American Economic Review Vol. 107 No. 5 2017

Global Inequality Dynamics: New Findings from WID.world

Facundo Alvaredo¹; Lucas Chancel²; Thomas Piketty³; Emmanuel Saez⁴; Gabriel Zucman⁴

¹ Paris School of Economics, 48 Boulevard Jourdan, 75014 Paris, Oxford, and CONICET (e-mail: ) · ² Paris School of Economics, 48 Boulevard Jourdan, 75014 Paris, and Iddri Sciences Po (e-mail: ) · ³ Paris School of Economics, 48 Boulevard Jourdan, 75014 Paris (e-mail: ) · ⁴ University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, and NBER (e-mail: )

Abstract

This paper presents new findings on global inequality dynamics from the World Wealth and Income Database (WID.world), with particular emphasis on the contrast between the trends observed in the United States, China, France, and the United Kingdom. We observe rising top income and wealth shares in nearly all countries in recent decades. But the magnitude of the increase varies substantially, thereby suggesting that different country-specific policies and institutions matter considerably. Long-run wealth inequality dynamics appear to be highly unstable. We stress the need for more democratic transparency on income and wealth dynamics and better access to administrative and financial data.

DOI

10.1257/aer.p20171095

Volume

107

Issue

5

Pages

404-409

Language

en

Sources

crossref openalex

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