Fiscal Studies最新文献

In this paper, we discuss the evolution of inequality in Greece from 2004 to 2021 in light of the Greek debt crisis that led to a sharp drop in gross domestic product per capita between 2008 and 2013. While aggregate measures of income inequality, such as the Gini coefficient, suggest a marginal improvement, domestic perceptions of social fairness remain bleak. To delve deeper into this paradox, we explore additional aggregate and distributional aspects of Greece's social landscape during this period. Our analysis reveals several contributing factors: a compression of earnings, benefits and pensions; a sharp increase in social exclusion; and high inequality in access to basic public services and housing. These factors go beyond what headline inequality indices indicate, illustrating how the sovereign debt crisis and subsequent austerity measures have affected individuals differently based on their socio-economic background, while also reducing overall welfare across the Greek population. Moreover, chronic institutional inefficiencies and widening disparities in access to services and housing significantly influence perceptions of inequality and contribute negatively to the country's social cohesion.

This paper presents stylised facts on the labour supply and income inequality of individuals aged 25–55, drawn from the 1989–2020 Bank of Italy Survey of Household Income and Wealth. Over the sample period, earnings inequality has increased considerably although the gap is smaller when considered in terms of household disposable income. We investigate the possible drivers of this increase using administrative data on employees. The evidence suggests that labour market reforms implemented since the start of the 1990s are the most plausible explanation for this growth in earnings inequality. Comparison between earnings and disposable income suggests that both government and households are important for reducing inequalities.

Overall, income inequality in Austria is moderate and has been stable in recent years. However, a look at employment statistics reveals important inequality trends in the labour market. This paper highlights five important shifts in the composition of the labour force: (i) a massive increase in female labour force participation; (ii) large shifts in the distribution of education; (iii) trends towards part-time work among women as well as men; (iv) persistent gender gaps in market and non-market work of parents; and (v) an increase in labour migration with a substantial share of cross-border commuters.

This study analyses the development of inequality in Germany from 1983 to 2020, focusing on labour market trends and income inequality. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we show that one of the most important trends in the German labour market in recent decades has been the increasing participation of women in the labour market. In addition, we confirm previous findings that inequality in earnings and household disposable income increased from the 1990s to 2005. Since then, inequality has not increased further despite changes in the composition of the labour force that tend to increase inequality, such as increased assortative matching and high net migration rates.

This paper offers a descriptive overview of the evolution of individual earnings and household income inequality in Spain over the last two decades. During this period, there has been a noteworthy increase in the level of education of the working-age population (aged 25–60) along with a rise in female labour force participation. Substantial changes have also occurred in household size and composition, with reductions in marriage and cohabitation, in particular among lower-educated groups. These changes have a direct impact on the distribution of individual earnings and household income and, therefore, the evolution of inequality. Fluctuations in inequality, however, primarily moved with the business cycle. After a period of decreasing inequality during the mid-1990s expansion, the 2008 global financial crisis led to sharp rises in both earnings and income inequality that peaked around 2014. After that, both unemployment and inequality decreased, except for the transitory surge during the COVID-19 pandemic. By 2022, inequality indicators have almost returned to pre-2008 levels.

In this paper, we summarise the existing literature and present new empirical evidence in order to address the questions of whether educational expansion is an effective tool for reducing inequality and whether some educational systems have better associations with lower inequality and others worse. We argue that – depending on the form the policies take, on the extent of intergenerational correlations in income and on the levers of educational access – policies that aim at increasing education are not necessarily beneficial in the sense of reducing inequality. Differential impacts of different systems by gender are particularly striking.

We study how changes in labour market outcomes and household composition translate into changes in household incomes in the Netherlands over the period 1977–2022. During this period, the Netherlands witnessed a vast increase in female employment and earnings. This was also the key driver of household income growth. Male employment hardly changed, and male earnings growth was limited, and hence contributed little to household income growth. The increase in employment and earnings was the most pronounced for lower-educated women and women with relatively low earnings. The resulting drop in earnings inequality among women also put a drag on the rise in household income inequality, together with an increase in social benefits and a reduction in taxes for the bottom of the household income distribution. However, overall there was still a small increase in disposable household income inequality because inequality in male earnings increased, with earnings falling in real terms for men with low earnings and rising somewhat for men with high earnings. Furthermore, the proportion of singles increased, in particular among low-earning men and women, and assortative matching on earnings in couples increased. We further show that despite still having relatively low household income inequality overall, a large gap remains between immigrants and natives.

This paper investigates the evolution of income and wage inequality in Portugal from the 1974 democratic revolution up to 2020, drawing on a series of administrative records, survey data and aggregate statistics. Over this period, Portugal consistently ranked among the most unequal nations in the developed world. The transition from a deeply unequal dictatorial regime, in the wake of the 1974 revolution, brought about substantial redistribution. However, since the 1980s, income and wage inequality followed an arc-shaped trajectory. There was a sharp rise in inequality from the early 1980s to the mid-1990s, which, in just eight years, outpaced the infamous US growth in wage inequality of the last five decades. Then, there was stability at high levels until the mid-2000s. Finally, there was a sharp decline in inequality until 2020, which halved both the gender wage gap and the college wage premium. Changes related to the supply and demand for education/skills emerged as key drivers of inequality dynamics. Institutional and political forces were especially relevant in reducing inequality during the transition to democracy and, more recently, with the rising importance of the minimum wage and collective bargaining.

We document the evolution of working-age individual pre-tax and disposable income inequality in France since the late 1960s using household surveys. Disposable income inequality declined over the 1960s and 1970s and remained stable thereafter. This trend can be explained, in part, by changes in the tax and benefit system, notably through changes in employer contributions, and the evolution of the national minimum wage. Other dimensions than income bring a less positive perspective: low-income individuals are now more likely to be immigrants, have low education, and live in households with no working adults.

This special issue is the second in a two-part series on the evolution of labour market and disposable income inequalities over recent decades in 17 high-income countries in Europe and North America. In this Introduction, we provide additional background for the cross-country project, which has been conducted in parallel to the wider IFS Deaton Review of Inequalities. We briefly summarise the key trends and findings of the papers that cover five Western European countries and four Southern European countries, and a companion paper on the role of education and intergenerational mobility across all 17 countries.