Trends In Income Inequality Research Articles

Global trends in income inequality and income dynamics: New insights from GRID

The Global Repository of Income Dynamics (GRID) is a new open‐access, cross‐country database that contains a wide range of micro statistics on income inequality, dynamics, and mobility. It has four key characteristics: it is built on micro panel data drawn from administrative records; it fully exploits the longitudinal dimension of the underlying data sets; it offers granular descriptions of income inequality and income dynamics for finely defined subpopulations; and it is designed from the ground up with the goals of harmonization and cross‐country comparability. This paper introduces the database and presents a set of global trends in income inequality and income dynamics across the 13 countries that are currently in GRID. Our results are based on the statistics created for GRID by the 13 country teams who also contributed to this special issue with individual articles.

Global Trends in Income Inequality and Income Dynamics: New Insights from Grid

Global Trends in Income Inequality and Income Dynamics: New Insights from Grid

Uneven Growth: Automation's Impact on Income and Wealth Inequality

The benefits of new technologies accrue not only to high‐skilled labor but also to owners of capital in the form of higher capital incomes. This increases inequality. To make this argument, we develop a tractable theory that links technology to the distribution of income and wealth—and not just that of wages—and use it to study the distributional effects of automation. We isolate a new theoretical mechanism: automation increases inequality by raising returns to wealth. The flip side of such return movements is that automation can lead to stagnant wages and, therefore, stagnant incomes at the bottom of the distribution. We use a multiasset model extension to confront differing empirical trends in returns to productive and safe assets and show that the relevant return measures have increased over time. Automation can account for part of the observed trends in income and wealth inequality.

Can trade explain the rising trends in income inequality? Insights from 40 years of empirical studies

There have been concerns that international trade is responsible for rising inequality. However, existing empirical studies provide no consensus on this matter. This article studies the effect of trade on income inequality by applying meta-regression analysis on 40 years of empirical studies. We discover that the disagreement in the literature can be explained by differences in the development levels of the countries chosen by the studies and whether the endogeneity of trade is controlled for. When endogeneity is addressed, we find that trade can reduce income inequality in middle- and high-income countries, but has no statistically significant effects in low-income countries. Therefore, concerns that trade leads to more inequality could be overstated. Our work sheds light on how certain features in an empirical model of inequality on trade could influence the analysis itself, which provides some guidance on empirical design for future research.

Widening or narrowing income inequalities in myocardial infarction? Time trends in life years free of myocardial infarction and after incidence

BackgroundDespite substantial improvements in prevention and therapy, myocardial infarction (MI) remains a frequent health event, causing high mortality and serious health impairments. Previous research lacks evidence on how social inequalities in incidence and mortality risks developed over time, and on how these developments affect the lifespan free of MI and after MI in different social subgroups. This study investigates income inequalities in MI-free life years and life years after MI and whether these inequalities widened or narrowed over time.MethodsThe analyses are based on claims data of a large German health insurance provider insuring approximately 2.8 million individuals in the federal state Lower Saxony. Trends in income inequalities in incidence and mortality were assessed for all subjects aged 60 years and older by comparing the time periods 2006–2008 and 2015–2017 using multistate survival models. Trends in the number of life years free of MI and after MI were calculated separately for income groups by applying multistate life table analyses.ResultsMI incidence and mortality risks decreased over time, but declines were strongest among men and women in the higher-income group. While life years free of MI increased in men and women with higher incomes, no MI-free life years were gained in the low-income group. Among men, life years after MI increased irrespective of income group.ConclusionsIncome inequalities in the lifespan spent free of MI and after MI widened over time. In particular, men with low incomes are disadvantaged, as life years spent after MI increased, but no life years free of MI were gained.

The Impact of Technological Innovation on Income Inequality

This study investigates how technology innovation affects income inequality trends by analysing occupational and salary data via econometric methods and studying tech platforms through case studies. The results indicate that automation has greatly divided work opportunities, and skills gaps are a crucial factor contributing to the increasing salary differences for technical degrees. Tech platforms are showing winner-take-all consequences by concentrating half of the sector's revenues. Innovation expands the economy, yet technological changes may still favour certain tiny groups. Specific policy measures focusing on skills development, institutional changes, and promoting competition are necessary to ensure that productivity increase benefits everyone.

Socioeconomic inequalities in colorectal cancer incidence in Canada: trends over two decades.

