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A Different Perspective on the Evolution of UK Income Inequality
Author(s) -
Atkinson A. B.,
Jenkins Stephen P.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
review of income and wealth
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.024
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1475-4991
pISSN - 0034-6586
DOI - 10.1111/roiw.12412
Subject(s) - economics , economic inequality , inequality , income distribution , income inequality metrics , adjusted gross income , perspective (graphical) , gross income , distribution (mathematics) , income tax , income shares , comprehensive income , labour economics , public economics , demographic economics , state income tax , tax reform , mathematical analysis , mathematics , artificial intelligence , computer science
This paper scrutinizes the conventional wisdom about trends in UK income inequality and also places contemporary inequality in a much longer historical perspective. We combine household survey and income tax data to provide better coverage of all income ranges from the bottom to the very top (and make our estimates available to other researchers). We make a case for studying distributions of income between tax units (i.e. not assuming the full income sharing that goes with the use of the household as the unit of analysis) for reasons of principle as well as data harmonization. We present evidence that income inequality in the UK is as least as high today as it was just before the start of World War 2.