This article investigates whether income inequality leads to political polarization and provides new evidence that an increase in the Gini coefficient at the local level increases the probability of supporting a political party at the extreme left and right of the ideological distribution. Using individual data for 25 European countries from 2002 to 2014, I find that increasing inequality leads on average to more support for left‐wing parties. I also find that increasing inequality leads to more support for far‐right parties among older individuals. Support for far‐right parties seems to be driven by rising anti‐immigrant sentiments. The results are robust to different specifications, including an instrumental variable that addresses the endogeneity of income inequality.

中文翻译：

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收入不平等对政治两极分化的影响：来自欧洲地区的证据，2002-2014年

本文研究了收入不平等是否会导致政治两极分化，并提供了新的证据，表明当地基尼系数的增加会增加在意识形态分布的最左端和最右端支持政党的可能性。使用2002年至2014年欧洲25个国家/地区的个人数据，我发现不平等程度的增加平均会导致对左翼政党的支持增加。我还发现，不平等的加剧导致老年人中对极右翼政党的支持更多。对极右翼政党的支持似乎受到反移民情绪上升的推动。结果对于不同的规范是稳健的，其中包括解决收入不平等的内生性的工具变量。