Income Inequality in OECD Countries: Data and Explanations

Anthony Barnes Atkinson

329 citations0/0 files storedCESifo Economic Studies

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Income, Poverty, and Inequality Labor market dynamics and wage inequality Economic Theory and Policy

Abstract

There is much disagreement about both the facts and the explanations of income inequality. Even if we confine attention to OECD countries, we find people arguing that there has been a great U-turn, with inequality rising sharply after its post war fall, and others who believe that the speed of change is glacial. In order to evaluate the historical record, we need data for a long run of years. The present paper reviews evidence about covering the period 1945-2001 for nine OECD countries. It is widely believed that rising inequality is attributable to technological change and to globalisation. The second part of the paper argues that these are only part of a complex story. Household incomes depend on public policy and on sources of income apart from work. What is happening at the top of the distribution may need to be explained quite differently.

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References

2003Income Inequality in the United States, 1913-1998 2009The Economics of Superstars 1980A Theory of Social Custom, of Which Unemployment May be One Consequence 1997Cross-National Comparisons of Earnings and Income Inequality 1995Income distribution in OECD countries: evidence from the Luxembourg Income Study 2002Globalization and the Great U-Turn: Income Inequality Trends in 16 OECD Countries 1983State, Economy and Society in Western Europe, 1815–1975 1997Bringing Income Distribution in From the Cold

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