 Why has domestic inequality risen, and fallen, and risen?Todd A. Knoop Chapter 4 in Understanding Economic Inequality, 2025, pp 95-131 from Edward Elgar Publishing Abstract: Economic inequality within most countries is currently rising. Over the very long run, inequality has risen and fallen across the globe in long waves. In this chapter, we will examine why there have been these ebbs and flows in inequality, paying particular attention to why within-country inequality fell in the mid-1900s in most countries but has risen dramatically since 1980. Many hypotheses have been offered to explain rising inequality today, such as: globalization; skills-based technological change; increasing relative returns to intangible capital; changes in government redistribution policy; rising market power and economic rents; changes in family structure and assortative mating; the ascent of the economics of superstars; and the cumulative compounding of wealth into patrimonial capital. Here, we will examine each of these potential factors in detail in order to understand the economics behind each of these factors, why they are increasing in importance, and how they are impacting economic inequality. Keywords: Skills-based technological change; Patrimonial capitalism; Intangible capital; Economics of superstars; Globalization; Assortative mating (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:24525_4 Ordering information: This item can be ordered from Access Statistics for this chapter More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing |
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