We use top income data and the newly developed regime switching Gaussian mixture vector autoregressive model to explain the dynamics of income inequality in developed economies within the last 100 years. Our results indicate that the process of income inequality consists of two equilibriums...

We propose a structural model to estimate inequality of opportunity (IOp) among workers and to distinguish two different sources of inequality: (i) inequality in the labour attachment and (ii) inequality in the remuneration of each working hour. Considering working hours as a measure of effort,...

Conventional wisdom states that fiscal policy redistributes little in Latin America. Lower tax revenues and – above all – lower and less progressive transfers have been identified as the main cause. Existing studies show that, while in Europe the distribution of all transfers combined (cash...

This paper suggests multidimensional affluence measures for the top of the distribution. In contrast to commonly used top income shares, they allow the analysis of the extent, intensity and breadth of affluence in several dimensions within a common framework. We illustrate this by analyzing the...

This paper provides new evidence on individual preferences over annuities and lump sum payments based on hypothetical questions posed in the DNB Household Survey in 2005. Contrary to the majority of papers in the annuitization puzzle literature, this study allows to control explicitly for the...

We analyze polarization in India roughly in the past two and half decades using consumption expenditure data. We show that both bipolarization and multidimensional polarization (on several dimensions: caste, rural-urban, state, region) have increased since the 1990s. In the case of...

The paper examines sensitivity influences on the German personal income distribution in a time-series perspective as well as in a methodically broad manner. The author discusses the following issues: (1) For the first time, (reference) income-dependent, so-called variable equivalence scales are...

The aim of this paper is to provide an estimation and decomposition of the motherhood wage penalty in Colombia. Our empirical strategy is based on the matching procedure designed by Ñopo (2008) for the case of gender wage gaps. This is an alternative procedure to the well-known Blinder-Oaxaca...

The article analyses the joint determinants of inequality and growth with a special emphasis on public spending structures in transition. We find especially government expenditures on subsidies to be negatively correlated with both inequality and growth, as more generally government expenditures...