Calendrier du 08 janvier 2019
Applied Economics Lunch Seminar
Du 08/01/2019 de 12:30 à 13:30
Salle R2-01, Campus Jourdan, 48 boulevard Jourdan, 75014 Paris
BLANCHET Thomas ()
Divided Behind and Beyond Borders? Income inequality in Europe, 1980-2017
écrit avec Lucas Chancel, Amory Gethin
This paper estimates the evolution of income inequality in 38 European countries from 1980 to 2017 by combining surveys, tax data and national accounts in a systematic manner. We develop a harmonized methodology (based on machine-learning, nonlinear survey calibration and extreme value theory) in order to produce homogeneous pre-tax and post-tax income inequality estimates, comparable across countries and coherent with official national income growth rates. Our findings reveal that income inequalities within European countries increased significantly, while inequalities between countries remained broadly stable over the period. As a result, income disparities in Europe as a whole increased significantly: over the period, bottom 50% earners saw their incomes grow four times slower than the top 0.001%. Income gaps are however substantially wider and have increased much more rapidly in the United States than in the old continent. In 1980, Europe and the US shared similar levels of inequality; in 2017, by contrast, the share of national income accruing to top 1% earners was two times higher in the US. Our findings also stress the need for more transparency on inequality statistics in Europe and continued efforts towards the production, dissemination and analysis of distributional measures of economic growth.