Is Inequality Becoming Just? Changes in Public Opinion about Economic Distribution in Chile

Abstract

Chile is one of the few Latin American countries that has participated in the inequality module of the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) in 1999 and in 2009, allowing time comparisons in attitudes towards inequality in one of the countries with the highest income inequality throughout the world. This paper focuses on the cross-sectional comparison of the just earning gap, a proportional term based on salaries considered just for high and low status occupations. Even though descriptive analysis shows that the salary gap regarded as just is higher in 2009 than in 1999, explanatory models give evidence of stability over time. Results are discussed in relation to phenomena of legitimacy of economic inequality and its political consequences.