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| Income inequality | |
|---|---|
| Name | Income inequality |
| Region | Global |
Income inequality is the unequal distribution of income among individuals or households within and between societies. It is studied across disciplines by analysts of Thomas Piketty, Simon Kuznets, Adam Smith, John Maynard Keynes, and institutions such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, United Nations, and European Union. Debates over income inequality involve policymakers, scholars, activists, and corporations including Oxfam, World Economic Forum, Ford Foundation, Brookings Institution, and Heritage Foundation.
Income inequality describes disparities measured among people in places like United States, China, India, Brazil, South Africa, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, France, and Russia. Historical analyses reference periods such as the Industrial Revolution, the Gilded Age, the Great Depression, the Post–World War II economic expansion, and the Great Recession. Key figures who influenced discourse include Karl Marx, Milton Friedman, Joseph Stiglitz, Amartya Sen, Gary Becker, A. B. Wolfe, and Anthony Atkinson. Prominent datasets and surveys come from Luxembourg Income Study, World Inequality Database, Penn World Table, UNDP Human Development Report, Eurostat, U.S. Census Bureau, China Household Finance Survey, and National Bureau of Economic Research.
Measures employ indices introduced or used by Corrado Gini, Vilfredo Pareto, Simon Kuznets, and scholars at OECD and World Bank. Common metrics include the Gini coefficient, Lorenz curve, Palma ratio, Theil index, Atkinson index, and top income shares popularized by Piketty and Emmanuel Saez. Household data come from surveys like Current Population Survey, Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia, English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, Brazilian National Household Sample Survey, and fiscal sources such as Internal Revenue Service records, HM Revenue and Customs, and State Tax Service of Ukraine. Cross-national comparisons use standards from International Labour Organization, OECD Better Life Index, and World Bank PovcalNet.
Explanations draw on mechanisms studied by Milton Friedman, Joseph Stiglitz, Thomas Piketty, Gabriel Zucman, David Autor, Daron Acemoglu, Robert Solow, and Simon Kuznets. Drivers include technological change related to information technology revolution, automation, and artificial intelligence; market forces such as returns to capital discussed by Piketty and Karl Marx; policy choices involving tax systems seen in analyses by OECD and IMF; globalization studied in work on World Trade Organization, North American Free Trade Agreement, European Single Market, China's accession to the WTO, and Outsourcing to India; institutional factors involving trade unions, central banks, Federal Reserve System, European Central Bank, and labour law reforms; and demographic shifts examined in research on baby boomers, immigration to the United States, and urbanization in China.
Consequences are explored by Robert Putnam, Francis Fukuyama, Acemoglu and Robinson, Amartya Sen, and Thomas Piketty. Effects include impacts on social mobility investigated via Intergenerational Mobility Project, education outcomes tied to institutions like Harvard University and University of Oxford, health disparities studied with WHO reports, political polarization connected to elections involving Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron, and fiscal stability concerns debated after crises such as the 2008 financial crisis and sovereign debt events like the Greek government-debt crisis. Research links inequality to crime rates analyzed for cities like New York City and Rio de Janeiro, and to growth dynamics debated in contexts including Japan's Lost Decade and Latin American debt crisis.
Long-term trends show rising top-income shares in United States, United Kingdom, and parts of Latin America since the 1970s, while some countries in Scandinavia (e.g., Sweden, Norway, Denmark) maintained lower inequality through institutions including Nordic model policies. Emerging patterns include divergence between high-income and low-income regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia, shifts documented in reports by World Inequality Lab, UNDP, and OECD, and episodic compressions after shocks like the Second World War and expansions during periods like the 1980s neoliberal reforms. Research on developing nations references cases such as Mexico, Chile, Argentina, South Korea, and Singapore.
Policy responses are proposed by actors including United Nations Development Programme, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, European Commission, and national governments such as those of United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil, and India. Tools include progressive taxation debated in legislative bodies like United States Congress and Parliament of the United Kingdom, minimum wage laws in jurisdictions such as California and United Kingdom, social transfer programs exemplified by Brazil's Bolsa Família, United States Social Security, and Universal Basic Income pilots in locations like Finland and Stockton, California. Labor policies involve strengthening trade unions and collective bargaining seen in Germany's co-determination models. Financial regulations considered after events like the 2008 financial crisis include reforms inspired by Dodd–Frank Act and discussions about wealth taxes proposed by politicians such as Elizabeth Warren and Jeremy Corbyn.
Debates involve economists and commentators including Milton Friedman, Paul Krugman, Thomas Piketty, Joseph Stiglitz, Friedrich Hayek, Amartya Sen, Noam Chomsky, Robert Reich, Martin Ravallion, and Angus Deaton. Contention exists over measurement approaches (tax data versus survey data), policy efficacy for instruments like wealth tax and minimum wage, trade-offs highlighted in analyses of economic growth versus redistribution by Simon Kuznets and Alan Blinder, and political feasibility shaped by parties such as Democratic Party (United States), Conservative Party (UK), Social Democratic Party of Germany, and movements like Occupy Wall Street and Tea Party movement. Ethical debates invoke works including John Rawls's theory of justice and critiques from Robert Nozick.