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

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  • José Palma

Abstract

Th is paper reassesses national income inequalities in this era of globalization. Th e 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.

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  • José Palma, 2015. "Globalizing Inequality: ‘Centrifugal’ and ‘Centripetal’ Forces at Work," Working Papers id:7199, eSocialSciences.
    • Handle: RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:7199
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    1. Susmita Sengupta & Sanat Kumar Guchhait, 2021. "Inequality in Contemporary India: Does Caste Still Matter?," Journal of Developing Societies, , vol. 37(1), pages 57-82, March.

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