Economics Research Seminar – Dr Sarah Najm
Title: Inequality Beliefs in Saudi Arabia
Date: 19 March 2025
Time: 13:30 – 14:30
Venue: NUBS.4.23
If you would like to attend, please register using the following link:
Inequality Beliefs in Saudi Arabia
Speaker: Dr Sarah Najm
Sarah Najm is a NUAcT Fellow in Economics of Creative Industries at Newcastle University Business School, where she explores the social value of the arts and wellbeing in lower-income households. She is also involved in developing a longitudinal business panel survey at the Creative PEC. Her broader research interests include sustainability issues and the role of institutions in generating environmental, social, and fiscal inequalities.
Sarah holds an MSc in Economics from the University of York, and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Reading where she is a Visiting Fellow leading a study on inequality beliefs. Her background and publication pipeline employ global and cross-country analysis to better understand the role of institutions in shaping environmental outcomes, which broadly draw on the political economy of institutions in relation to sustainability.
Abstract:
We examine the structure of normative beliefs of tolerance of inequality in Saudi Arabia – an oil-based economy characterised by high levels of inequality. Our study is based on an online survey of beliefs distributed across national universities during the academic year 2022-2023. We explore the heterogeneity of tolerance of inequality measured in three ways: the belief that we need large income differences between people as incentives, inequalities within different social groups, and the belief that family wealth is important in getting ahead (structural inequality). We consider a range of sociodemographic factors and social beliefs regarding meritocracy and positionality. We show robust evidence that meritocratic beliefs are persistent across various inequality measures, whereby the association of other social beliefs is mediated mainly by meritocracy. We find that beliefs in meritocracy are positively associated with positionality, whether measured in terms of perceived social class, income, or satisfaction with household financial situation.