Colorectal cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer in Canada. This study aimed to measure and examine trends in socioeconomic inequalities in the incidence of colorectal cancer in Canada. This study is a time trend ecological study based on Canadian Census Division level data constructed from the Canadian Cancer Registry, Canadian Census of Population, and National Household Survey. We assessed trends in income and education inequalities in colorectal cancer incidence in Canada from 1992 to 2010. The age-standardized Concentration index ([Formula: see text]), which measures inequality across all socioeconomic groups, was used to quantify socioeconomic inequalities in colorectal cancer incidence in Canada. The average crude colorectal cancer incidence was found to be 61.52 per 100,000 population over the study period, with males having a higher incidence rate than females (males: 66.98; females: 56.25 per 100,000 population). The crude incidence increased over time and varied by province. The age-standardized C indicated a higher concentration of colorectal cancer incidence among lower income and less-educated neighborhoods in Canada. Income and education inequalities increased over time among males. The concentration of colorectal cancer incidence in low socioeconomic neighborhoods in Canada has implications for primary prevention and screening.

Household consumption patterns and income inequality in EU countries: Scenario analysis for a fair transition towards low-carbon economies

The growing awareness of the current and future consequences of climate change has led to a range of international commitments aimed at ensuring sustainable development as part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the Paris Agreement. These agreements reflect a concern of how to reduce carbon emissions and the pathway towards environmental improvement. Recent literature has pointed out the role of households as direct and indirect drivers of environmental impacts and as key agents in achieving low-carbon economies and climate-resilient development. Disparities in income distribution and lifestyles within and among countries, however, entail a different starting point for each country to reach sustainable pathways. The EU is fully committed to delivering on the United Nations 2030 Agenda and its implementation. Inequality continues to be a significant concern, reflected in the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. In this context, we explore the relationships between household consumption patterns in the EU, income inequality, and global carbon emissions trends, using an environmentally extended multiregional and multisectoral input-output model. We study the trends in global carbon emissions associated with the different household consumption patterns and income categories over 15 years, and evaluate the role of income distribution, consumption patterns, and technological conditions by country and income group. Additionally, we study, through certain scenarios, the potential achievement of double dividends, by alleviating poverty and reducing emissions.

Economic Growth, Income Inequality and Poverty Trends in Pasture Area’s Householder in SujanagarUpazila, Pabna, Bangladesh: Implications for Development strategy

The study is based on primary household level data obtained from a survey on income expenditure and poverty measures for 2020-21. The perceptual data were collected through field survey which was based on semi structural questionnaire. Total 162 selected samples were considered and simple random sampling techniques have been adopted during data collection. These factual data were collected from various secondary sources like books, journals, magazines, nationally and internationally published data etc. Human development indicators for 1996 have been compared with the study area (pasture area in SujanagarUpazila, Pabna district, Bangladesh). The empirical result shows the analysis of poverty, income inequality, economic growth & development scenario of pasture area’s in Sujanagarupazila, Pabna district, Bangladesh. The research found that 55% respondents live under the poverty line. The study also examines that these householders play an important contribution to the national GDP but their living level is below than standard one. If these areas’ householders’ development access were more available, they would return a great introduction to the society. This paper advises using anti-poverty policy, the concept of poverty minimizing inequality that the society should be tolerant ofattaining the goal of minimizing poverty. It is useful to differentiate between structural and transient causes of poverty. The provision of public goods plays an imperative role in fighting poverty. The government’s proper planning and initiatives, NGOs and Community based organization’s collaboration help build the study area as a socio-economic and environmentally friendly area in Bangladesh.

Sharing the gains of transition: Evaluating changes in income inequality and redistribution in Poland using combined survey and tax return data

We use Pareto imputation, survey reweighting, and microsimulation methods applied to combined household survey and tax return data to re-evaluate trends in income inequality and redistribution in the follow up of the post-socialist transition in Poland. Our approach results in the first estimates of top-corrected inequality trends for real equivalised disposable incomes over the years 1994–2015, a period so far believed to represent a time of not only stable and but also equitable growth. The adjustments applied suggest that the Gini coefficient grew by 14–26% more compared to the uncorrected survey-based estimates. This indicates that over the last three decades Poland has become one of the most unequal European countries among those for which top-corrected inequality estimates exist. Looking at different centiles of the distribution shows that incomes at the top grew fastest during the post-transition years: the annual rate of growth of the 95-99th percentiles of income distribution exceeded 3.5%, while the median income grew by about 2.6%.The findings shed a new light on recent political developments in Poland.

