In a recent article in Socio-Economic Review, Joris Schröder & Michaela Neumayr conduct a systematic literature review to (a) provide a synopsis of empirical findings and (b) synthesize theoretical explanations underlying the relationship between inequality and individual charitable giving and volunteering. Reviewing 70 studies, they find that higher inequality is most often negatively related to civic engagement. In addition, they map the proposed theoretical explanations stemming from different disciplines into five key approaches (e.g., Social disintegration hypothesis). For each of these approaches, they trace the underlying mechanisms at both the societal and the individual level, providing a conceptual framework that can be tested in future empirical studies.

The open access article is available here: How socio-economic inequality affects individuals’ civic engagement: a systematic literature review of empirical findings and theoretical explanations