Sociological Science最新文献

The Political Economy of Optimal Taxation 最优税收的政治经济学

IF 3.4 2区社会学

Sociological Science Pub Date : 2025-09-18 DOI: 10.15195/v12.a26

Elias Nosrati

{"title":"The Political Economy of Optimal Taxation","authors":"Elias Nosrati","doi":"10.15195/v12.a26","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15195/v12.a26","url":null,"abstract":"The question of how to design socially optimal tax policies is located at the epicenter of today’s inequality debate. However, the field of optimal policy design is dominated by a distinctive brand of economic analysis which suffers from a blinkered theoretical lens and weak empirical foundations. This article offers an alternative framework for studying optimal policy design that replaces the dominant economic model’s emphasis on individual utility with a sociological emphasis on unequal life chances. Cross-national data are mobilized to study the architecture of contemporary tax systems across different institutional contexts. The dual taxation of labor and capital income coupled with the preferential treatment of socially concentrated wealth accumulation is shown to have generated sharp tax regressivity at the top of the resource distribution in all countries under consideration, from the (neo)liberal Anglosphere to social-democratic Scandinavia. Rationales for and possible designs of a progressive wealth tax, for which there is renewed international interest, are then explored in detail. A tractable formal model of optimal policy design is presented in which the net welfare effect of a tax policy reform emerges as a weighted sum of how the reform impacts aggregate life chances, inequality in life chances, and the ambient ecosphere. Under common normative and analytical assumptions, a socially optimal annual wealth tax levied on society’s most affluent——defined above a high exemption threshold——is shown to be positive and, in empirically realistic scenarios, lies upward of 10 percent. The corresponding top income tax rate exceeds 65 percent and can, on “limitarian” grounds, approach the confiscatory rate.","PeriodicalId":22029,"journal":{"name":"Sociological Science","volume":"35 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145083689","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

An Unreliable Ladder: Top–Bottom Self-Placement, Subjective Social Status, and Political Preferences 一个不可靠的阶梯：自上而下的自我定位、主观社会地位和政治偏好

IF 3.4 2区社会学

Sociological Science Pub Date : 2025-09-11 DOI: 10.15195/v12.a25

Lewis Robert Anderson, Abel Aussant

{"title":"An Unreliable Ladder: Top–Bottom Self-Placement, Subjective Social Status, and Political Preferences","authors":"Lewis Robert Anderson, Abel Aussant","doi":"10.15195/v12.a25","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15195/v12.a25","url":null,"abstract":"Research on right populist support and redistribution preferences increasingly argues for the explanatory power of subjective over objective social position. However, scrutiny of a widely used measure underlying such findings is lacking. I provide a multifaceted assessment of the Top–Bottom Self-Placement question (“Topbot”), which is primarily used in the International Social Survey Programme. Through 36 cognitive interviews and analysis of secondary data sets, I evaluate Topbot’s psychometric qualities, how it is interpreted by respondents, and how far this corresponds to the (contradictory) interpretations assumed by researchers. Consonant with findings of low reliability and high, non-random non-response when a “Don’t know” option is available, the interviews highlight that Topbot is worded ambiguously, leading to varied interpretations and often puzzlement. The most frequently mentioned bases of self-placement represent economic resources. Clustering of responses in the middle is widely known; interviews reveal explanations beyond misestimation. As additionally evidenced by convergent validity analyses, interpretations of Topbot as measuring perceived income decile or subjective social status in a specifically Weberian sense are untenable, and empirical claims made on these bases should be revisited.","PeriodicalId":22029,"journal":{"name":"Sociological Science","volume":"35 1","pages":"601-633"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145068479","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Workplace Networks and the Dynamics of Worker Organizing 工作场所网络和工人组织的动态

IF 3.4 2区社会学

Sociological Science Pub Date : 2025-08-28 DOI: 10.15195/v12.a23

Hana Shepherd, Rebecca Roskill, Suresh Naidu, Adam Reich

引用次数: 0

Rising Educational Divides in Attitudes: How Polarization across Cohorts Can Mask Age-Related Polarization 教育态度的日益分化：群体间的两极分化如何掩盖与年龄相关的两极分化

IF 3.4 2区社会学

Sociological Science Pub Date : 2025-08-19 DOI: 10.15195/v12.a21

Fabian Kratz

引用次数: 0

How to Make a Functionalist Argument 如何进行功能主义论证

IF 3.4 2区社会学

Sociological Science Pub Date : 2025-08-14 DOI: 10.15195/v12.a20

Andrés Castro Araújo, Nicolás Restrepo Ochoa

引用次数: 0

Partisanship Meets Social Networks: How Politically Heterogeneous Acquaintances and Close Relationships Buffer Partisan Animosity 党派关系遇到社会网络：政治上异质的熟人和亲密关系如何缓冲党派仇恨

