IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ausecr/v48y2015i1p103-111.html

Is Inequality Increasing?

Author

Listed:
  • Richard Pomfret

Abstract

type="main" xml:lang="en"> In academic economics, inequality has received little attention in recent decades, although popular concerns about the super-rich have grown. The World Top Incomes Database provides evidence of the rise of the super-rich in many countries since 1980. Thomas Piketty has publicised the new data, predicting increases in inequality due to the return to capital exceeding the rate of economic growth and advocating policies to counter such increases by high taxes on the income and wealth of the super-rich. This article asks why inequality has been a neglected topic, assesses empirical contributions and Piketty's model and discusses implications for evidence-based policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard Pomfret, 2015. "Is Inequality Increasing?," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 48(1), pages 103-111, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ausecr:v:48:y:2015:i:1:p:103-111
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert M. Solow, 1956. "A Contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 70(1), pages 65-94.
    2. Henry Ohlsson & Jesper Roine & Daniel Waldenstrom, 2006. "Long-Run Changes in the Concentration of Wealth: An Overview of Recent Findings," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2006-103, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    3. T. W. Swan, 1956. "ECONOMIC GROWTH and CAPITAL ACCUMULATION," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 32(2), pages 334-361, November.
    4. Deininger, Klaus & Squire, Lyn, 1996. "A New Data Set Measuring Income Inequality," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 10(3), pages 565-591, September.
    5. Christoph Lakner & Branko Milanovic, 2016. "Global Income Distribution: From the Fall of the Berlin Wall to the Great Recession," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 30(2), pages 203-232.
    6. Kristin J. Forbes, 2000. "A Reassessment of the Relationship between Inequality and Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(4), pages 869-887, September.
    7. Rosen, Sherwin, 1981. "The Economics of Superstars," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(5), pages 845-858, December.
    8. Milanovic, Branko, 2013. "The return of “patrimonial capitalism”: review of Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st century," MPRA Paper 52384, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Steven N. Kaplan & Joshua Rauh, 2013. "It's the Market: The Broad-Based Rise in the Return to Top Talent," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 27(3), pages 35-56, Summer.
    10. Robert J. Barro, 1999. "Inequality, Growth, and Investment," NBER Working Papers 7038, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Fields, Gary S, 1989. "Changes in Poverty and Inequality in Developing Countries," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 4(2), pages 167-185, July.
    12. Richard Baldwin, 2011. "Trade And Industrialisation After Globalisation's 2nd Unbundling: How Building And Joining A Supply Chain Are Different And Why It Matters," NBER Working Papers 17716, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Pomfret, Richard, 2011. "The Age of Equality: The Twentieth Century in Economic Perspective," Economics Books, Harvard University Press, number 9780674062177, march.
    14. Pomfret, Richard, 2014. "European crises and the Asian economies," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31, pages 71-81.
    15. Branko Milanovic, 2014. "The Return of "Patrimonial Capitalism": A Review of Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 52(2), pages 519-534, June.
    16. Ryuzo Sato, 1963. "Fiscal Policy in a Neo-Classical Growth Model: An Analysis of Time Required for Equilibrating Adjustment," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 30(1), pages 16-23.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Esat Daşdemir, 2025. "Inflation and consumption inequality," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 5(7), pages 1-29, July.

    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. Jakub Bartak & Łukasz Jabłoński, 2020. "Inequality and growth: What comes from the different inequality measures?," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(2), pages 185-212, April.
    2. Simplice A. Asongu & Jacinta C. Nwachukwu, 2016. "Rational Asymmetric Development, Piketty and Poverty in Africa," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 13(2), pages 221-246, December.
    3. Rafael Gomez & David K. Foot, 2003. "Age Structure, Income Distribution and Economic Growth," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 29(s1), pages 141-162, January.
    4. Mussarat Khan, 2016. "Contribution of female human capital in economic growth: an empirical analysis of Pakistan (1972–2012)," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 50(2), pages 709-728, March.
    5. Mark V. JANIKAS & Sergio J. REY, 2008. "On The Relationships Between Spatial Clustering, Inequality, And Economic Growth In The United States : 1969-2000," Region et Developpement, Region et Developpement, LEAD, Universite du Sud - Toulon Var, vol. 27, pages 13-34.
    6. Ananya Ghosh Dastidar, 2004. "Structural Change and Income Distribution in Developing Economies: Evidence from a Group of Asian and Latin American Countries," Working papers 121, Centre for Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics.
    7. Gravier-Rymaszewska, Joanna & Tyrowicz, Joanna & Kochanowicz, Jacek, 2010. "Intra-provincial inequalities and economic growth in China," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 237-258, September.
    8. repec:bap:eebook:02 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Lisa Capretti & Lorenzo Tonni, 2026. "Income Inequality and Economic Growth: A Meta-Analytic Approach," Papers 2602.15690, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2026.
    10. Deller, Steven C. & Lledo, Victor, 2002. "Local Government Taxing, Spending And Economic Growth: New Evidence For Wisconsin," Staff Papers 12665, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics.
    11. Martinez-Vazquez, Jorge & McNab, Robert M., 2003. "Fiscal Decentralization and Economic Growth," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(9), pages 1597-1616, September.
    12. Huw Lloyd-Ellis, 2003. "On the Impact of Inequality on Productivity Growth in the Short and Long Term: A Synthesis," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 29(s1), pages 65-86, January.
    13. Abdoulaye Millogo, 2020. "Croissance et inégalités de revenus en Afrique subsaharienne," Cahiers de recherche 20-13, Departement d'économique de l'École de gestion à l'Université de Sherbrooke.
    14. Ronaldo A. Arraes & Vladimir Kühl Teles, 2003. "Differences in Long Run Growth Path Between Latin American and Developed Countries: Empirical Evidences," Anais do XXXI Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 31st Brazilian Economics Meeting] c10, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].
    15. Louis Kaplow, 2005. "Why measure inequality?," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 3(1), pages 65-79, April.
    16. Rao, B. Bhaskara & Cooray, Arusha, 2010. "Determinants of the long-run growth rate in the South-Asian countries," MPRA Paper 26493, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Juin-jen Chang & Chia-ying Liu & Hsiao-wen Hung, 2013. "Does Performance-Based Compensation Boost Economic Growth or Lead to More Income Inequality?," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 89(284), pages 72-82, March.
    18. Ekaterina Ponomareva & Alexandra Bozhechkova & Alexandr Knobel, 2012. "Factors of Economic Growth," Published Papers 172, Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy, revised 2013.
    19. Minea, Alexandru, 2008. "The Role of Public Spending in the Growth Theory Evolution," Journal for Economic Forecasting, Institute for Economic Forecasting, vol. 5(2), pages 99-120, June.
    20. Hideyuki Kamiryo, 2014. "Earth Endogenous System: To Answer the Current Unsolved Economic Problems (Second Edition)," Earth Endogenous System: To Answer the Current Unsolved Economic Problems (Second Edition), Better Advances Press, Canada, edition 2, volume 2, number 01 edited by Dr. Yisheng Huang.
    21. Roman Arjona & Maxime Ladaique, 2003. "Mark Pearson Growth, Inequality and Social Protection," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 29(s1), pages 119-140, January.

    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:bla:ausecr:v:48:y:2015:i:1:p:103-111. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/mimelau.html .

    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.