The standard formulae used to calculate poverty gaps are incorrect when the poverty analysis is conducted in terms of equivalent units (rather than in per capita terms). An exact calculation requires access to individual level data. If this is unavailable, the paper proposes an approximation.

New data derived directly from household surveys are used to examine the effects of globalization on income distribution in poor and rich countries. The article looks at the impact of openness (proxied by the ratio of trade to gdp) and of direct foreign investment on relative income shares...

The objective of the paper is to answer an often-asked question : if tariff rates are reduced, what will happen to wage inequality ? We consider two types of wage inequality : between occupations (skills premium), and between industries. We use two large data bases of wage inequality that have...

Was the Euro-Mediterranean region at the time of the Roman empire and its Western successor states, more unequal than the European Union is today? We use some scant evidence on personal income distribution within the Empire and differences in average regional incomes to conclude that the Empire...

Thomas Piketty's "Capital in the 21st century" may be one of the most important recent economics books. It jointly treats theory of growth, functional distribution of income, and interpersonal income inequality. It envisages a future of relatively slow growth with the rising share of capital...

Suppose that all people in the world are allocated only two characteristics over which they have (almost) no control: country of residence and income distribution within that country. Assume further that there is no migration. We show that more than one-half of variability in income of world...

This paper advances research on inequality with unique, new data on income distribution in 61 countries, including 20 Latin American countries, to explore the effects of political parties on redistribution. First, consistent with a central -- but still contested -- assumption of the political...

This working paper advances research on inequality with unique, new data on income distribution in 61 countries, including 20 Latin American countries, to explore the effects of political parties on redistribution. First, consistent with a central, but still contested, assumption of the...

The paper extends the Inequality Possibility Frontier (IPF) approach introduced by Milanovic, Lindert and Williamson (2011) in two methodological directions. It allows the social minimum to increase with the average income of a society, and it derives all the IPF statistics for two other...