Globalizing Inequality: ‘Centrifugal’ and ‘Centripetal’ Forces at Work

José Gabriel Palma ()

Working Papers from United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs

Abstract: This paper reassesses national income inequalities in this era of globalization. The main conclusion is that two opposite forces are at work: one ‘centrifugal’ at the two extremes of the distribution—increasing the disparity of income shares appropriated by the top and by the bottom four deciles across countries; and the other ‘centripetal’ in the middle—increasing the uniformity of the share of income going to deciles 5 to 9. Therefore, globalization is creating a situation where virtually all the intercountry diversity of income distribution is the result of differences in what the rich and the poor get in each country.

Keywords: economic development; structural change; comparative studies; development policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D63 F J3 O1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2006-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:une:wpaper:35

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