In this paper, motivated by contradictory evidence on the effect of income on democracy, we investigate the hypothesis that it is income shocks – major income fluctuations relative to the trend – rather than marginal year‐on‐year variation in income levels that lead to non‐trivial changes in the quality of political institutions. Empirical results provide support for this hypothesis, and show how income inequality plays a crucial role in the effects of economic shocks on democracy. In particular, negative income shocks reveal a positive effect on democracy in countries with high inequality, and vice versa.

中文翻译：

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收入冲击，不平等与民主*

在本文中，受收入对民主影响的矛盾证据的激励，我们研究了以下假设：收入冲击（相对于趋势而言是主要的收入波动），而不是导致收入水平下降的边际收入水平的逐年变化。 -政治机构质量的重大变化。实证结果为这一假设提供了支持，并显示了收入不平等如何在经济冲击对民主的影响中起关键作用。特别是，负收入冲击表明，在高度不平等的国家中，民主对民主产生了积极影响，反之亦然。