In many countries extreme poverty is unnecessary. Yet it persists. We propose a simple index, denoted the Miser index …, to measure the extent to which societies have poverty in the midst of affluence. It builds on the generalized Lorenz …

profitable for the rich than the poor, inequality increases. The model is calibrated to illustrate polarization and increasing … inequality in early modern Europe, starting from a continuous pre-industrial wealth distribution. During the early … industrializing period, when labor markets operate and capital markets do not, inequality increases and a distinct working class …

This paper studies the determinants of inequality in an infnitehorizon general equilibrium model. Missing capital … markets, lead to two-peaked wealth distributions and high inequality. The precautionary savings, affected by the level of …

income inequality and lower costs of factor mobility. In some countries, larger market income inequality has been met by an …, larger market inequality has been accompanied by a reduction in transfers, thus leading to growth in disposable income … inequality. In our model, the initial level of market income inequality is crucial in explaining how an increase in this variable …