Lucy Barnes

• Lecturer at University College London

This article investigates how macro-level structures condition the sources of socioeconomic inequalities in health. Drawing on multiple social science disciplines, the authors develop theoretically grounded propositions about how different types of welfare states, varieties of capitalism, and social structures give rise to cross-national variations...

What explains variation in tax progressivity before World War I? I argue that trade politics shaped the emergence of progressive taxation. If labor could provide a useful ally, trade policy coalitions meant compromise on redistributive demands: progressive taxes, especially where inequality was lower. In time-series cross-sectional analysis, I find...

What is the nature of the experience of risk? Risk can impose distinctive burdens on individuals: making us anxious, impairing our relationships and limiting our ability to plan our lives. On the other hand, risky situations are sometimes exciting, liberating and even empowering. The article explores the idea that risk can result in benefits for th...

What explains variation in individual attitudes toward government deficits? Although macroeconomic stance is of paramount importance for contemporary governments, our understanding of its popular politics is limited. We argue that popular attitudes regarding austerity are influenced by media (and wider elite) framing. Information necessary to form...

To better understand the relationship between information and political knowledge, we evaluate an ambitious government initiative: the nationwide dissemination of “taxpayer receipts,” or personalized, itemized accounts of government spending, by the UK government in fall 2014. In coordination with the British tax authorities, we embedded a survey e...

What is the nature of the experience of risk? Risk can impose distinctive burdens on individuals: making us anxious, impairing our relationships, and limiting our ability to plan our lives. On the other hand, risky situations are sometimes exciting, liberating, and even empowering. The article explores the idea that risk can result in benefits for...

What explains variation in individual attitudes towards government deficits? Although macroeconomic stance is of paramount importance for contemporary governments, our understanding of its popular politics is limited. We argue that popular attitudes regarding austerity are influenced by media (and wider elite) framing. Information necessary to form...

To better understand the relationship between information and political knowledge, we evaluate an ambitious government transparency initiative: the nationwide dissemination of “taxpayer receipts,” or personalized, itemized accounts of government spending, by the UK government in Fall 2014. In coordination with the British tax authorities, we embedd...

Was there really a debt-fuelled ‘liberal growth model’ that preceded the 2008 financial crisis? The accepted narrative about the pre-crisis boom is that some liberal countries relied on domestic consumption to fuel economic growth, and on household debt to fuel this consumption. In this, they contrasted with coordinated economies. While eventually...

Why do some people support government redistribution more than others? This article addresses this question with reference to attitudes towards redistributive tax policy. In doing so, it identifies an important distinction between preferences over the level of taxation and preferences over its structure. Using individual-level survey data from 17 a...

The objective of this study is to outline a capabilities approach to the social determinants of population health and to compare its explanatory power and implications for public policy-making with psychosocial approaches. A model linking the structures of economic and social relations to health outcomes is developed and logistic methods used to co...

This article examines the relationship between economic inequality, electoral turnout and redistributive spending. I use the Current Population Survey to create direct measures of the income of the median voter to investigate its effect on spending and its relationship with inequality and turnout. In the 50 US states from 1978 to 2002, I find littl...

Why do different countries adopt different tax policies? This paper argues that domestic tax policy outcomes may be strongly influenced by the orientations of different economic and political actors to international trade, as well as by their positions on domestic dimensions. Considering the period between 1870 and 1918 in 9 western European countr...

The relationship between health and social class is firmly established but theoretical understanding of its determinants is not well advanced. Existing approaches have limitations and their propositions are rarely tested against each other. We outline a new approach to the problem that links class-based inequalities in health to imbalances between...

Three decades marked by many market-oriented initiatives often labeled as neo-liberal are widely said to have increased income inequality and influenced people’s thinking about the economy and their role in it. Using data from the World Values Survey, this paper explores how popular attitudes to the economy have changed over this period and asks wh...

Government

Abstract will be provided by author.

The financial crisis that enveloped much of the developed world after 2007 is intriguing because it both appears to call into question large portions of mainstream right-wing economic orthodoxy and it does not appear to have led to any systematic electoral benefit for left-wing parties. Using election studies in Britain and Germany, we explore how...