3 Report. Available at http://www.gini-research.org/system/uploads/414/original/Intermediate_Work_Package_3_Report.pdf?1364644619.Google Scholar
Beckfield, J (2006) European integration and income inequality. American Sociological Review 71(6), 964–985.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonesmo, F (2012) Income inequality in the European Union. OECD Economics Department Working Papers, No. 952, OECD Publishing.Google Scholar
Bönke, T and Schröder, C (2015) European-wide inequality in times of the financial crisis. Discussion Paper School of Business & Economics, 2015/14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brandolini, A (2007) Measurement of income distribution in supranational entities: The case of the European Union. Bank of Italy Temi di Discussione Working Paper No. 623.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brandolini, A and Smeeding, TM (2007) Inequality patterns in western-type democracies: cross-country differences and time changes. CHILD Working Papers wp08_07, CHILD – Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic Economics.Google Scholar
Carabaña, J and Salido, O (2000) Fuentes de renta, desigualdad y pobreza de individuos y hogares (España, 1993). In Moreno, L (Coord), Pobreza y exclusión: la malla de seguridad en España. Madrid: CSIC, pp. 107–152.Google Scholar
Cingano, F (2014) Trends in Income Inequality and its Impact on Economic Growth. Paris: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Available at: http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/social-issues-migration-health/trends-in-income-inequality-and-its-impact-on-economic-growth_5jxrjncwxv6j-en.Google Scholar
Dabla-Norris, E, Kochhar, K, Suphaphiphat, N, Ricka, F and Tsounta, E (2015) Causes and Consequences of Income Inequality: A Global Perspective. Washington DC: International Monetary Fund, Strategy, Policy, and Review Department. Available at: https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/sdn/2015/sdn1513.pdf.Google Scholar
Dallinger, U (2013) The endangered middle class? A comparative analysis of the role played by income redistribution. Journal of European Social Policy 23(1), 83–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darvas, Z (2016) Some are more equal than others: new estimates of global and regional inequality. Bruegel Working Papers, Issue 8, November.Google Scholar
Esping-Andersen, G (1990) The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Esping-Andersen, G (2005) Inequality of incomes and opportunities. In Giddens, A and Diamond, P (eds), The New Egalitarianism. Cambridge: Polity Press, pp. 8–38.Google Scholar
Esping-Andersen, G (2007) Sociological explanations of changing income distributions. American Behavioral Scientist 50(5), 639–658.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fernández-Macías, E (2012) Job polarization in Europe? Changes in the employment structure and job quality. Work and Occupations 39(2), 157–182.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferreira, F, Messina, J, Rigolini, J, López-Calva, LF, Lugo, MA, and Vakis, R (2013) Economic Mobility and the Rise of the Latin American Middle Class. Washington DC: World Bank Latin American and Caribbean studies. Available at: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/11858/9780821396346.pdfGoogle Scholar
Fukuyama, F (2012) The future of history: can liberal democracy survive the decline of the middle class? Foreign Affairs 91(1), 53–61.Google Scholar
Goos, M, Manning, A and Salomons, A (2009) Job polarization in Europe. American Economic Review, Papers & Proceedings 99(2), 58–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goos, M, Manning, A and Salomons, A (2014) Explaining job polarization: routine-biased technological change and offshoring. American Economic Review 104(8), pp. 2509–2526.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horrigan, MW and Haugen, SE (1988) The declining middle-class thesis: a sensitivity analysis. Monthly Labor Review, 111(5), 3–11.Google Scholar
ILO (2015) Global Wage Report 2014/2015. Wages and Income Inequality. Geneva: International Labour Organization. Available at: http://www.ilo.org/global/research/global-reports/global-wage-report/2014/lang--en/index.htm.Google Scholar
Kranzinger, S and Derndorfer, J (2016) Das Ende der Mittelschicht? Die Entwicklung der Einkommensverteilung in Österreich und Europa. Momentum Quarterly, Zeitschrift für Sozialen Fortschritt 5(3), 121–138.Google Scholar
