This paper investigates the impact of economic crises on income inequality. Important evidence has emerged that in the aftermath of crises politics becomes polarized and economists have linked this to greater differences in income due to crises. The evidence however on whether crises can be...

U.S. income inequality has risen dramatically in recent decades. Researchers consistently find that greater income inequality measured at the state or national level is associated with diminished subjective well-being (SWB) in the U.S. We conduct the first multi-scale analysis (i.e., at the...

The climate crisis and rise in income inequality have created support for progressive taxes with a top marginal tax rate above 50%. Three strands of literature are discussed to show this trend: (1) climate change, (2) income inequality, and (3) taxing the wealthy. Thoughtful flaws are noted in...

The United States and China are the world's largest economies. Together they are responsible for about one-third of the world's economic output. This paper aims to examine whether the two economic giants are also lands of opportunity where resources are allocated in a way that minimizes...

This paper displays an analysis of geopolitical organizations within the framework proposed by Alesina and Spolaore (1997), where heterogeneity concerns the geographical space. This model adds heterogeneity in terms of income. Main results of the paper: (i) in the normative equilibrium (social...

This working paper: (i) provides an overview of global, regional and national income inequalities based on the latest distribution data from the World Bank, UNU-WIDER and Eurostat; (ii) discusses the negative implications of rising income inequality for development; (iii) calls for placing...

Although the Atkinson Inequality Index is widely used, this paper is the first attempt to empirically estimate the parameter on which that index is based. Forty-five years US income distribution and consumer confidence surveys allow one to estimate this Atkinson parameter of inequality aversion....

This paper verifies the relationship between income inequality and pecuniary crimes. The elasticity of pecuniary crimes relative to inequality is 1.46, corroborating previous literature. Other factors important to decrease criminality are expanding job opportunities and a more efficient legal system

The purpose of this paper is to review recent data made available through the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) that include expenditures and asset valuations. The LIS data are augmented with comparable data from the U.S. Consumer Expenditure Survey. The surveys with expenditure data are reviewed in...