Income Distribution, Growth and Wellbeing : Evidence of a Quantitative Approach for Selected OECD Countries

• Autorzy: Giuseppe Calzoni , David Aristei , Valentina Bacchettini
• Języki publikacji: EN

Abstrakty

EN

In this paper we provide evidence on the cross-country and intertemporal dynamics of aggregate welfare. Firstly, we apply and compare alternative inequality indexes to have an insight on the actual within-country income distribution. The same measures, combined with information on average incomes, are then used to quantify the impact of inequality on social welfare and to obtain a comparative assessment of well-being levels, determined according to Bernoulli’s hypothesis, across space and time. The empirical application has been carried out on 10 selected OECD countries for the period 1970-2000, using a dataset that combines comparable data on per capita incomes from Penn World Tables with income distribution information drawn from the World Income Inequality Database. The results obtained highlight how inequality-accounting welfare measures significantly modify the perception of well-being, affecting both the within-country evolution of aggregate welfare and inter-countries well-being levels. Finally, for selected sub-periods, the issue of progressivity of income growth process has been considered to evaluate whether or not income growth leads to lower inequality over time. (original abstract)

Słowa kluczowe

EN

Social inequality; Income distribution

PL

Nierówności społeczne; Rozkład dochodów

• Czasopismo: Argumenta Oeconomica
• Rocznik: 2009
• Numer: nr 1 (22)
• Strony: 5--54

Twórcy

autor

Giuseppe Calzoni

• University of Perugia, Italy

autor

David Aristei

• University of Perugia, Italy

autor

Valentina Bacchettini

• University of Perugia, Italy

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