Template-type: ReDif-Paper 1.0 
Author-Name: Ritzen, Jo
Author-Email: ritzen@merit.unu.edu
Author-workplace-name: UNU‐MERIT, Maastricht University
Author-Name: Zimmermann, Klaus
Author-Email: Zimmermann@fas.harvard.edu
Author-workplace-name: Center for European Studies, Harvard University
Title: Fading hope and the rise in inequality in the United States
Abstract: A substantial literature claims that the strong increase in inequality 
	 over the last decade in Western industrial countries such as the United 
	 States (US) would lead to increasing tensions between different 
	 socio-economic groups which might in turn hamper economic growth. The 
	 population's fading hopes regarding the outlook on the future seem to 
	 confirm this. This paper qualifies this interpretation using survey data 
	 collected by the Pew Research Center for the People covering 1999-2014. 
	 Over the first decade, the decline in hope cannot be traced back to the 
	 rising inequality. However, recent data from 2014 suggest that 
	 inequality is now a major driver of a lower than ever level of hope. 
	 Hence inequality is a recent factor, not the driver of the long-term 
	 decline in hope. 
Keywords: Confidence, ethnicity, hope, human capital, income inequality
Classification-JEL: D31, J15
Series: UNU-MERIT Working Papers
Creation-Date: 20160517
Number: 2016-025
File-URL: https://unu-merit.nl/publications/wppdf/2016/wp2016-025.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 275 kb
Handle: RePEc:unm:unumer:2016025