IF 3.4 2区社会学

Sociological Science Pub Date : 2025-07-07 DOI: 10.15195/v12.a18

Delia Baldassarri, Jona de Jong

{"title":"Partisanship Meets Social Networks: How Politically Heterogeneous Acquaintances and Close Relationships Buffer Partisan Animosity","authors":"Delia Baldassarri, Jona de Jong","doi":"10.15195/v12.a18","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15195/v12.a18","url":null,"abstract":"Politically heterogeneous social networks have long been considered as a safeguard against political division. However, in today’s polarized political climate, the effectiveness of cross-partisan interactions in mitigating animosity is increasingly questioned. Prior research emphasizes the importance of hearing-the-other-side through cross-partisan discussions with close ties. We confirm that these discussions still take place and are related to lower inter-partisan animosity. Moreover, we propose a complementary mechanism, seeing-the-other-side, according to which even brief interactions with out-partisan acquaintances serve to reduce distorted views of out-partisans, thereby lowering inter-partisan hostility. Using original data from the United States, we find that both close tie and acquaintance networks display significant political heterogeneity and this heterogeneity is associated with lower partisan animosity. Experimentally, we show that reducing misperceptions by increasing the salience of similarities between in-partisan and out-partisan acquaintances further reduces hostility. These findings highlight the continued relevance of everyday political diversity in tempering partisan divisions and nuance worries about partisan echo chambers.","PeriodicalId":22029,"journal":{"name":"Sociological Science","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2025-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144578833","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Who Learns from Deliberative Minipublics? Identity-Based Differences in Knowledge Gains across Thirteen Citizens' Initiative Review Experiments 谁能从协商迷你公众中学习？13个公民主动性回顾实验中基于身份的知识收益差异

IF 3.4 2区社会学

Sociological Science Pub Date : 2025-06-30 DOI: 10.15195/v12.a17

Kristinn Már Ársælsson, John Gastil

引用次数: 0

Predictive Algorithms and Perceptions of Fairness: Parent Attitudes Toward Algorithmic Resource Allocation in K-12 Education 预测算法与公平感知：家长对K-12教育中算法资源分配的态度

IF 3.4 2区社会学

Sociological Science Pub Date : 2025-05-16 DOI: 10.15195/v12.a15

Rebecca A. Johnson, Simone Zhang

{"title":"Predictive Algorithms and Perceptions of Fairness: Parent Attitudes Toward Algorithmic Resource Allocation in K-12 Education","authors":"Rebecca A. Johnson, Simone Zhang","doi":"10.15195/v12.a15","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15195/v12.a15","url":null,"abstract":"As institutions increasingly use predictive algorithms to allocate scarce resources, scholars have warned that these algorithms may legitimize inequality. Although research has examined how elite discourses position algorithms as fair, we know less about how the public perceives them compared to traditional allocation methods. We implement a vignette-based survey experiment to measure perceptions of algorithmic allocation relative to common alternatives: administrative rules, lotteries, petitions from potential beneficiaries, and professional judgment. Focusing on the case of schools allocating scarce tutoring resources, our nationally representative survey of U.S. parents finds that parents view algorithms as fairer than traditional alternatives, especially lotteries. However, significant divides emerge along socioeconomic and political lines—lower socioeconomic status (SES) and conservative parents favor the personal knowledge held by counselors and parents, whereas higher SES and liberal parents prefer the impersonal logic of algorithms. We also find that, after reading about algorithmic bias, parental opposition to algorithms is strongest among those who are most directly disadvantaged. Overall, our findings map cleavages in attitudes that may influence the adoption and political sustainability of algorithmic allocation methods. ","PeriodicalId":22029,"journal":{"name":"Sociological Science","volume":"10 1","pages":"322-356"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2025-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144067098","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Inequality and Social Ties: Evidence from 15 U.S. Data Sets 不平等和社会关系：来自15个美国数据集的证据

IF 3.4 2区社会学

Sociological Science Pub Date : 2025-05-12 DOI: 10.15195/v12.a14

Cristobal Young, Benjamin Cornwell, Barum Park, Nan Feng

引用次数: 0

Demographic Differences in Responses to a Two-Step Gender Identity Measure 对两步性别认同测量反应的人口统计学差异

IF 3.4 2区社会学

Sociological Science Pub Date : 2025-05-06 DOI: 10.15195/v12.a13

Christina Pao, Christopher A. Julian, D’Lane Compton, Danya Lagos, Lawrence Stacey

{"title":"Demographic Differences in Responses to a Two-Step Gender Identity Measure","authors":"Christina Pao, Christopher A. Julian, D’Lane Compton, Danya Lagos, Lawrence Stacey","doi":"10.15195/v12.a13","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15195/v12.a13","url":null,"abstract":"Strategies for including noncisgender responses in demographic analyses remain subjects of ongoing debate and refinement. The Household Pulse Survey is one of the first data products by the U.S. Census Bureau to incorporate a two-step gender identity measure. This is significant because the survey, although experimental, is one of the largest federal nationally representative samples (n = 668,273) that allows for the enumeration of noncisgender people. These data enable researchers to examine how respondents' selection of different response categories may differ across their demographic characteristics. Many studies using a two-step gender measure either exclude noncisgender respondents or aggregate them into a single analytic group, obscuring within-group heterogeneity. We find significant socioeconomic differences between cisgender and noncisgender responses, with cisgender individuals generally faring better. There is additional heterogeneity within noncisgender groups; for example, individuals who mark 'transgender' are more likely to identify as non-heterosexual and never married, and those outside defined gender categories often report 'don't know' or 'something else' about their sexual identity. Although differences persist between cisgender and noncisgender populations, this work emphasizes the need to also perform within-group analyses (e.g., with a two-step measure) to capture the unique and shared experiences of noncisgender populations.","PeriodicalId":22029,"journal":{"name":"Sociological Science","volume":"25 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2025-05-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143915952","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0