This book is about how much people earn and why the distribution of earnings has been changing over time. The gap between the top and bottom in the United States has widened significantly since 1980. Why has this happened? Is it due to new technologies? What is the role of globalisation? Are there historical precedents?
The book begins with the "race" between technology and education, and shows that continuing technical progress does not necessarily imply a continuing rise in dispersion. It then examines the experience of 20 OECD countries over the twentieth century, material presented in the form of 20 country case studies. The book breaks new ground in assembling data on the distribution of individual earnings covering much of the twentieth century and drawing on a variety of under-exploited sources.
The findings overturn a number of widely-held beliefs. It is not the earnings of the low paid that have been most affected by the recent changes; widening is largely due to what is happening at the top. The recent rise in earnings dispersion is not unprecedented, but should be seen as part of a longer-run history of successive compression and expansion of earnings differences.

First published in 1976, the essays in this volume are concerned with the distribution of income and wealth. The papers were first presented at the Royal Economic Society's conference in 1974, which examined the evidence concerning the personal distribution of earnings, compared the distributions apparent in different periods and societies, and studied the association between personal attributes and income. The contributions, from internationally-renowned authors, reflect these areas, and address the questions surrounding inequality, the taxation of wealth and capital transfers that remain relevant in twenty-first century society.

Increasing disparities in income distribution, both national and international, keep this issue at the forefront of debates on economic policy.

"Poverty in Europe" synthesizes the author's exploration of the topic as presented at the twelfth Yrjo Jahnsson Lecture at the University of Helsinki. This three lecture collection confronts the serious questions surrounding the persistence of poverty in rich countries. It covers the topics of financial poverty in the European Union, the economics of poverty and exclusion, and the political economy of poverty.

A rapidly growing area of economic research investigates the top of the income distribution using data from income tax records. In Top Incomes: A Global Perspective New York Times best-selling author Thomas Piketty and noted member of the Conseil d'Analyse Economique, A. B. Atkinson brings together studies of top incomes for twelve countries from around the world, including China, India, Japan, Argentina and Indonesia. Together with the first volume, published in 2007, the studies cover twenty two countries. They have a long time span, the earliest data relating to 1875 (for Norway), allowing recent developments to be placed in historical perspective. The volume describes in detail the source data and the methods employed. It will be an invaluable reference source for researchers in the field. Individual country chapters deal with the specific nature of the data for each of the countries, and describe the long-term evolution of top income shares.
In the countries as a whole, dramatic changes have taken place at the top of the income distribution. Over the first part of the century, top income shares fell markedly. This largely took the form of a reduction in capital incomes. The different authors examine the impact of the First and Second World Wars, contrasting countries that were and were not engaged. They consider the impact of depressions and banking crises, and pay particular attention to the impact of progressive taxation.
In the last 30 years, the shares of top incomes have increased markedly in the US and other Anglo-Saxon countries, reflecting the increased dispersion of earnings. The volume includes statistics on the much-discussed top pay and bonuses, providing a global perspective that discusses important differences between countries such as the lesser increase in Continental Europe. This book, together with volume 1, documents this interesting development and explores the underlying causes. The findings are brought together in a final summary chapter by Atkinson, Piketty and Saez.

Based on a pioneering research programme on the evolution of top incomes, this volume brings together studies from 10 OECD countries. This rapidly growing field of economic research investigates the top segment of the income distribution by using data from income tax records over the past century. As well as describing the source data and methods employed, the authors also discuss the dramatic changes that have occurred at the top of the income scale throughout the 20th century.
This fascinating study is the first of its kind to provide a comprehensive historic overview of top income distribution over the last century. It looks at why top incomes shares fell markedly in the first half of the 20th century and why, more recently, there has been a striking difference in the top income distribution between continental Europe and English-speaking OECD countries, like the UK, USA, and Australia. Written by Thomas Piketty, New York Times best-selling author of Capital in the Twenty-First Century, and noted member of the Conseil d'Analyse Economique, A. B. Atkinson, this seminal work provides rich pickings for those with an interest in inequality, development, the economic impact of war, taxation, economic history, and executive compensation.

A rapidly growing area of economic research investigates the top of the income distribution using data from income tax records. In Top Incomes: A Global Perspective New York Times best-selling author Thomas Piketty and noted member of the Conseil d'Analyse Economique, A. B. Atkinson brings together studies of top incomes for twelve countries from around the world, including China, India, Japan, Argentina and Indonesia. Together with the first volume, published in 2007, the studies cover twenty two countries. They have a long time span, the earliest data relating to 1875 (for Norway), allowing recent developments to be placed in historical perspective. The volume describes in detail the source data and the methods employed. It will be an invaluable reference source for researchers in the field. Individual country chapters deal with the specific nature of the data for each of the countries, and describe the long-term evolution of top income shares.
In the countries as a whole, dramatic changes have taken place at the top of the income distribution. Over the first part of the century, top income shares fell markedly. This largely took the form of a reduction in capital incomes. The different authors examine the impact of the First and Second World Wars, contrasting countries that were and were not engaged. They consider the impact of depressions and banking crises, and pay particular attention to the impact of progressive taxation.
In the last 30 years, the shares of top incomes have increased markedly in the US and other Anglo-Saxon countries, reflecting the increased dispersion of earnings. The volume includes statistics on the much-discussed top pay and bonuses, providing a global perspective that discusses important differences between countries such as the lesser increase in Continental Europe. This book, together with volume 1, documents this interesting development and explores the underlying causes. The findings are brought together in a final summary chapter by Atkinson, Piketty and Saez.

