In the wake of the financial crisis the West has witnessed a
rise in radical politics of the right and left. One explanation is
that the crisis has exacerbated the effects of more longstanding
social and economic change.
Two seminal research papers by Nobel Laureate Angus Deaton and
Princeton economist Anne Case shed new light on this phenomenon. In
a quite remarkable piece of research Deaton and Case examine the
effect of adverse economic change, poor education and low social
capital on white, working-class Americans.
While other Americans and those in developing countries have
seen improvements in life expectancy, mortality rates have risen
for white, non-Hispanic middle-class Americans since the late
nineties. The rise is especially pronounced among those in middle
age with a high-school degree or less.
