Decomposing income inequality into factor income components

Type Working Paper
Title Decomposing income inequality into factor income components
Author(s)
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2016
URL https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305990979_Decomposing_income_inequality_into_factor_income_​components_Evidence_from_selected_G20_countries
Abstract
Income inequality has been rising in a number of countries in recent years and has been a growing concern.The total income of high-income households has increased faster than that of low-income households in anumber of countries. Similarly, the wage gap between the top 10 per cent and bottom 10 per cent ofwage earners has also widened. This paper investigates the factors that have contributed to the level ofinequality and its changes over time in 13 selected G20 countries in order to address this issue at thepolicy level. The results show that labour income is the most powerful factor contributing to inequalityin all countries under analysis. Transfers and benefits are the most important factors contributing toreducing inequality, but these alone cannot address the issue of rising inequalities in countries whereunemployment continues to be high, which requires intervention in the labour markets. Furthermore,the paper also analyses the factors that contributed to the rise in labour income inequality and theresults show that employment status and education are important factors contributing to inequality inthe majority of the countries, though age, sex and industry group are also contributing to inequality insome countries.

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