Higher economic inequality intensifies the financial hardship of people living in poverty by fraying the community buffer
| Autor: | Marcel Lukas, Elke U. Weber, David Smerdon, Jon M. Jachimowicz, Jaideep Prabhu, Barnabas Szaszi |
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| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: |
Low income
Male Rural Population Social Psychology Inequality media_common.quotation_subject Experimental and Cognitive Psychology 03 medical and health sciences Behavioral Neuroscience 0302 clinical medicine Empirical research Economic inequality Residence Characteristics Economics Humans Uganda Poverty 030304 developmental biology media_common Finance 0303 health sciences business.industry Instrumental variable Australia United States Socioeconomic Factors Income Female business 030217 neurology & neurosurgery |
| Zdroj: | Nature human behaviour. 4(7) |
| ISSN: | 2397-3374 |
| Popis: | The current research investigates whether higher economic inequality disproportionately intensifies the financial hardship of low-income individuals. We propose that higher economic inequality increases financial hardship for low-income individuals by reducing their ability to rely on their community as a buffer against financial difficulties. This may occur, in part, because a frayed community buffer reduces low-income individuals’ propensity to seek informal financial support from others. We provide empirical support across eight studies (sample size N = 1,029,900) from the United States, Australia and rural Uganda, through correlational and experimental data, as well as an instrumental variable analysis. On average across our studies, a 1 s.d. increase in economic inequality is associated with an increase of financial hardship among low-income individuals of 0.10 s.d. We discuss the implications of these results for policies aimed to help people living in poverty buffer against the adverse effects higher economic inequality imposes on them. Jachimowicz et al. find that increased income inequality increases financial hardship particularly for individuals with low income, in part by weakening the community buffer that could otherwise offer support. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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