Handbook of Income Distribution

by Anthony B. Atkinson, Francois Bourguignon

Overview

What new theories, evidence, explanations, and policies have shaped our studies of income distribution in the 21st century?

Editors Tony Atkinson and Francois Bourguignon assemble the expertise of leading authorities in this survey of substantive issues. In two volumes they address subjects that were not covered in Volume 1 (2000), such as education, health and experimental economics; and subjects that were covered but where there have been substantial new developments, such as the historical study of income inequality and globalization. Some chapters discuss future growth areas, such as inheritance, the links between inequality and macro-economics and finance, and the distributional implications of climate change. They also update empirical advances and major changes in the policy environment.

• The volumes define and organize key areas of income distribution studies
• Contributors focus on identifying newly developing questions and opportunities for future research
• The authoritative articles emphasize the ways that income mobility and inequality studies have recently gained greater political significance

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780444594303
Publisher:	Elsevier Science
Publication date:	02/25/2015
Series:	Handbook of Income Distribution , #2
Pages:	2366
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 12.20(h) x 4.50(d)

About the Author

Sir Tony Atkinson is Professor of Economics at Oxford University and Fellow of Nuffield College, where he was Warden from 1994 to 2005. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and has been President of the Royal Economic Society, of the Econometric Society, of the European Economic Association, and of the International Economic Association. He was knighted in 2001 for services to economics and is Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur.

Francois Bourguignon is Director of the Paris School of Economics and Professor of Economics at the Ecole des hautes etudes en sciences sociales. Among his many distinctions is the Chevalier de L'Ordre Nationale de la Legion de l"Honneur.

Table of Contents

Part I: Concepts and approaches 1. Income distribution in the history of economic thought.  Agnar Sandmo 2. Inequality, income and well-being.  Marc Fleurbaey, Erik Schokkaert and Koen Decancq 3. Multi-dimensional inequality and poverty.  Andrea Brandolini and Rolf Aaberge 4. Equality of opportunity.  John E. Roemer and Alain Trannoy 5. Polarization.   Jean-Yves Duclos 6. Statistical methods for distributional analysis.  Frank Cowell and Emmanuel Flachaire

Part II Evidence 7. Long-run trends in the distribution of income and wealth.   Daniel Waldenstrom and Jesper Roine 8. Post-1970 trends in within-country inequality and poverty.   Timothy Michael Smeeding, Jeffrey Thompson and Salvatore Morelli 9. Post-1970 trends in inequality and poverty in developing and emerging countries.  Facundo Alvaredo and Leonardo Gasparini 10. Income mobility.  Markus Jantti and Stephen Jenkins 11. The Global distribution of income.  Sudhir Anand and Paul Segal 12. Gender inequality.  Dominique Meurs and Sophie Ponthieux 13. Experimental and survey evidence about attitudes to inequality.   Andrew Clark and Conchita d'Ambrosio

Part III Explanations 14. Inequality in macro-economics.   Jose-Victor Rios-Rull and Vincenzo Quadrini 15. Wealth and inheritance.   Thomas Piketty 16. Intra-Household inequality.  Pierre-André Chiappori and Costas Meghir 17. Health and inequality.   Owen O'Donnell, Eddy van Doorslaer and Tom Van Ourti 18. Labour-market institutions and the dispersion of wage earnings.   Wiemer Salverda and Daniele Checchi 19. Cross-country studies of the multiple causes of inequality in the OECD area.   Michael F. Förster and Istvan György Toth 20. Globalization and inequality.  Ravi Kanbur

Part IV: Policies 21. Democracy, political institutions and inequality.   James Robinson and Daron Acemoglu 22. Equitable development policies.   Martin Ravallion 23. The welfare state and anti-poverty policy in rich countries.   Brian Nolan, Ive Marx and Javier Olivera 24. Micro-simulation and policy analysis.   Holly Sutherland, Alari Paulus and Francesco Figari 

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Two authoritative volumes summarize advances in core knowledge about income inequality and mobility, evidence, policies, and techniques as well as new subjects and promising areas of interest

Editorial Reviews

"The literature on income distribution has undergone transformative change in the decade and a half since the first Handbook appeared. These timely new volumes by recognized scholars provide a comprehensive review of our current state of understanding and the challenges that inequality poses." —Robin Boadway, Queens University

"Few issues are more topical, in both the academic and policy debates, than the distribution of income and wealth. This handbook takes the reader to the frontier of all aspects of these debates: its superb contributions, by the foremost experts in the field, cover historical developments, data issues, statistical methods, theoretical approaches, and policy implications. A must for academics and interested general readers alike." —Roberto Perotti, Università Bocconi

"The increase in inequality is a pressing problem. Too often it is addressed with uninformed, oversimplified ideological slogans. If you want to go beyond those and really learn about this complicated topic, this is the essential and most complete book to read. A gem." —Alberto Alesina, Harvard University

"In every academic discipline, fads come and fads go. But in economics the very core of our subject is the study of the distribution of income and well-being across the population. From this analysis stems all our best theories and our best empirical research. This Handbook distills that wisdom and presents the latest findings by those who happen to be giants in our discipline. Its chapters will provide the platform from which will emerge the most exciting and important research for decades to come." —Danny Quah, London School of Economics

From the Publisher