Based on panel data we find that the inequality-growth relationship follows an ordinary-U curve during the period 1970-1998, in which inequality first decreases and then increases with economic growth. We also find some evidence that the increasing pattern of inequality may reverse at higher...

This thesis contains two studies. The first study investigates the income distribution among Namibian households. The second study examines the differences in earnings between males and females in the Namibian labour market. In both studies we use the 1993/1994 Namibia Household Income and...

Mobile workers involve flows of labor and human capital and contribute to a more efficient allocation of resources. However, migration also changes relative wages, alters the distribution of skills and affects equality in the receiving society. The paper suggests that skilled immigration...

The main goal of the Norwegian pension reform of 2011 is to improve long run fiscal sustainability, not least through stronger labour supply incentives. We assess to what extent the reform is likely to live up to these intentions. To this end we combine a dynamic microsimulation model, which...

Growing interest in the analysis of interrelationships between income distribution and economic growth has recently stimulated new theoretical as well as empirical research. Since existing theoretical models propose inequality is detrimental to growth, while others point at income inequality as...

The Norwegian pension reform of 2006 intends to (1) improve long run fiscal sustainability by reducing the growth in public old-age expenditures, (2) strengthen labour supply incentives, and (3) maintain the main redistributive features of the present system. We assess to what extent the reform...

This paper studies a model of the distribution of income under bounded needs. Utility derived from any given good reaches a bliss point at a finite consumption level of that good. On the other hand, introducing new varieties always increases utility. It is assumed that each variety is owned by a...

The aim of this paper is to provide comprehensive empirical evidence on the relationship between international remittances and income inequality. In simple cross-country regressions we find a non-monotonic link between these two variables when using ordinary least squares, instrumental...

Economic inequality has increased in many EU countries in the last decades. Yet, efforts assessing economic disparities across the EU regions mostly concentrate on convergence in average per capita incomes, offering little evidence on how regional income is distributed. Using data from...

In this paper, the method of deriving the parameter ε of inequality aversion from a parametric distribution of incomes is proposed. It is assumed that a social decision-maker appraises welfare in income distributions by means of the constant inequality aversion utility function and that incomes...