Income Distribution and Poverty in Selected OECD Countries

This study examines developments in the distribution of disposable income and poverty for 13 OECD countries over the past one to two decades. It finds that income inequality and poverty have increased in about half of the countries. However, the widening in the distribution of market income has been more pronounced and more widespread across countries, reflecting both earnings, capital and self-employment incomes. While widening wage rates have played a role in explaining earnings developments, the increasing share of households with no workers has also been important. The tax and transfer system has contained or, at least, partly offset the widening in the distribution of market income. Transfer payments have been particularly important at the bottom of the income distribution as they increasingly replaced lost earnings. Households of retirement age appear to have benefited, on average, the most net taxes and transfers.

[1]  Walter J. Murphy,et al.  The Employment Outlook , 1947 .

[2]  Peter Townsend,et al.  Poverty in the United Kingdom: A Survey of Household Resources and Standards of Living , 1979 .

[3]  A. Shorrocks,et al.  Inequality Decompositions By Factor Components , 1982 .

[4]  Daniel B. Radner.  Adjusted Estimates of the Size Distribution of Family Money Income , 1983 .

[5]  Timothy M. Smeeding,et al.  EQUIVALENCE SCALES, WELL‐BEING, INEQUALITY, AND POVERTY: SENSITIVITY ESTIMATES ACROSS TEN COUNTRIES USING THE LUXEMBOURG INCOME STUDY (LIS) DATABASE , 1988 .

[6]  Lawrence F. Katz,et al.  Macroeconomic Performance and the Disadvantaged , 1991 .

[7]  Markus Jäntti.  Changing Inequality in Five Countries: The Role of Markets, Transfers and Taxes , 1993 .

[8]  D. Slesnick.  Gaining Ground: Poverty in the Postwar United States , 1993, Journal of Political Economy.

[9]  Joan R. Rodgers,et al.  Chronic Poverty in the United States , 1993 .

[10]  D. Bloom,et al.  Changes in the Structure of Family Income Inequality in the United States and Other Industrial Nationa During the 1980s , 1994 .

[11]  J. Merz.  Relative Inequality and Poverty in Germany and the United States Using Alternative Equivalence Scales , 1994 .

[12]  M. Förster.  Measurement of Low Incomes and Poverty in A Perspective of International Comparisons , 1994 .

[13]  D. Slesnick.  Consumption, Needs and Inequality , 1994 .

[14]  Anthony B. Atkinson,et al.  Income Distribution in Oecd Countries: Evidence from the Luxembourg Income Study , 1995 .

[15]  Claude Giorno,et al.  Technical Progress, Factor Productivity and Macroeconomic Performance in the Medium Term , 1995 .

[16]  S. Jenkins.  Accounting for Inequality Trends: Decomposition Analyses for the UK, 1971-86 , 1995 .

[17]  Susan Johnson.  More Evidence on the Effect of Higher Unemployment on the Canadian Size Distribution of Income , 1995 .

[18]  P. Gottschalk,et al.  Cross National Comparisons of Levels and Trends in Inequality , 1995 .

[19]  B. Milanovic.  Poverty, Inequality, and Social Policy in Transition Economies , 1995 .

[20]  Robert A. Pollak,et al.  Bargaining and Distribution in Marriage , 1996 .

[21]  Patrick J. Wilkie.  Through-time changes in family income inequality: the effect of non-synchronous regional growth , 1996 .

[22]  Teresa Santero,et al.  Confidence indicators and their relationship to changes in economic activity , 1996 .

[23]  A. Atkinson.  Bringing Income Distribution in from the Cold , 1997 .

[24]  J. Bradshaw,et al.  Poverty in the U.K.: A Comparison with Nineteen Other Countries , 1996 .

[25]  P. Holm,et al.  Structural Unemployment in Finland , 1997 .

[26]  Marie-Odile Gilles-Simon,et al.  Les politiques sociales du point de vue des populations pauvres , 1997 .

[27]  Luigi Cannari,et al.  La povertà tra i minorenni in Italia : dimensioni, caratteristiche, politiche , 1997 .

[28]  B. Nolan,et al.  Low Pay, the Earnings Distribution and Poverty in Ireland, 1987-1994: Paper for LOWER Conference on Problems of Low-Wage Employment 31 January - 1 February, Bordeaux , 1997 .

[29]  Silvia Fabiani,et al.  NAIRU: Incomes Policy and Inflation , 1997 .

[30]  Fumihira Nishizaki.  The NAIRU in Japan: Measurement and Its Implications , 1997 .

[31]  J. Večerník.  Markets and People: The Czech Reform Experience in a Comparative Perspective , 1997 .

[32]  S. Holden,et al.  The Unemployment Problem a Norwegian Perspective , 1997 .

[33]  A. Sharpe,et al.  Macroeconomic performance and income distribution in Canada , 1997 .

[34]  P. Gottschalk,et al.  Empirical Evidence on Income Inequality in Industrialized Countries , 2000 .