Why right-wing governments restrict market competition: a demographic theory

IF 3.2 2区经济学 Q1 ECONOMICS

Socio-Economic Review Pub Date : 2024-07-22 DOI:10.1093/ser/mwae049

Jingjing Huo

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Recent scholarship on the evolution of neoliberalism points out that, despite free market discourse, right-wing rule has often resulted in re-regulation and further market concentration, to the advantage of large corporations. This article argues that such an outcome is not an inevitable result of right-wing incumbency. Instead, I identify an exogenous, demographic, change that prompts right-wing governments to increasingly embrace market concentration: the aging of the workforce, which has intensified the substitution of capital for labor, and as a result, somewhat paradoxically, reduced the amount of pure profits that can be distributed to wealthy households. In response, right-wing governments restrict competition to shore up pure profits. Drawing on data from 14 to 20 OECD countries, I show that as workforce aging intensifies, right partisanship becomes increasingly associated with more regulatory restrictions on competition, greater market concentration, and a greater pure profit share of income.

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右翼政府为何限制市场竞争：人口理论

最近有关新自由主义演变的学术研究指出，尽管有自由市场的论述，但右翼统治往往导致重新管制和市场进一步集中，从而有利于大公司。本文认为，这种结果并非右翼执政的必然结果。相反，我发现了一个促使右翼政府越来越拥护市场集中的外生性人口变化：劳动力老龄化加剧了资本对劳动力的替代，因此，有点自相矛盾的是，可以分配给富裕家庭的纯利润减少了。作为回应，右翼政府限制竞争以支撑纯利润。根据 14 到 20 个经合组织国家的数据，我发现随着劳动力老龄化的加剧，右翼党派越来越多地与更多的竞争监管限制、更高的市场集中度和更大的纯利润收入份额联系在一起。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Socio-Economic Review Multiple-

CiteScore

6.80

自引率

10.80%

发文量

期刊介绍： Originating in the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE), Socio-Economic Review (SER) is part of a broader movement in the social sciences for the rediscovery of the socio-political foundations of the economy. Devoted to the advancement of socio-economics, it deals with the analytical, political and moral questions arising at the intersection between economy and society. Articles in SER explore how the economy is or should be governed by social relations, institutional rules, political decisions, and cultural values. They also consider how the economy in turn affects the society of which it is part, for example by breaking up old institutional forms and giving rise to new ones. The domain of the journal is deliberately broadly conceived, so new variations to its general theme may be discovered and editors can learn from the papers that readers submit. To enhance international dialogue, Socio-Economic Review accepts the submission of translated articles that are simultaneously published in a language other than English. In pursuit of its program, SER is eager to promote interdisciplinary dialogue between sociology, economics, political science and moral philosophy, through both empirical and theoretical work. Empirical papers may be qualitative as well as quantitative, and theoretical papers will not be confined to deductive model-building. Papers suggestive of more generalizable insights into the economy as a domain of social action will be preferred over narrowly specialized work. While firmly committed to the highest standards of scholarly excellence, Socio-Economic Review encourages discussion of the practical and ethical dimensions of economic action, with the intention to contribute to both the advancement of social science and the building of a good economy in a good society.