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Cultural Foundation of Distribution of Income: The Dutch Case

2009; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 43; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2753/jei0021-3624430225

1946-326X

Piet Keizer, Antoon Spithoven,

Economic Analysis and Policy

Abstract Income inequality is not persistent as far as the Netherlands is concerned. Dutch income inequality diminished with the rise of the welfare state. One of the explanatory factors of the development of income inequality is the corporatist model applied to socio-economic negotiations. The Dutch case endorses the view that corporatist institutions are significant for income distribution. Corporatism also may positively influence productivity. Therefore, the integration of the successful corporatist countries into the European Union does not imply that they have to converge to the socio-economic governance structure of the other countries. It is likely that European countries, such as the Netherlands, can continue their approach to income equality. Keywords: corporatismincome inequalityproductivitythe Netherlands