WORKING PAPERS

Democratisation and the Emergence of Class Conflicts: Income Inequality in Thailand, 2001-2016 (new draft coming soon!)
WID.world Working Paper No.2018/15.

This paper re-examines the dynamics of income inequality in Thailand between 2001 and 2016. We combined household surveys, fiscal data, and national accounts to create a more consistent inequality series. Our results indicate that income inequality is much higher than what past surveys have suggested, specifically when looking at the reduction in inequality, which turns to be much more conservative. The top 10% income share went from 56% of national income in 2001 to 53% in 2016, and the bottom 50% share increased from 9% to 13%. These observed dynamics can be put into perspective using recent political conflicts in Thailand, where a strong anti-democratic sentiment has risen within the middle and upper social classes. In line with recent works, we argue that the shifting economic power towards the bottom 50% led to the strong reaction from the middle class, who had benefited more economically during the second half of the 20th century. Using CSES data, it is briefly shown that there has been a rise of class cleavages in Thai politics from 2001 and on, reflecting these patterns.

RESEARCH NOTES

Extreme Inequality, Democratisation & Class Struggles in Thailand (Mar 2019)
with Amory Gethin. WID.world Issue Brief No. 2019/1.

The post-1997 party politics successfully put an end to a long period of rising income disparities. Most importantly, they have been associated with the emergence of class cleavages visible in voting behaviours and party identification. These are conflicts opposing the established middle class and elites, who lost their relative economic and political power, to the poor and the emerging middle class who have benefited from a new and fairer economic era and put strong values on general elections.

Du Mal-être au Vote Extrême (Sep 2017)
with Amory Gethin

La montée du populisme et l’échec des partis traditionnels à l’élection présidentielle de 2017 remettent en question la pertinence des déterminants traditionnels du vote. Dans le contexte économique difficile du quinquennat Hollande, dans quelle mesure la montée du pessimisme en France a-t-elle nourri le vote contestataire ?

Google: espace politique, espace de préoccupations (Jun 2017)
with Yann Algan, Elizabeth Beasley, Amory Gethin, and Claudia Senik.

Dans cette courte note, nous suggérons que les recherches internet pour des partis politiques sont liées à des préoccupations contemporaines bien spécifiques. Plus précisément, le Front National est plus souvent associé à des thématiques relatives à l’islamophobie, au terrorisme, et au mal-être, tandis que les recherches sur des partis d’extrême gauche sont concomitantes de problématiques économiques et environnementales. Derrière ces associations, cependant, se cachent des divergences régionales majeures. Les dynamiques de recherches Google révèlent, en outre, la montée du Front National et la profonde transformation à l’œuvre dans le milieu politique français.

WORK IN PROGRESS

Income Inequality in Indonesia, 1990-2017
with Lucas Chancel and Li Yang

Three Decades of Economic Inequality in Asia: Evidence from Distributional National Accounts
with Christoph Lakner and Li Yang

Revisiting Cross-National Variations in Preference for Redistribution: A Comparison between US, France, and Japan
with Ryo Kambayashi and Sebastien Lechevalier