Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Politics of Inequality: Income Distribution and Corporate Restructuring in the Airline Industry, 1968-2005

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PI: Donald Tomaskovic-DeveyCo-PI: Dustin Avent-HoltDoctoral Dissertation Research: The Politics of Inequality: Income Distribution and Corporate Restructuring in the Airline Industry, 1968-20050827297This research project examines the restructuring of the airline industry to provide insight into the rise of income inequality. The examination will focus on a case of fundamental economic reorganization, the deregulation of the airline industry. Through the 1978 Airline Deregulation Act the airline industry was legislatively transformed from a highly regulated industry to one guided by open and unregulated competition. The research is guided by three interrelated questions. First, what were the causal mechanisms that led to the deregulation of the airline industry? Second, how did firms and other actors in the industry reconstruct the market institutions and social relations of the post-deregulation airline industry? Finally, how did the post-deregulation reorganization of the airline industry?s institutions and social relations affect the trajectory of profit and income inequality between and within airline firms? To answer these questions, the investigators will combine an historical analysis of the airline industry with firm-level income distribution data from 1968 to 2005. The historical analysis focuses on the mobilization and political arguments of central actors in and around the airline industry, coupled with a statistical analysis of firm-level wage and profit data from 1968 to 2005. The goal of the project is to explain how economic reorganization occurs and how it influences income inequality trends. Empirically, the project will examine the airline industry as an example of economic changes in the U.S. toward free-market policies and organization. Theoretically, the project will focus on recent changes in the organization of the economy to understand the growth in income inequality. As economic policy is now guided by the assumption that unregulated markets generate economic prosperity it is crucial to assess this claim broadly. Economic policy is often only evaluated in terms of macro-economic growth, yet the distribution of the benefits of growth is crucial to understand the full impact of free-market economic policy. By focusing on a prototypical case of the recent shift in economic policy towards unregulated markets this research will be able to assess the impacts of such economic reorganization on economic inequality, crucial to understanding individuals' current economic situation and overall life chances.