Melissa Ziegler Rogers, Assistant Professor, Department of Politics and Policy, Claremont Graduate University
What explains the large and persistent differences in the level of inequality among democracies? To address this question the paper makes two points. First, the state’s fiscal capacity is necessary condition for the politics of redistribution even to unfold. By implication, improving our understanding of the levels of fiscal capacity is an essential step to explain comparative patterns of inequality. Second, geography is a crucial determinant of fiscal capacity today through two channels. It mediates the degree of elite heterogeneity and the type of political competition that emerges as a result of industrialization. And it conditions distributive conflicts over revenue collection through the scope of cross-regional income differences in the long run. The interaction between regional income disparities within nations and political representation is a major predictor of modern differences in terms of fiscal capacity. To empirically assess this argument, the identification strategy proceeds in two steps; (1) an instrumental variables approach on the long run determinants of cross-sectional differences today (similar to Acemoglu and Johnson in “Unbundling institutions,” 2006); (2) difference in differences analysis exploiting exogenous changes in the nature of economic inequality and its territorial incidence.
Dr. Rogers is a specialist in comparative politics, regional inequality around the world, Latin American politics, and comparative political institutions. Professor Rogers enjoys teaching a wide range of courses in comparative politics. Her subfield specialty is Latin American Politics and she offers courses that explore, in particular, the institutions and the political and economic development of that region. As an expert in comparative institutional analysis, she also offers courses in comparative political institutions, comparative political parties and elections, comparative legislatures and democratization. Dr. Rogers also offers courses in research design methods and econometrics. In previous academic appointments, she has also taught in the fields of American Politics and Urban Studies.
Professor Rogers is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Politics and Policy. Her work focuses on state institutional and economic development with particular application to the countries of Latin America. Her recent studies have examined the effectiveness of Argentina's provinces in implementing tax, health and education policies. Dr. Rogers earned her Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego and her B.A. from Brown University.