Europäisierung oder Globalisierung von Ungleichheit? Determinanten für Einkommensungleichheit in den Mitgliedsländern der EU 1993-2007

Abstract

The topic income inequality has recently attracted a lot of attention as a result of increasing inequalities in a number of OECD countries. As reasons for this increase it is often referred the process of globalization. A lot less attention has been given to another process of economic integration – the process of European integration. One exception is the study of the American sociologist Jason Beckfield from the year 2006 in which the author shows a negative effect of both political as well as economic Europeanization on income inequality. These results shall be replicated in this study based on income data from EU member countries for the time period 1993-2007. Thereby the assumptions regarding both processes – Globalization and Europeanization – shall be linked theoretically as well as empirically. The results will indicate that in particular the process of economic integration into the EU’s Common Market has a considerable effect on the income inequality. The negative effects of political integration and globalization are not or only partially supported.