The Economics of Rising Inequalities

by Cohen, Daniel; Piketty, Thomas; Saint-Paul, Gilles

• ISBN13: 9780199254026
• ISBN10: 0199254028
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-12-26
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This book is an in-depth discussion of rising inequalities in the western world. It explores the extent to which rising inequalities are the mechanical consequence of changes in economic fundamentals (such as changes in technological or demographic parameters), and to what extent they are thecontingent consequences of country-specific and time-specific changes in institutions. Both the 'fundamentalist' view and the 'institutionalist' view have some relevance. For instance, the decline of traditional manufacturing employment since the 1970s has been associated in every developed country with a rise of labor-market inequality (the inequality of labor earnings within theworking-age population has gone up in all countries), which lends support to the fundamentalist view. But, on the other hand, everybody agrees that institutional differences (minimum wage, collective bargaining, tax and transfer policy, etc.) between Continental European countries and Anglo-Saxoncountries explain why disposable income inequality trajectories have been so different in those two groups of countries during the 1980s-90s, which lends support to the institutionalist view.The chapters in this volume show the strength of both views. Through empirical evidence and new theoretical insights the contributors argue that institutions always play a crucial role in shaping inequalities, and sometimes preventing them, but that inequalities across age, sex, and skills oftenrecur. From Sweden to Spain and Portugal, from Italy to Japan and the USA, the volume explores the diversity of the interplay between market forces and institutions.

Table of Contents

Introduction	vii
List of Contributors	xiii
PART I. MARKETS AND INSTITUTIONS
The Distribution of Earnings in Spain during the 1980s: The Effects of Skill, Unemployment, and Union Power	3	(52)
Olympia Bover
Samuel Bentolila
Manuel Arellano
Earnings Inequality in Portugal and Spain: Contrasts and Similarities	55	(20)
Olga Canto
Ana R. Cardoso
Juan F. Jimeno
Changes in Unemployment and Wage Inequality: An Alternative Theory and Some Evidence	75	(28)
Daron Acemoglu
Does Competition at School Matter? A View Based upon the Italian and Japanese Experiences	103	(30)
Giorgio Brunello
Tsuneo Ishikawa
The Causes of the `Youth Employment Problem': A (Labour) Supply Side View	133	(14)
Etienne Wasmer
Pareto-Improving Immigration in an Economy with Equilibrium Unemployment	147	(24)
Javier Ortega
PART II. LIFETIME INEQUALITIES AND THE SCOPE FOR REDISTRIBUTION
Consumption Inequality and Income Uncertainty	171	(34)
Richard Blundell
Ian Preston
Income Redistribution within the Life Cycle Versus Between Individuals: Empirical Evidence Using Swedish Panel Data	205	(20)
Anders Bjorklund
Marten Palme
Earnings Dispersion, Low Pay and Household Poverty in Italy, 1977--98	225	(40)
Andrea Brandolini
Piero Cipollone
Paolo Sestito
Changes in Home Production and Trends in Economic Inequality	265	(20)
Peter Gottschalk
Susan E. Mayer
Unequal Societies: Income Distribution and the Social Contract	285	(46)
Roland Benabou
Unemployment, Specialization, and Collective Preferences for Social Insurance	331	(20)
John Hassler
Jose V. Rodriguez Mora
Kjetil Storesletten
Fabrizio Zilibotti
Index	351