This paper adopts a counterfactual decomposition analysis to analyse cross-country differences in the size of household wealth and levels of household wealth inequality. The findings of the paper suggest that the biggest share of cross-country differences is not due to differences in the...

In this paper we compare the level, composition and distribution of household wealth in five industrial countries: the UK, US, Italy, Finland and Sweden. We exploit the harmonized data within the Luxembourg Wealth Study, which we have extended to allow us to examine trends in the UK and the US...

The paper looks at the link between inequality and voter turnout, and derives three hypothesis from previous literature. It is shown that inequality associates negatively with turnout at the national elections (hypothesis 1). Although this is not a very strong effect, but it is net of several...

Previous research suggests that where inequality is high, participation is low. Two arguments are generally put forward to explain this finding: First, inequality depresses participation because people have diverging statuses and therefore fewer opportunities to share common goals. Second,...

The international surveys of pupil achievement – PISA, TIMSS, and PIRLS – have been widely used to compare socioeconomic gradients in children’s cognitive abilities across countries. Socioeconomic status is typically measured drawing on children’s reports of family or home...

This paper studies the relationship between income inequality, a macro-level characteristic, and solidarity of Europeans. To this aim, solidarity is defined as the ‘willingness to contribute to the welfare of other people’. We rely on a theoretical idea according to which feelings of...

We show how classic source-decomposition and subgroup-decomposition meth ods can be reconciled with regression methodology used in the recent liter ature. We also highlight some pitfalls that arise from uncritical use of the regression approach. The LIS database is used to compare the approaches...

Impact exerted by income inequality on happiness and etatist (interventionist) versus liberal (pro free- market) economic attitudes are analyzed. Income inequality in different countries reduces happiness, understood as public satisfaction with material standard of living and with life as a...

We are grateful to Maryse Fesseau and colleagues from the OECD Statistics Directorate for comments on this work and to Maxime Ladaique (OECD Social Policy Division) for guidance on OECD social expenditure data. We gratefully acknowledge the suggestions provided by members of the Working Party on...

In this paper, I argue that our understanding of the increase in economic inequality in advanced welfare democracies could be enhanced by taking account of the changes which took place in the housing regimes of many countries. I demonstrate how one could derive testable hypotheses concerning a...