Unequal Europe Regional Integration and the Rise of European Inequality

The Euro-crisis of 2009-2012 vividly demonstrated that European Union policies matter for the distribution of resources within and between European nation-states. Throughout the crisis, distributive conflicts between the EU's winners and losers worsened, and are still reverberating in European politics today. In Unequal Europe, Jason Beckfield demonstrates that there is a direct connection between European integration and the increase in European income inequality over the past four decades. He places the recent crisis into a broader sociological, political, and economic perspective by analyzing how European integration has reshaped the distribution of income across the households of Europe. Using individual-and household-level income survey data, combined with macro-level data on social policies, and case studies of welfare reforms in EU and non-EU states, Beckfield shows how European integration has re-stratified Europe by simultaneously drawing national economies closer together and increasing inequality among households. Explaining how, where, and why income inequality has changed in the EU, Unequal Europe answers the question: who wins and who loses from European integration?

Jason Beckfield is Professor of Sociology at Harvard University. He teaches courses on social inequality and quantitative methods.

Chapter 1. European Integration and an Institutional Theory of Inequality
Chapter 2. Changing the Rules of the Game to Build the European Economy
Chapter 3. Breaking the Mold: Reshaping the European Social Model
Chapter 4. The European Polarization of Income Distributions
Chapter 5. Conclusion
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