Based on a pioneering research programme on the evolution of top incomes, this volume brings together studies from 10 OECD countries. This rapidly growing field of economic research investigates the top segment of the income distribution by using data from income tax records over the past century. As well as describing the source data and methods employed, the authors also discuss the dramatic changes that have occurred at the top of the income scale throughout the 20th century.
This fascinating study is the first of its kind to provide a comprehensive historic overview of top income distribution over the last century. It looks at why top incomes shares fell markedly in the first half of the 20th century and why, more recently, there has been a striking difference in the top income distribution between continental Europe and English-speaking OECD countries, like the UK, USA, and Australia. Written by Thomas Piketty, New York Times best-selling author of Capital in the Twenty-First Century, and noted member of the Conseil d'Analyse Economique, A. B. Atkinson, this seminal work provides rich pickings for those with an interest in inequality, development, the economic impact of war, taxation, economic history, and executive compensation.

First published in 1976, the essays in this volume are concerned with the distribution of income and wealth. The papers were first presented at the Royal Economic Society's conference in 1974, which examined the evidence concerning the personal distribution of earnings, compared the distributions apparent in different periods and societies, and studied the association between personal attributes and income. The contributions, from internationally-renowned authors, reflect these areas, and address the questions surrounding inequality, the taxation of wealth and capital transfers that remain relevant in twenty-first century society.

This is an open access publication, available online and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 3.0 IGO licence (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO). It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. As their Millennium Development Goals, world leaders have pledged by 2015 to halve the number of people living in extreme poverty and hunger, to achieve universal primary education, to reduce child mortality, to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS, and to halve the number of people without safe drinking water. Achieving these goals requires a large increase in the flow of financial resources to developing countries - double the present development assistance from abroad. Examining innovative ways to secure these resources, this book sets out a framework for the economic analysis of different sources of funding, applying the tools of modern public economics to identify the key issues. It examines the role of new sources of overseas aid, considers the fiscal architecture and the lessons that can be learned from federal fiscal systems, asks how far increased transfers impose a burden on donors, and investigates how far one can separate raising resources from their use. In turn, the book examines global environmental taxes (such as a carbon tax) the taxation of currency transactions (the Tobin tax), a development-focused allocation of Special Drawing Rights by the IMF, the UK Government proposal for an International Finance Facility, increased private donations for development purposes, a global lottery (or premium bond), and increased remittances by emigrants. In each case, it considers the feasibility of the proposal and the resources that it can realistically raise. In each case, it offers new perspectives and insights into these new and controversial proposals.

This is an open access publication, available online and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 3.0 IGO licence (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO). It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. As their Millennium Development Goals, world leaders have pledged by 2015 to halve the number of people living in extreme poverty and hunger, to achieve universal primary education, to reduce child mortality, to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS, and to halve the number of people without safe drinking water. Achieving these goals requires a large increase in the flow of financial resources to developing countries - double the present development assistance from abroad. Examining innovative ways to secure these resources, this book sets out a framework for the economic analysis of different sources of funding, applying the tools of modern public economics to identify the key issues. It examines the role of new sources of overseas aid, considers the fiscal architecture and the lessons that can be learned from federal fiscal systems, asks how far increased transfers impose a burden on donors, and investigates how far one can separate raising resources from their use. In turn, the book examines global environmental taxes (such as a carbon tax) the taxation of currency transactions (the Tobin tax), a development-focused allocation of Special Drawing Rights by the IMF, the UK Government proposal for an International Finance Facility, increased private donations for development purposes, a global lottery (or premium bond), and increased remittances by emigrants. In each case, it considers the feasibility of the proposal and the resources that it can realistically raise. In each case, it offers new perspectives and insights into these new and controversial proposals.

This book surveys recent developments in public economics by taking as a case-study the proposals for a basic income/flat tax scheme. It discusses various approaches to taxation and presents a framework for a system that would affect both personal income and the social security system, replacing the one by a flat-rate income tax and the other by a guaranteed income. This idea has generated wide interest in a number of countries, and is being actively discussed by several political parties. This book explains how these changes would benefit a wide variety of social groups, leading to a greater redistribution of income. At the same time, it also raises the question of whether a single reform can meet the very different objectives of different supporters. The author reviews different areas of public economics in which there has been active research in recent years- namely the theory of optimum taxation, public choice theory, general equilibrium analysis of incidence, numerical tax- benefit modelling, and econometric studies of work incentives-and asks how these contribute to our understanding of this particular policy reform. He also indicates the promising directions for future research. The author does not argue for or against the basic income/flat tax proposal, but believes it should be on the agenda for any serious discussion of tax and social security reform for the twenty-first century.

"Poverty in Europe" synthesizes the author's exploration of the topic as presented at the twelfth Yrjo Jahnsson Lecture at the University of Helsinki. This three lecture collection confronts the serious questions surrounding the persistence of poverty in rich countries. It covers the topics of financial poverty in the European Union, the economics of poverty and exclusion, and the political economy of poverty.