Changing Inequalities in Rich Countries: Analytical and Comparative Perspectives

433 Pages·2014·2.03 MB·English

by  Wiemer Salverda

Changing Inequalities in Rich Countries

Changing Inequalities
in Rich Countries
Analytical and Comparative Perspectives
Edited by
Wiemer Salverda, Brian Nolan, Daniele Checchi,
Ive Marx, Abigail McKnight, István György Tóth,
and Herman van de Werfhorst
1
1
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Preface
This volume is the product of an extensive and fruitful scientific collabora-
tion across countries and disciplines, focused on issues of central importance
to modern societies. It is a core output of the Growing Inequalities’ Impacts—
GINI—research project, funded by the European Commission under the
Socio-Economic Sciences and Humanities theme of the Seventh Framework
programme. This project has addressed pressing questions about the evolu-
tion of inequalities in income, wealth, and educational outcomes and oppor-
tunities, the social, political, and cultural impacts these may have, and the
policy context and implications. In doing so, it has drawn on the expertise
and commitment of over 150 social scientists, drawn from the disciplines
of economics, sociology, political science, and public health, and cover-
ing a total of thirty countries—twenty-five of the twenty-seven European
Union member states (the exceptions being Cyprus and Malta), Australia,
Canada, Japan, Korea, and the USA. This exceptionally wide span is an
essential component and strength of the scientific endeavour. The project
combined comparative analysis and in-depth country studies of inequality
trends, the drivers of those trends, their social and political/cultural impacts,
and the policies that affect them. The present volume brings together the
key findings from the research project as a whole, highlighting the results
of comparative analysis while incorporating lessons from individual coun-
tries. The findings of the country case studies, where their individual experi-
ences are examined through a common analytical framework, are discussed
country by country in a companion volume also being published by Oxford
University Press under the title Changing Inequalities and Societal Impacts in
Rich Countries: Thirty Countries’ Experiences.
The GINI research project has been structured around six core research
partners with their teams in the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour
Studies (AIAS) and the Amsterdam Centre for Inequality Studies (AMCIS), both
at the University of Amsterdam, the College of Human Sciences and Geary
Institute at University College Dublin, the Herman Deleeck Centre for Social
Policy at the University of Antwerp, the Work, Training and Welfare interdiscipli-
nary research centre (WTW) at the University of Milan, the Centre for Analysis
of Social Exclusion (CASE) at the London School of Economics and Political
v
Preface
Science, and TÁRKI Social Research Institute, Budapest. These coordinated the
work of another twenty country teams that were joined later by the Korean
team, which volunteered to participate in the project with the support of the
National Research Foundation of Korea in December 2011. The work has gen-
erated substantial country reports that provide the background to the chap-
ters of the companion volume. In addition, twenty-three individual research
associates committed themselves to the project from the start, while in the
course of the project many other experts accepted our invitations to contrib-
ute in their fields. As a result, more than eighty GINI discussion papers have
been produced, and these, mostly comparative in nature, are at the core of
the present book. The full listing of contributors (country team members and
individual experts), their reports and the discussion papers can be found at
the website of the project: gini-research.org. As project co-ordinators and as
editors of this volume, we are extremely grateful to all these participants for
their intensive engagement throughout the project.
The project has also benefited greatly from the input and advice of its advi-
sory board comprising Professors Tony Atkinson (Nuffield College Oxford),
Gøsta Esping-Andersen (Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona), John Hills
(CASE at the LSE), Jonas Pontusson (University of Geneva) Haya Stier (Tel
Aviv University), Jane Waldfogel (Columbia University and LSE), Richard
Wilkinson (University of Nottingham), and Marco Mira d’Ercole (OECD). We
are very grateful to them for their thoughtful advice and their involvement
in guiding what has been a particularly complex project, both in terms of
structure and range of challenging topics to be investigated, and the contri-
bution of their own views at the meetings that we have organized.
The substantial funding provided by the European Commission’s pro-
grammes for international scientific collaboration was an essential under-
pinning to a multi-year, multi-country study of this type.1 We have received
extremely helpful guidance and support from Ronan O’Brien and Marie Ramot
of the Commission’s Directorate General for Research and Innovation, and
also very helpful input from Georg Fisher, Director for Analysis, Evaluation,
and External Relations in the Directorate General for Employment, Social
Affairs, and Inclusion.
Finally, we have been in good hands throughout with Oxford University
Press, and wish to express our deep appreciation of the support received from
its commissioning editor Adam Swallow from the outset, which has been
1 The 7th Framework Programme in the field of Socio-Economic Sciences and Humanities
awarded grant No 244592 to the GINI proposal, submitted in January 2009 and very favourably
reviewed by the Commission’s independent and anonymous referees, whom we thank for their
support. The GINI project started in February 2010 and concluded in July 2013.
vi
Preface
critically important, as well as to Aimee Wright and colleagues in shepherd-
ing the volume through the production process.
The research project on which this book is based has been challenging but
highly rewarding, and we trust that the broad-ranging findings will deepen
understanding, act as a springboard for further research, and inform policy
in relation to inequality and its impacts, which is crucially important for the
development of our societies.
Wiemer Salverda (Amsterdam), Brian Nolan (Dublin), Daniele Checchi (Milan), Ive
Marx (Antwerp), Abigail McKnight (London), István György Tóth (Budapest), and
Herman van de Werfhorst (Amsterdam)
vii

Contents
List of Figures xi
List of Tables xv
Notes on Contributors xvii
1. Introduction 1
Wiemer Salverda, Brian Nolan, Daniele Checchi, Ive Marx,
Abigail McKnight, István György Tóth, and
Herman van de Werfhorst
2. Increasing Economic Inequalities? 15
Francesco Bogliacino and Virginia Maestri
3. Earnings, Employment, and Income Inequality 49
Wiemer Salverda and Christina Haas
4. Wealth Inequality and the Accumulation of Debt 82
Virginia Maestri, Francesco Bogliacino, and Wiemer Salverda
5. Increasing Educational Inequalities? 121
Gabriele Ballarino, Massimiliano Bratti, Antonio Filippin,
Carlo Fiorio, Marco Leonardi, and Francesco Scervini
6. The Social Impact of Income Inequality: Poverty,
Deprivation, and Social Cohesion 146
Brian Nolan and Christopher T. Whelan
7. Social Impacts: Health, Housing, Intergenerational Mobility 169
Abigail McKnight and Frank Cowell
8. Rising Inequalities: Will Electorates Go for Higher Redistribution? 195
István György Tóth, Dániel Horn, and Márton Medgyesi
9. Inequality, Legitimacy, and the Political System  218
Robert Andersen, Brian Burgoon, and Herman van de Werfhorst
ix