Views of Economic Inequality in Latin America

The authors assess the factors that affect judgments about the fairness of the distribution of wealth with pooled public opinion data from Latinobarometro surveys conducted in 1997, 2001, and 2002. They test hypotheses with a multilevel logit model that allows them not only to examine the effects of the class background and perceptions of individual respondents but also to assess the impact of society-level differences in economic growth, GDP per capita, income concentration, and the availability of information. Examining the direct and conditional effects of these society-level factors, the authors find support for relative deprivation approaches but much more limited evidence for hypotheses derived from distributive conflict and development theories.