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Globalizing Inequality: ‘Centrifugal’ and ‘Centripetal’ Forces at Work

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  • José Gabriel Palma

Abstract

This paper reassesses national income inequalities in this era of globalization. The main conclusion is that two opposite forces are at work: one ‘centrifugal’ at the two extremes of the distribution—increasing the disparity of income shares appropriated by the top and by the bottom four deciles across countries; and the other ‘centripetal’ in the middle—increasing the uniformity of the share of income going to deciles 5 to 9. Therefore, globalization is creating a situation where virtually all the intercountry diversity of income distribution is the result of differences in what the rich and the poor get in each country.

Suggested Citation

  • José Gabriel Palma, 2006. "Globalizing Inequality: ‘Centrifugal’ and ‘Centripetal’ Forces at Work," Working Papers 35, United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs.
    • Handle: RePEc:une:wpaper:35
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. I. Josa & A. Aguado, 2020. "Measuring Unidimensional Inequality: Practical Framework for the Choice of an Appropriate Measure," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 149(2), pages 541-570, June.
    2. Milanovic, Branko & Ersado, Lire, 2008. "Reform and Inequality during the Transition: An Analysis Using Panel Household Survey Data, 1990-2005," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4780, The World Bank.
    3. Alex Cobham & Lukas Schlögl & Andy Sumner, 2016. "Inequality and the Tails: the Palma Proposition and Ratio," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 7(1), pages 25-36, February.
    4. Alex Cobham & Andrew Sumner, 2013. "Is it all about the tails? The Palma measure of income inequality," Working Papers 308, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    5. Amanda Lenhardt & Andrew Shepherd, 2013. "What has happened to the poorest 50%?," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series 18413, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    6. Milanovic, Branko, 2007. "Where in the world are you? Assessing the importance of circumstance and effort in a world of different mean country incomes and (almost) no migration," MPRA Paper 3420, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Andy Sumner, 2016. "The world's two new middles Growth, precarity, structural change, and the limitations of the special case," WIDER Working Paper Series 034, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    8. Tahsin, Emine, 2019. "Concentration of income inequality on the basis of Palma ratio and income deciles of Turkey on national and regional level," MPRA Paper 92490, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. William MILBERG & Deborah WINKLER, 2011. "Economic and social upgrading in global production networks: Problems of theory and measurement," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 150(3-4), pages 341-365, December.
    10. Milanovic, Branko & Ersado, Lire, 2008. "Reform and inequality during the transition: An analysis using panel household survey data, 1990-2005," MPRA Paper 7459, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Costanza Consolandi & Giampaolo Gabbi & Massimo Matthias & Pietro Vozzella, 2013. "The Italian Financial System," FESSUD studies fstudy12, Financialisation, Economy, Society & Sustainable Development (FESSUD) Project.
    12. Alex Cobham, Andy Sumner, 2013. "Is It All About the Tails? The Palma Measure of Income Inequality-Working Paper 343," Working Papers 343, Center for Global Development.
    13. Michel Freyssenet & Bruno Jetin, 2011. "The deregulation of employment and finance: the Big Three in crisis," Post-Print halshs-02020051, HAL.
    14. Alice Krozer, 2015. "The inequality we want: How much is too much?," WIDER Working Paper Series 015, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    15. Alex Cobham & Luke Schlogl & Andy Sumner, 2015. "Inequality and the Tails: The Palma Proposition and Ratio Revisited," Working Papers 143, United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs.
    16. Narasimha Rao, 2014. "International and intranational equity in sharing climate change mitigation burdens," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 129-146, May.
    17. Greselin, Francesca & Zitikis, Ricardas, 2015. "Measuring economic inequality and risk: a unifying approach based on personal gambles, societal preferences and references," MPRA Paper 65892, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Francesca Greselin & Ričardas Zitikis, 2018. "From the Classical Gini Index of Income Inequality to a New Zenga-Type Relative Measure of Risk: A Modeller’s Perspective," Econometrics, MDPI, vol. 6(1), pages 1-20, January.
    19. Tanveer Ahmed Naveed & David Gordon & Sami Ullah & Mary Zhang, 2021. "The Construction of an Asset Index at Household Level and Measurement of Economic Disparities in Punjab (Pakistan) by using MICS-Micro Data," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 155(1), pages 73-95, May.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    economic development; structural change; comparative studies; development policy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • F - International Economics
    • J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs
    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development

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