Does income distribution among immigrants adapt to host country?

We investigate trends in income inequality for five special groups (immigrants from Turkey in Denmark and Germany, natives in the two countries and in Turkey). The migration of people with similar characteristics and motivations to countries with structural differences is similar to a natural experiment. We ask whether immigrant inequality adapts over time to inequality among natives. We find, first, that immigrants are concentrated in the lower deciles of the overall income distribution. Secondly, considering native and immigrant distributions separately, in every decile an average native is significantly richer than an average immigrant. Thirdly, inequality decompositions show that during the great recession, in Denmark inequality grew faster among immigrants than among natives. In Germany, inequality rose somewhat among natives, while it remained the same among immigrants. Therefore, we do not observe a convergence in inequality. In both countries, in 2007-2013, rising inequality among natives is the most important factor behind the rise in overall inequality. For the longer period from the 1980s to 2013 we find no convergence in inequality. Finally, compared to Turks in Turkey, immigrants in both countries have higher incomes, distributed much more equally.

Long-term trends in income inequality: Winners and losers of economic change in Ghana, 1891–1960

This paper contributes to a growing literature on long-term trends and drivers of pre-industrial inequality by providing new stylized facts on the evolution of income inequality in Ghana from 1891 to 1960. Using newly constructed social tables, we estimate the Gini coefficient for seven consecutive decades at a time in which the adoption and expansion of cocoa cultivation transformed the Ghanaian economy. Income inequality was already high in 1891, prior to the spread of cocoa cultivation, and it remained stable for four decades. Following a small decline in the early 1930s, inequality increased, reaching its highest level at the end of the colonial era. The expansion of cocoa cultivation and increasing cocoa incomes contributed to persistent high inequality levels until the 1930s. By contrast, the increase in inequality from 1930 to 1960 was largely due to the rising incomes of government employees, skilled workers, and commercial workers.

Trends in US Spatial Inequality: Concentrating Affluence and a Democratization of Poverty

We use Bureau of Economic Analysis, census, and Current Population Survey data to study trends in income inequality across US states and counties from 1960-2019. Both states and counties have diverged in terms of per capita pretax incomes since the late1990s, with transfers serving to dampen this divergence. County incomes have been diverging since the late 1970s. These trends in mean income mask opposing patterns among top-and bottom-income quantiles. Top incomes have diverged markedly across states since the late 1970s. In contrast, bottom-income quantiles and poverty rates have converged across areas in recent decades.

Indebted Demand

Abstract We propose a theory of indebted demand, capturing the idea that large debt burdens lower aggregate demand, and thus the natural rate of interest. At the core of the theory is the simple yet underappreciated observation that borrowers and savers differ in their marginal propensities to save out of permanent income. Embedding this insight in a two-agent perpetual-youth model, we find that recent trends in income inequality and financial deregulation lead to indebted household demand, pushing down the natural rate of interest. Moreover, popular expansionary policies—such as accommodative monetary policy—generate a debt-financed short-run boom at the expense of indebted demand in the future. When demand is sufficiently indebted, the economy gets stuck in a debt-driven liquidity trap, or debt trap. Escaping a debt trap requires consideration of less conventional macroeconomic policies, such as those focused on redistribution or those reducing the structural sources of high inequality.

Uneven Growth: Automation’s Impact on Income and Wealth Inequality

The benefits of new technologies accrue not only to high-skilled labor but also to owners of capital in the form of higher capital incomes. This increases inequality. To make this argument, we develop a tractable theory that links technology to the personal income and wealth distributions – and not just that of wages – and use it to study the distributional effects of automation. We isolate a new theoretical mechanism: automation increases inequality via returns to wealth. The flip side of such return movements is that automation is more likely to lead to stagnant wages and therefore stagnant incomes at the bottom of the distribution. We use a multi-asset model extension to confront differing empirical trends in returns to productive and safe assets and show that the relevant return measures have increased over time. Automation accounts for part of the observed trends in income and wealth inequality and macroeconomic aggregates. Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.

The association between spouses' earnings and trends in income inequality in Brazil (1993-2015).

