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Growing Unequal?

Income Distribution and Poverty in OECD Countries

Growing Unequal? brings together a range of analyses on the distribution of economic resources in OECD countries. The evidence on income distribution and poverty covers, for the first time, all 30 OECD countries in the mid-2000s, while information on trends extending back to the mid-1980s is provided for around two-thirds of the countries. The report also describes inequalities in a range of domains (such as household wealth, consumption patterns, in-kind public services) that are typically excluded from conventional discussion about the distribution of economic resources among individuals and households. The report provides evidence of a fairly generalised increase in income inequality over the past two decades across the OECD, but the timing, intensity and causes of the increase differ from what is typically suggested in the media. Precisely how much inequality there is in a society is not determined randomly, nor is it beyond the power of governments to change, so long as they take note of the sort of up-to-date evidence included in this report.

This report includes StatLinks, URLs linking tables and graphs in the book to Excel® spreadsheets containing the data.

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Publication Date :: 21 Oct 2008
DOI :: 10.1787/9789264044197-en

Chapter

Introduction

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Authors:: OECD


Pages :: 15–19
DOI :: 10.1787/9789264044197-2-en

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If you asked a typical person to list the major problems that the world faces today, the likelihood is that "inequality and poverty" would be one of the first things they mentioned. There is a widespread concern that economic growth is not being shared fairly. A poll by the BBC in February 2008 suggested that about two-third of the population in 34 countries thought that "the economic developments of the last few years" have not been shared fairly. In Korea, Portugal, Italy, Japan and Turkey, over 80% of respondents agreed with this statement.* There are many other polls and studies which suggest the same thing.

Also available in: French