Economic Inequality and Income Distribution

This book is about the way to measure, to account for and to modify the economic inequalities in developed economies.

D. G. Champernowne (Author), F. A. Cowell (Author)

9780521580557, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 4 March 1999

426 pages, 96 b/w illus. 87 tables
24.4 x 17 x 2.4 cm, 1.02 kg

Economic inequality has become a focus of prime interest for economic analysts and policy makers. This book provides an integrated approach to the topics of inequality and personal income distribution. It covers the practical and theoretical bases for inequality analysis, applications to real world problems and the foundations of theoretical approaches to income distribution. It also analyses models of the distribution of labour earnings and of income from wealth. The long-run development of income - and wealth - distribution over many generations is also examined. Special attention is given to an assessment of the merits and weaknesses of standard economic models, to illustrating the implications of distributional mechanisms using real data and illustrative examples, and to providing graphical interpretation of formal arguments. Examples are drawn from US, UK and international sources.

Preface
1. Why bother about inequality?
2. Steps in the study of economic inequality
3. Inequality and history
4. Inequality, meaning and measurement
5. Social welfare and inequality analysis
6. Determinants of economic inequality
7. The distribution of income from employment
8. The dynamics of earnings
9. The distribution of wealth
10. Fantastic models of wealth distribution
11. Stochastic models of wealth and income distribution
12. Policy
Appendices
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Economic theory & philosophy [KCA]