In this paper, we investigate how the diffusion of dual-earner couples has affected aggregate levels of inequality in Brazil. More specifically, we analyze trends in the association between spouses' earnings and assess their implications for earnings inequality among couples from 1993 to 2015. For this purpose, we use log-linear models to distinguish three components of the association between spouses' earnings: a) the correlation between spouses' earnings among dual-earner couples; b) the relationship between husbands' earnings and wives' labor force participation; and c) the proportion of dual-earner couples. Counterfactual simulations allow us to estimate how inequality would change if the trends in the association between spouses' earnings and each of its components had been different. We show that changes in the gradient of wives' employment and compositional effects related to the increasing prevalence of dual-earner couples contributed to limit the decline in inequality over the studied period.

The impact of demographic and family structure changes on income distribution in Hungary and OECD countries

This paper analyses the impact of socio-demographic trends on income inequality over the past two to three decades. The main socio-demographic trends in Hungary were largely in line with OECD-wide changes. Family structures are becoming increasingly complex and there is a growing disconnect between nuclear families and households. There has been a general retreat from marriage and a growth in both cohabitation and multigenerational households, as well as in the share of single person households. Births outside of marriage increased as well as the share of children living in other than two-parent family structures, and the number of children per household decreased. These changes in family structure fed into the broader cross-sectional development of ageing populations. However, most of these demographic changes had only a modest (upward) impact on trends in income inequality. In Hungary, three of the examined trends had a more significant impact than in other OECD countries: assortative mating; decline in the number of children; and changes in household types taken together. The inequality impact was typically larger on market than on disposable incomes, highlighting the strong inequality mitigating effect of the tax-benefit systems.

Trends in U.S. Spatial Inequality: Concentrating Affluence and a Democratization of Poverty

We study trends in income inequality across U.S. states and counties 1960-2019 using a mix of administrative and survey data sources. Both states and counties have diverged in terms of per-capita pre-tax incomes since the late 1990s, with transfers serving to dampen this divergence. County incomes have been diverging since the late 1970s. These trends in mean income mask opposing patterns among top and bottom income quantiles. Top incomes have diverged markedly across states since the late 1970s. In contrast, bottom income quantiles and poverty rates have converged across areas in recent decades.

MEASURING INCOME INEQUALITY BETWEEN PRIME-AGED WORKERS AND THE GROWING AGEING POPULATION IN SOUTH KOREA

The growing ageing population in South Korea has further widened income disparity among different working age groups. Experts believe this disparity may even increase in the future and thus a mode of prediction with regard income and inequality may have to be clearly established. This paper intends to measure the current income inequality between prime working age Koreans (working population ages 30 - 59) and the ageing population (ages 60 and above), and to predict the income inequality of these two groups in the future. This paper will also predict income disparity between the two groups in Korea with the introduction of moderate or considerable government intervention. To assess the income inequality between the working and ageing population, this paper acquired data, such as wages and population of different age groups, from multiple credible sources such as the United Nations, Korean Statistics Information Service, OECD, and from other sources. The data ranged from 2006 up until 2018. These data were then converted to gini coefficient with the use of a scoring system. The gini coefficient values from the year 2006 to 2018, obtained from the previous method, were used to measure the trend in income inequality between the working and ageing population and were also used to predict the income inequality in the future. Looking at the gini coefficient values from 2006 to 2018, the values were approaching 0, which suggest that the disparity in income was actually diminishing. And reflecting back to this trend, it suggests that the gini coefficient values in the future would also diminish over time thus, supporting the claim that the income disparity between the working and ageing population would reduce. Moreover, with the implementation of applicable government policies, the gini coefficient values are expected to approach 0 at a much faster rate, which also suggests that government interventions would reduce the income gap between working and ageing population. Despite the beliefs of the expert that income disparity may increase in the future, the result proves that income gap between working and ageing population would diminish in the future, and may diminish more rapidly with potential government intervention.

Greater Female Employment Participation as a Catalyst to Reducing Income Inequality in Developing Countries – The Case of Latin American and Sub-Saharan African Countries

This paper unravels the linkage between income inequality and women’s participation in the labor force within a group of developing countries drawn from Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa. It adds to the existing body of literature by providing additional empirical evidence and pertinent situations to a group of countries in which current empiricism on the subject is to a large extent scanty. The choice of these countries has been done basically on grounds that they are subjected to very high income inequality trends and relentless policies encompassing gender biases. The traits are common to both sets of countries. Our regression results, based on 45 countries, clearly unfold that greater female participation in these countries tend to reduce income inequality. The major policy implication that emanates from this research is that governments in these countries should emphasize on empowering women to achieve greater gender equity in employment, lower income inequality and higher welfare for all.