Manuel Schechtl

@schechtlm.eurosky.social

Assistant Prof. at UNC-Chapel Hill | previously Postdoc at the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality | PhD from Humboldt University Berlin | inequality, wealth, poverty, taxes, redistribution, social & public policy. https://schechtl.github.io

@stone-lis.bsky.socialReposted by @schechtlm.eurosky.social

Applications are open for our postdoctoral scholars program! These 2-year positions start in August 2027 and are based at the Stone Center. One is focused on wealth inequality, the other more broadly on economic inequality. Deadline is Nov. 2 -- apply now! @thegraduatecenter.bsky.social

@schechtlm.eurosky.socialReposted by @schechtlm.eurosky.social

Timely new paper in @socioeconreview.bsky.social: Does rising wealth concentration undermine American democracy?

Using variation across the 50 U.S. states, results reveal a clear, negative effect of millionaire wealth concentration on democratic performance.

doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwag058

Wealth concentration in the United States has reached heights not seen since the Gilded Age, renewing fears that concentrated economic power may undermine democracy. Yet empirical research linking inequality to democratic erosion remains inconclusive, partly because most studies focus on cross-country comparison and examine income rather than wealth. This study exploits variation across fifty U.S. states; each embedded in a common federal framework but differing in political and economic dynamics. To estimate the exogenous effect of rising wealth concentration on democratic backsliding, I develop a shift-share instrument of state-level millionaire wealth shares. Results reveal a clear, negative effect on democratic performance. Causal mediation analysis demonstrates that the effect is mediated by the share of seats held by Republicans in state legislatures, pointing to a mechanism of elite influence through partisan channels. These findings demonstrate that subnational wealth disparities, and their convergence with partisan politics, actively erode American democratic institutions.
@schechtlm.eurosky.social

Bottom line: debates about economic inequality are often about fairness or growth. This paper suggests they should also be about democracy. Policies that shape wealth concentration, like wealth and estate or inheritance taxes, are democracy policies too.

@schechtlm.eurosky.social

Where millionaire wealth concentration rose most, state democracy declined most. A shift-share instrument suggests that a 10-point rise in the millionaire wealth share lowers a state's democracy score by ~1.6 SD.

Binned scatter plot of millionaire wealth share (horizontal axis, about 44% to 65%) against the state electoral democracy index (vertical axis, higher values mean more democratic). The plot adjusts for average wealth and year fixed effects. A downward-sloping fitted line shows that states with higher wealth concentration have lower democracy scores. The coefficient is −0.42 and statistically significant: a one-standard-deviation increase in the millionaire wealth share is associated with a 0.42 standard deviation lower democracy score.