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Global Earnings Inequality, 1970–2015

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Abstract

We estimate trends in global earnings dispersion across occupational groups using a new database covering 66 developed and developing countries between 1970 and 2015. Our main finding is that global earnings inequality has declined, primarily during the 2000s, when the global Gini coefficient dropped nearly 10 points and the earnings share of the world’s poorest half doubled. Decomposition analyses emphasize the role of income convergence between poor and rich countries and that earnings have become more similar within occupations in traded industries. Sensitivity checks show that the results are robust to varying real exchange rates, inequality measures and population definitions.

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  • Hammar, Olle & Waldenström, Daniel, 2017. "Global Earnings Inequality, 1970–2015," Working Paper Series 1166, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1166
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    Cited by:

    1. Holtemöller, Oliver & Pohle, Felix, 2020. "Employment effects of introducing a minimum wage: The case of Germany," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 108-121.
    2. Patel, Dev & Sandefur, Justin & Subramanian, Arvind, 2021. "The new era of unconditional convergence," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    3. James K. Galbraith, 2019. "Sparse, Inconsistent and Unreliable: Tax Records and the World Inequality Report 2018," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 50(2), pages 329-346, March.
    4. Weiwei He & Yabin Zhang & Yuan Zhong & Juanjuan Chen, 2020. "The impact of income gap on the inverted U-shaped total factor productivity and its mechanisms: Evidence from transnational-level analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(1), pages 1-20, January.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Global inequality; Development; Inequality decomposition; Labor markets;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • F01 - International Economics - - General - - - Global Outlook
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

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