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Sources of Equality and Inequality: Wages, Jobs, Households, and Redistribution

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  • Lane Kenworthy

Abstract

What are the principal sources of posttax-posttransfer inequality in affluent countries? To what extent do inequality of individual earnings, inequality of market household incomes, redistribution, and other factors influence the posttax-posttransfer income distribution? And what do the answers to these questions tell us about the best route to low posttax-posttransfer inequality? I explore these issues in a comparative fashion, focusing on the experiences of twelve countries - Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States - since the 1970s.

Suggested Citation

  • Lane Kenworthy, 2008. "Sources of Equality and Inequality: Wages, Jobs, Households, and Redistribution," LIS Working papers 471, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    • Handle: RePEc:lis:liswps:471
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    1. Deborah Reed & Maria Cancian, 2001. "Sources of Inequality: Measuring the Contributions of Income Sources to Rising Family Income Inequality," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 47(3), pages 321-333, September.
    2. Katz, Lawrence F. & Autor, David H., 1999. "Changes in the wage structure and earnings inequality," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 26, pages 1463-1555, Elsevier.
    3. Timothy Smeeding, 2004. "Public Policy and Economic Inequality: The United States in Comparative Perspective," LIS Working papers 367, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
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    6. Peter Gottschalk & Sheldon Danziger, 2005. "Inequality Of Wage Rates, Earnings And Family Income In The United States, 1975–2002," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 51(2), pages 231-254, June.
    7. Crepaz, Markus M. L., 2002. "Duane Swank, Global Capital, Political Institutions, and Policy Change in Developed Welfare States. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2002," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(01), pages 101-106, January.
    8. Michael Förster & Marco Mira d'Ercole, 2005. "Income Distribution and Poverty in OECD Countries in the Second Half of the 1990s," OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers 22, OECD Publishing.
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    10. David Orr, 1999. "Book," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 3(4), pages 155-156, October.
    11. Lane Kenworthy & Jonas Pontusson, 2005. "Rising Inequality and the Politics of Redistribution in Affluent Countries," LIS Working papers 400, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    12. Swank,Duane, 2002. "Global Capital, Political Institutions, and Policy Change in Developed Welfare States," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521806688.
    13. Burtless, Gary, 1999. "Effects of growing wage disparities and changing family composition on the U.S. income distribution," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(4-6), pages 853-865, April.
    14. Andrea Brandolini & Anthony B. Atkinson, 2001. "Promise and Pitfalls in the Use of "Secondary" Data-Sets: Income Inequality in OECD Countries As a Case Study," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 39(3), pages 771-799, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Sophie Ponthieux, 2014. "L’inégalité des revenus d’activité et les niveaux de vie des femmes et des hommes - Une comparaison entre cinq pays de l’Union européenne," Économie et Statistique, Programme National Persée, vol. 469(1), pages 85-119.
    2. Salverda, Wiemer & Checchi, Daniele, 2014. "Labour-Market Institutions and the Dispersion of Wage Earnings," IZA Discussion Papers 8220, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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