IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/germec/v1y2000i1p3-18.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Changing Distribution of Income: Evidence and Explanations

Author

Listed:
  • Atkinson Anthony B.

    (Nuffield College,Oxford, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland)

Abstract

This article is concerned with the economics of the distribution of income, emphasizing aspects which have been missing from the recent literature. It begins with factor shares and the rise in real interest rates. These are important in their own right and in relation to the determination of wage differentials. The paper questions the conventional wisdom which locates rising inequality and unemployment solely in a shift in demand away from unskilled workers. This explanation is too partial in its approach, is hard to reconcile with the empirical evidence, and ignores labour market institutions and the role of social norms. In seeking to explain the experience of different countries, we need to look not just at wages but also at the capital market, and should not be limited to a simple competitive supply-and-demand story.

Suggested Citation

  • Atkinson Anthony B., 2000. "The Changing Distribution of Income: Evidence and Explanations," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 1(1), pages 3-18, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:germec:v:1:y:2000:i:1:p:3-18
    DOI: 10.1111/1468-0475.00002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0475.00002
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1468-0475.00002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Burgess, Simon & Lane, Julia & Stevens, David, 1997. "Jobs, Workers and Changes in Earnings Dispersion," CEPR Discussion Papers 1714, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Atkinson, A B, 1997. "Bringing Income Distribution in from the Cold," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 107(441), pages 297-321, March.
    3. Olivier J. Blanchard, 1993. "Movements in the Equity Premium," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 24(2), pages 75-138.
    4. George A. Akerlof, 1980. "A Theory of Social Custom, of which Unemployment may be One Consequence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 94(4), pages 749-775.
    5. Ian M. McDonald & Robert M. Solow, 1985. "Wages and Employment in a Segmented Labor Market," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 100(4), pages 1115-1141.
    6. Paul R. Krugman, 1994. "Past and prospective causes of high unemployment," Proceedings - Economic Policy Symposium - Jackson Hole, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, issue Jan, pages 49-98.
    7. Bulow, Jeremy I & Summers, Lawrence H, 1986. "A Theory of Dual Labor Markets with Application to Industrial Policy,Discrimination, and Keynesian Unemployment," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 4(3), pages 376-414, July.
    8. Atkinson, A. B., 1997. "Measurement of Trends in Poverty and the Income Distribution," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 9712, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    9. A. B. Atkinson, 1999. "The Economic Consequences of Rolling Back the Welfare State," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262011719, December.
    10. Peter Gottschalk & Timothy M. Smeeding, 1997. "Cross-National Comparisons of Earnings and Income Inequality," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 35(2), pages 633-687, June.
    11. Poterba, James M., 1998. "The rate of return to corporate capital and factor shares: new estimates using revised national income accounts and capital stock data," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 211-246, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Enrico Bolzani & Ramses H. Abul Naga, 2002. "La Distribution des Salaires en Suisse: Quelques Observations sur la Récession des Années 90," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 138(II), pages 115-136, June.
    2. A. B. Atkinson, 2003. "Income Inequality in OECD Countries: Data and Explanations," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 49(4), pages 479-513.
    3. Ballot, Gerard, 2002. "Modeling the labor market as an evolving institution: model ARTEMIS," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 51-77, September.
    4. Terje Wessel, 2005. "Industrial Shift, Skill Mismatch and Income Inequality: A Decomposition Analysis of Changing Distributions in the Oslo Region," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 42(9), pages 1549-1568, August.
    5. Josef Falkinger & Volker Grossmann, 2003. "Workplaces in the Primary Economy and Wage Pressure in the Secondary Labor Market," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 159(3), pages 523-544, September.
    6. Checchi, Daniele, 2000. "Does Educational Achievement Help to Explain Income Inequality?," WIDER Working Papers 295540, United Nations University, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    7. Daniele Checchi & Cecilia García‐Peñalosa, 2010. "Labour Market Institutions and the Personal Distribution of Income in the OECD," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 77(307), pages 413-450, July.
    8. Anne Perrot & André Zylberberg, 1989. "Salaire d'efficience et dualisme du marché du travail," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 40(1), pages 5-20.
    9. Fräßdorf, Anna & Grabka, Markus M. & Schwarze, Johannes, 2008. "The Impact of Household Capital Income on Income Inequality: A Factor Decomposition Analysis for Great Britain, Germany and the USA," IZA Discussion Papers 3492, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Puhani, Patrick A., 2001. "Wage Rigidities in Western Germany? Microeconometric Evidence from the 1990s," IZA Discussion Papers 334, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Elisabetta Croci Angelini & Francesco Farina, 2007. "Wage Inequality in Europe: the Role of Labour Market and Redistributive Institutions," AIEL Series in Labour Economics, in: Nicola Acocella & Riccardo Leoni (ed.), Social Pacts, Employment and Growth. A Reappraisal of Ezio Tarantelli’s Thought, edition 1, chapter 10, pages 195-217, AIEL - Associazione Italiana Economisti del Lavoro.
    12. Josef ZweimüLler, 2000. "Inequality, Redistribution, and Economic Growth," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 27(1), pages 1-20, March.
    13. Székely, Miguel & Hilgert, Marianne, 1999. "What's Behind the Inequality We Measure: An Investigation Using Latin American Data," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 1309, Inter-American Development Bank.
    14. repec:zbw:ifwkwp:1309 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Merkl, Christian & Snower, Dennis J., 2008. "Escaping the unemployment trap: The case of East Germany," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 542-556, December.
    16. P R Agénor, 2005. "The Analytics of Segmented Labor Markets," Centre for Growth and Business Cycle Research Discussion Paper Series 52, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    17. Axel Dreher & Noel Gaston, 2008. "Has Globalization Increased Inequality?," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(3), pages 516-536, August.
    18. Daniele Checchi, 2001. "Education, Inequality and Income Inequality," STICERD - Distributional Analysis Research Programme Papers 52, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
    19. Simone Bertoli & Francesco Farina, 2007. "The functional distribution of income: a review of the theoretical literature and of the empirical evidence around its recent pattern in European countries," Department of Economic Policy, Finance and Development (DEPFID) University of Siena 005, Department of Economic Policy, Finance and Development (DEPFID), University of Siena.
    20. Cecilia García-Peñalosa & Elsa Orgiazzi, 2013. "Factor Components of Inequality: A Cross-Country Study," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 59(4), pages 689-727, December.
    21. Stephen P. Jenkins & John Micklewright, 2007. "New Directions in the Analysis of Inequality and Poverty," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 700, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:germec:v:1:y:2000:i:1:p:3-18. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.