What drives inequality? / Koen Decancq and Philippe Van Kerm.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Decancq, Koen, author.

Van Kerm, Philippe, author.

Series:

Research on economic inequality ; 1049-2585 v.27.

Research on economic inequality, 1049-2585 ; volume 27

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Equality--Europe.

Equality.

Equality--India.

Equality--United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (168 pages).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Bingley, England : Emerald Publishing, [2020]

Summary:

There is a great deal of coverage on inequality, and the key determinants of recent trends are increasingly well-documented. However, much less is known about the driving forces behind international differences in inequality. The nine contributions collected in this book set out to examine the fundamental question of What Drives Inequality? These drivers may be so diverse and deep-rooted in the cultural, historical, or geographical characteristics of countries that one can hardly expect comprehensive models or clear-cut causal inference. Nevertheless, the research presented in this book unpacks the reasons behind the wide variations in inequality. Looking across country boundaries, chapters featured include in-depth insights into inequality in Europe, India, and the United States. It provides new results on the impact of public goods and services and on the role of demographic, labor market and, most importantly, fiscal policy determinants. It also brings fresh evidence and perspectives on the measurement of inequality, by examining wealth or broader measures of well-being, and provides some insights about potential "deeper drivers" such as individual perceptions, preferences, and beliefs about inequality and redistribution.

Contents:

Intro

What Drives Inequality?

Contents

Guest Editors Bios

Contributors Bios

Preface

Chapter 1: Regional Income Distribution in the European Union: A Parametric Approach

1. Introduction

2. Data

3. Methodology

3.1 The Dagum Distribution

3.2 Estimation

3.3 Regional Income Distribution and Inequality

3.4 Inference and Goodness-of-Fit

4. Results

4.1 Country-specific Results

4.2 Regional Results

5. Concluding Remarks

Notes

References

Chapter 2: Vertical and Horizontal Redistribution: Evidence from Europe

2. Assessing Vertical Redistribution

2.1 Measuring Redistribution

2.2 Measuring Change in Redistribution

2.3 Decomposing Changes in Vertical Redistribution

2.4 Decomposition Results: General Trends

3. Assessing Horizontal Redistribution

3.1 Horizontal Redistribution across Age Groups

3.2 Horizontal Redistribution across Occupations

3.3 Horizontal Redistribution across Household Types

4. Conclusion

Chapter 3: Sources of German Income Inequality Across Time and Space

2. Analytical Framework

2.1 Household Categorisation

2.2 Counterfactual Income Distributions

2.3 Marital Sorting in Education

2.4 Measuring Inequality

3. Data and Descriptive Statistics

4.1 West Germany across Time: 1976 Versus 2011

4.2 Germany in 2011 across Space: East Versus West

5. Conclusion

Chapter 4: Understanding Differences in Household Expenditure Inequality Between India and Indonesia

2. Methodology

3. Data

4.1. The Model

4.2. Inequality Decomposition

4.3. Distributional Decomposition

Chapter 5: Accounting for Public Services in Distributive Analysis

1. Introduction.

2. Overview of Publicly Provided Services

3. How to Value Public Services and Allocate Those to Individuals and Households?

3.1 The Allocation of Education Services: Actual Consumption Approach

3.2 The Allocation of Healthcare Services: Insurance-value Approach

3.3 Social Housing: Regression-based Actual Consumption Approach

3.4 Early Childhood Education and Childcare Services: Actual Consumption Approach

3.5 Long-term Elderly Care Services: Insurance-value Approach

4. What Equivalence Scale Should be Applied for In-Kind Benefits?

5. The Impact of In-Kind Benefits on Income Inequality

6. Conclusions

Chapter 6: Income and Wealth Above the Median: New Measurements and Results for Europe and the United States

2. Background: Wealth, Income Classes and Social Change

3. The Isograph

4. Data

5. Results

6. Discussion

Chapter 7: Decomposing the Difference Between Well-Being Inequality and Income Inequality: Method and Application

2. Equivalent Income: Definition and Estimation

3. Data and Preference Estimates

4. Equivalent Income Inequality Versus Income Inequality: A Decomposition Method

4.1 The Inequality Difference

4.2 Accounting for the Difference: An Analogy

4.3 Aggregate Decomposition: Vertical and Reranking Effects

4.4 Detailed Decomposition by Non-income Dimensions

5. Empirical Application

5.1 Aggregate Decomposition

5.2. Detailed Decomposition

6. Conclusion

Chapter 8: Never Too Rich to Be middle-class: An Assessment of the Reference-group Theory and Implications for Redistributive Taxation

2. Methods and Data

3. Perceptions About Income Classes

4. Perceptions About Taxes

5. Discussion

References.

Chapter 9: Beliefs About the Role of Effort and Luck During the Great Recession in Spain

2. Formation of Beliefs About the Role of Effort

3. Data and Variables

4.1. Adjustment of Beliefs After the Great Recession

4.2. Heterogeneity of Adjustment of Beliefs

ISBN:

9781789733792

1789733790

9781789733778

1789733774