Economic Crisis and Income Inequality in Korea

Using quarterly data for urban worker-households in Korea, I investigate trends in income and consumption inequality since the eruption of the recent economic crisis. I find evidence of sharply increasing income inequality while consumption inequality does not show any apparent trend. There is also evidence that severe deterioration in between-(income-decile)group inequality has more than offset minor improvement in within-group inequality, resulting in deterioration of overall income inequality. It is, therefore, believed that the worker households in Korea are undergoing a distinct process of income stratification parallel with the concentration of income after the economic crisis.