This paper is prepared as a chapter for the Handbook of Income Distribution, Volume 2 (edited by A. B. Atkinson and F. Bourguignon, Elsevier-North Holland, forthcoming). Like the other chapters in the volume (and its predecessor), the aim is to provide a comprehensive review of a particular area...

Introduction -- Legends of the fall -- Inequality -- Profit, progress, and the middle path -- Immigration -- Let the right ones in -- Islamic extremism -- Help your enemies defeat themselves -- Civil war -- A rough reconciliation -- Corruption -- The benefits of beginning at the bottom -- The...

This paper evaluates the linkage between social security strategies and redistributive effects in EU social transfer systems. It is argued that the various European systems produce different patterns of redistribution that may be explained by the adoption of different mixes of social security...