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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. 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.
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    11. 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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    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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