GINI DP 20: Does Income Inequality Negatively Affect General Trust? Examining three potential problems with the inequality-trust hypothesis

Many studies on the consequences of income inequality find that where inequality is high, trust is low. There are, however, reasons to examine the relation between inequality and trust more closely. First, previous research does not differentiate between the effect of income inequality and that of national wealth. Furthermore, the underlying mechanism is often unclear. Finally, the association might be dependent on non-Western countries where income inequality is extremely high. In this paper, we evaluate whether there is a relation between income inequality and trust in a sample of Western developed economies when taking into account national wealth. Theoretically, we distinguish between stratification effects and perception effects of inequality. Empirically, besides actual income inequality and national wealth, we include a measurement of perceived inequality on the basis of individual level earnings estimations for stereotypical jobs. We find no significant effect of inequality on trust when taking into account national wealth, suggesting that in Western countries the amount of resources rather than its distribution explains trust. Key words: trust, income inequality, perceived inequality, national wealth, comparative research.

GINI DP 6: Income Inequality and Participation: A Comparison of 24 European Countries

Previous research suggests that where inequality is high, participation is low. Two arguments are generally put forward to explain this finding: First, inequality depresses participation because people have diverging statuses and therefore fewer opportunities to share common goals. Second, people may participate more in social and civic life when they have more resources to do so. However, up till now, these explanations have been lumped together in empirical analyses. Using EU-SILC data for 24 European countries, we analyse how inequality in different parts of the income distribution is related to civic, cultural and social participation. Results indicate that a substantial part of the impact of inequality manifests itself through resources at the individual and societal level. However, independent of resources, it is still the case that higher inequality magnifies the relationship between income and participation. This is in line with a view that inter-individual processes explain why inequality diminishes participation.

When Thinking Impairs Sleep : Trait, Daytime and Nighttime Repetitive Thinking in Insomnia

We like to thank Dorien van Baar, Lisette van Breen, Rachel Renet, Marlene Stone, Britt van Hest, and Noraly Dekkers for their help with the data acquisition.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The Impact of Sustainability Reporting on Firm Profitability

Using a hand-collected representative sample of 95 publicly traded American firms from various sectors in 2015-2016, I examine how corporate sustainability reporting affects the financial performance of firms. I find a positive and significant effect of sustainability reporting on a firm’s return on equity, return on assets, and profit margin in the subsequent year. However, this relationship is found only for firms with low institutional ownership. These results suggest that sustainability reporting would be a worthwhile use of corporate resources for this subset of firms. Further, corporate sustainability reporting is shown to be an effective substitute for monitoring by institutional investors