This paper summarizes the main findings of a recent literature that has constructed top income shares time series over the long-run for more than 20 countries using income tax statistics. Top incomes represent a small share of the population but a very significant share of total income and total...

The paper examines the long-run evolution of income distribution in eight industrialized countries. No common trend is observed in the last quarter of a century: the inequality of disposable incomes increased in the United States and the United Kingdom in the 1980s, and in Sweden and Finland in...

Optimal tax arguments were employed by the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer when he justified cutting the top rate of income tax. This article sets out the underlying argument, which is that made in the Mirrlees Review of taxation in the UK, and identifies seven reasons why their analysis may not...

The top 1 percent income share has more than doubled in the United States over the last thirty years, drawing much public attention in recent years. While other English speaking countries have also experienced sharp increases in the top 1 percent income share, many high‐income countries such...

This paper summarizes the highlights and implications of the forthcoming OECD project report entitled 'Income Distribution in OECD Countries: The Evidence from the Luxembourg Income Study.'

This paper summarizes the recent literature on income distribution in European nations drawing on some of the material used in the OECD project report (see above) and additional new material.

This paper assembles and reviews empirical evidence about the personal distribution of income in Europe and makes a comparison with the United States. From his analysis, the author concludes, among other things, that: the United States has higher income inequality than Europe; within Western...