McCall, L and Percheski, C (2011) Income inequality: new trends and research directions. Annual Review of Sociology 36, 329–347.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milanovic, B (2016) Global Inequality. A New Approach for the Age of Globalization. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mishel, L, Schmitt, J and Ierhol, H (2013) Assessing the job polarization explanation of growing wage inequality. Working Paper, 295, Economic Policy Institute. Available at: https://www.epi.org/publication/wp295-assessing-job-polarization-explanation-wage-inequality/.Google Scholar
Nolan, B, Salverda, W, Checchi, D, Marx, I, McKnight, A, Tóth, IG and van de Werfhorst, HG (2014) Changing Inequalities and Societal Impacts in Rich Countries: Thirty Countries’ Experiences. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
OECD (2008) Growing Unequal? Income Distribution and Poverty in OECD Countries. Paris: OECD Publishing.Google Scholar
OECD (2011) Divided We Stand: Why Inequality Keeps Rising. Paris: OECD Publishing.Google Scholar
OECD (2013) Crisis Squeezes Income and Puts Pressure on Inequality and Poverty. Paris: OECD Publishing.Google Scholar
OECD (2015) In It Together: Why Less Inequality Benefits All. Paris: OECD Publishing.Google Scholar
Oesch, D and Rodriguez Menés, J (2011) Upgrading or polarization? Occupational change in Britain, Germany, Spain and Switzerland, 1990–2008. Socio-Economic Review 9(3), 503–531.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Palma, JG (2011) Homogeneous middles vs. heterogeneous tails, and the end of the ‘Inverted-U’: it’s all about the share of the rich. Development and Change 42(1), 87–153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pew Research Center (2015) The American Middle Class Is Losing Ground: No longer the majority and falling behind financially. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center. Available at: http://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2015/12/2015-12-09_middle-class_FINAL-report.pdf.Google Scholar
Plattner, MF (2013) Un aviso para la democracia liberal. La Vanguardia Dossier. Special issue on El mundo de la clase media 47, April–June, 32–37.Google Scholar
Pressman, S (2007) The decline of the middle class: an international perspective. Journal of Economic Issues 41(1), 181–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pressman, S (2010) The middle class throughout the world in the mid-2000. Journal of Economic Issues 44(1), 243–262.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pressman, S (2015) Defining and measuring the middle class. Working Paper 007, American Institute for Economic Research. Available at: https://www.aier.org/sites/default/files/Files/Documents/Standard/WP007-Middle%20Class.pdf.Google Scholar
Reinhold, M (2016) On the link between job polarisation and wage inequality in Germany. Beiträge zur Jahrestagung des Vereins für Socialpolitik 2016: Demographischer Wandel – Session: Polarization in the Labor Market, No. G08-V1, ZBW – Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft, Kiel und Hamburg.Google Scholar
Salido, O and Carabaña, J (2019) An increasingly squeezed middle class? Changing income distributions and inequality in the EU15 through the last economic cycle. Journal of Contemporary European Studies 27(3), 343–356.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salverda, W (2015) EU Policy making and growing inequalities. European Economy Discussion Papers 8. Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/.Google Scholar
Schmid-Drüner, M (2016) Economic inequality. Briefing. European Parliament, PF 587.294. Available at: www.europarl.europa.eu/studies.Google Scholar
Thewissen, S, Kenworthy, L, Nolan, B, Roser, M and Smeeding, T (2015) Rising income inequality and living standards in OECD countries: how does the middle fare? LIS Working Paper Series, No. 656.Google Scholar
Troitiño, A (2007) Income inequality in the EU15 and member countries. Research on Economic Inequality: Poverty, Inequality and Welfare 14, 119–136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, J, Caminada, K, Goudswaard, K and Wang, C (2015) Decomposing income polarization and tax-benefit changes across 31 European countries and Europe wide, 2004–2012. Department of Economics Research Memorandum 2015.03, Leiden University. Available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2645767 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2645767 Beiträge zur Jahrestagung des Vereins für Socialpolitik.CrossRefGoogle Scholar