Income inequality : economic disparities and the middle class in affluent countries

This state-of-the-art volume presents comparative, empirical research on a topic that has long preoccupied scholars, politicians, and everyday citizens: economic inequality. While income and wealth inequality across all populations is the primary focus, the contributions to this book pay special attention to the middle class, a segment often not addressed in inequality literature. Written by leading scholars in the field of economic inequality, all 17 chapters draw on microdata from the databases of LIS, an esteemed cross-national data center based in Luxembourg. Using LIS data to structure a comparative approach, the contributors paint a complex portrait of inequality across affluent countries at the beginning of the 21st century. The volume also trail-blazes new research into inequality in countries newly entering the LIS databases, including Japan, Iceland, India, and South Africa.

Introduction 1. How Has Income Inequality Grown? The Reshaping of the Income Distribution in LIS Countries 2. On the Identification of the Middle Class 3. Has Rising Inequality Reduced Middle-Class Income Growth? 4. Welfare Regimes, Cohorts and the Middle Classes 5. Political Sources of Government Redistribution in High-Income Countries 6. Income Distribution, Inequality Perception and Redistributive Preferences in 7. Women's Work, Inequality, and the Economic Status of Families 8. Women's Employment, Unpaid Work, and Economic Inequality 9. Women's Work, Family Earnings, and Public Policy 10. Wealth: The Distribution of Assets and Debt 11. The Joint Distribution of Income and Wealth 12. The Fourth Retirement Pillar in Rich Countries 13. Public Pension Entitlements and the Distribution of Wealth 14. Income and Wealth Inequality in Japan 15. Income and Wealth Inequality in Japan 16. Horizontal and Vertical Inequalities in India 17. Post-Apartheid Changes in South African Inequality Conclusion