"This paper analyses the (self-)selection of migrants between countries which have substantial differences in the inequality of earnings and income levels. In an extended version of the Roy-model we consider migration costs, which tend to grow less than proportional with the income level. As a...

Politische Unruhen, Bürgerkriege und im Extrem Völkermord sind einige der Gründe für die enttäuschende Wirtschaftsentwicklung in vielen Entwicklungsländern in den letzten Jahrzehnten, vor allem in Afrika. Perioden andauernder Gewalt beeinflussen auch die Verteilung von Einkommen in den...

This study explores the link between environmental degradation, economic growth and income inequality within the framework of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) literature. To investigate this issue, we examine how inequality affects carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and their relationship with...

This paper includes fifty observations on wage distributions across eleven countries and two age cohorts defined by international mathematics tests given to thirteen-year-olds in 1962 and 1982. It is found that wage dispersion later in life is never greater than test score dispersion. In...

Increasingly the rich nations of the world face a common set of social and economic issues: the cost of population aging, a growing number of single parent families, the growing majority of two-earner families, increasing numbers of immigrants from poorer nations, and in particular, rising...

A major goal of the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) has been to provide researchers with access to information about the social and economic characteristics of households and families for countries throughout the world. Since this information is in the form of data files containing actual...

The median voter hypothesis has been central to an extensive literature on consequences of income distribution. For example, it has been proposed that greater inequality is associated with lower growth, because of the greater redistribution that is sought by the median voter when income...

Our objective in this paper is to assess how middle-income groups are faring with the global turn to the market. We suggest some simple measures of the middle-the size and income shares of households around the median (75/125%)-and their income status relative to wealthier counterparts. Our...

This paper provides a brief overview of the basic concepts and measures used to estimate income inequality and poverty in the developed world. A summary assessment of the available comparative databases is included in our discussion. We also examine the relative merits of absolute and relative...

This chapter addresses the important issue of the quality of time series data on income distribution. We hope to suggest both standards and practice patterns that will improve the production and use of time series data on inequality. Thus, we address three groups: primary data producers;...