Global income inequality by the numbers: in history and now --an overview--

No 6259, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: The paper presents an overview of calculations of global inequality, recently and over the long-run as well as main controversies and political and philosophical implications of the findings. It focuses in particular on the winners and losers of the most recent episode of globalization, from 1988 to 2008. It suggests that the period might have witnessed the first decline in global inequality between world citizens since the Industrial Revolution. The decline however can be sustained only if countries'mean incomes continue to converge (as they have been doing during the past ten years) and if internal (within-country) inequalities, which are already high, are kept in check. Mean-income convergence would also reduce the huge"citizenship premium"that is enjoyed today by the citizens of rich countries.

Keywords: Inequality; Poverty Impact Evaluation; Services&Transfers to Poor; Equity and Development; Income (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-11-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev and nep-his
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (28)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSC ... ered/PDF/wps6259.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6259

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20433. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Roula I. Yazigi ().