Analyzes wives' labor force participation, wives' earnings, and the distribution of household income in eleven LIS countries and, for four countries, across time. The authors use the squared coefficient of variation to measure the mitigating effect of wives' earnings on inequality.

It is widely held that people who work have no difficulty in avoiding poverty and guaranteeing their family a decent standard of living. This idea has proved false, as many authors have shown that the ranks of the poor are filled with active people, sometimes even working full time. But,...

This article builds on other reviews of changes in earnings inequality in the U.S. in tow important directions. First, the review is expanded to include other major industrialized countries, and second, the focus is broadened from earnings to household income. The general finding is that the...

This paper examines the relationship between inequality and economic growth in 18 LIS countries. They begin with a discussion of the fact that issues of conceptual and statistical comparability are essential to the understanding and measurement of the growth-equality relationship and their...

The first draft of Chapter 3 in The Handbook of Income Distribution, edited by Anthony B. Atkinson and Francois Bourgignon, this paper reviews the empirical evidence on the level and trend in family income inequality in industrialized countries, primarily the OECD countries.

In the second half of the twentieth century, the country located in the troubled heart of Europe experienced two radical conversions of regimes. In 1948 peaked the communist revolution which continued in its most repressive form until the mid-1950s. In 1990, economic reform involving large...

This paper examines the relationship between the distribution of average annual household pre-tax earnings and average annual household hours of market work for married couple households. The point of departure in this paper is the treatment of the variation in annual hours worked either over...

The aim of this paper is twofold. First, to analyze the relationship between the distribution of household income and the distribution of working time in six European countries and in the United States. The second objective is to assess how the tax and transfer systems affect the gender...

This paper will try to elucidate to what degree disposable income distribution in some OECD countries has been affected by the labor market changes described using data from the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS). Three questions require a detailed analysis. Firstly, how has income distribution...

Low pay is conventionally measured in terms of the gross earnings of the individual, related to benchmarks derived from the distribution of earnings such as half or two-thirds of the median. Poverty status, on the other hand, is usually assessed on the basis of the disposable income of the...