How unequal are we? Six major facts

Todd A. Knoop

Chapter 1 in Understanding Economic Inequality, 2025, pp 1-24 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: The empirical data on wealth and income inequality across the globe is summarized in six major facts, highlighting how since 1980 income and wealth inequality within countries has been growing, but inequality in income across the globe (ignoring nationality) has been falling. The rise in within-country inequality has been driven not only by the rich—particularly the top 1 percent—getting much richer, but also by the relative decline of the middle-class and a decrease in economic mobility. From a global perspective, however, growth in emerging market economies—particularly within China and India—has pushed a remarkable number of people out of global poverty and into the global middle-class. The end result is that in the midst of a global convergence in between-country incomes, there is also a growing divergence between those at the very top and the very bottom of the income distribution within countries.

Keywords: Within-country inequality; Top 1 percent; Wealth inequality; Economic mobility; Global poverty; Between-country inequality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035360116
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