Durable Inequality, Social Protection and Redistribution – INDURA

This project INDURA aims at putting together research programs which look at inequalities as a structural phenomenon, i.e. as the manifestation of a persistent social order. This order is in particular effectuated through stable forms of mobility (social, spatial, economic). It is how the present project departs from some contemporary works which are mainly focused on the short-term causes of recent inequality upturns, and is developed along both a historical and a comparative perspective. This perspective is compatible with methodological pluralism: microeconometrics of agents behavior and of the impact of exogenous policies or shocks, long-term macroeconomics, typology of institutional configurations, macrosociological analyses.
The proposed works also share a second starting point: inequalities do not only stem from individual differences but also from the action of social protection and redistribution systems that must be taken into account. Inequality is long-lasting because of it is determined and shaped by historical institutions, whether local, national, and, perhaps more and more, international.

We distinguished three main tasks within this project:
Task 1: To look at inequalities in the long-run, we start from a historical approach centered on the case of 19th and 20th centuries France. One of the main strengths of this project is to delve into this question by using individual data stemming from a homogenous and stable source: wills recorded by the administration of "Enregistrement". Many important aspects of the long-term dynamics of inequalities can be considered: the influence of changing economic growth regimes, the rural-urban decomposition along the industrialization process, the underlying evolution of mobility patterns, whether occupational, economic or spatial (with potential cumulative effects), and last the role of inheritance in inequalities persistence from one generation to another.

Task 2: We also aim at identifying the structural transformations which may durably affect the formation of inequalities in France. To reach this aim, we put forward the central roles played by changes on both labor and financial markets. We study the sources of uncertainties on these markets by specifically looking at the conditions of the access to labor markets, from the end of school to retirement, and at capital accumulation trajectories. Both phenomena cumulate at the moment of retirement, with more occupational trajectories that have become more heterogeneous than before on the one hand, and very different patrimonial trajectories on the other hand.

Task 3: Inequalities are more and more having an international dimension due to trade and finance globalization on one hand, to international migrations and new communication technologies on the other hand. We analyze the effect of the confrontation of different social systems in an international playing field whose institutional structuring is underway. We thus attempt to consider inequalities not only in the historical long-term but also at the global scale. We propose a political economy of inequalities that could account for the growing differentiation of social protection and redistribution systems in Europe. Lastly, we propose a new analysis of persistent structures of inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa, a continent that is not only the poorest but also the most unequal.

The project INDURA makes a major development path in the scientific project of Paris School of Economics.