What new theories, evidence, explanations, and policies have shaped our studies of income distribution in the 21st century?

Editors Tony Atkinson and Francois Bourguignon assemble the expertise of leading authorities in this survey of substantive issues. In two volumes they address subjects that were not covered in Volume 1 (2000), such as education, health and experimental economics; and subjects that were covered but where there have been substantial new developments, such as the historical study of income inequality and globalization. Some chapters discuss future growth areas, such as inheritance, the links between inequality and macro-economics and finance, and the distributional implications of climate change. They also update empirical advances and major changes in the policy environment.

Reviews

"Thirteen papers explore advances made in the past fifteen years in understanding the extent, causes, and consequences of inequality." --Journal of Economic Literature, Handbook of Income Distribution, Vol 2A

"The literature on income distribution has undergone transformative change in the decade and a half since the first Handbook appeared. These timely new volumes by recognized scholars provide a comprehensive review of our current state of understanding and the challenges that inequality poses." --Robin Boadway, Queens University

"Few issues are more topical, in both the academic and policy debates, than the distribution of income and wealth. This handbook takes the reader to the frontier of all aspects of these debates: its superb contributions, by the foremost experts in the field, cover historical developments, data issues, statistical methods, theoretical approaches, and policy implications. A must for academics and interested general readers alike." --Roberto Perotti, Universita Bocconi "The increase in inequality is a pressing problem. Too often it is addressed with uninformed, oversimplified ideological slogans. If you want to go beyond those and really learn about this complicated topic, this is the essential and most complete book to read. A gem." --Alberto Alesina, Harvard University

"In every academic discipline, fads come and fads go. But in economics the very core of our subject is the study of the distribution of income and well-being across the population. From this analysis stems all our best theories and our best empirical research. This Handbook distills that wisdom and presents the latest findings by those who happen to be giants in our discipline. Its chapters will provide the platform from which will emerge the most exciting and important research for decades to come." --Danny Quah, London School of Economics

Feature

• The volumes define and organize key areas of income distribution studies
• Contributors focus on identifying newly developing questions and opportunities for future research
• The authoritative articles emphasize the ways that income mobility and inequality studies have recently gained greater political significance

Part I: Concepts and approaches

1. Income distribution in the history of economic thought.? Agnar Sandmo

2. Inequality, income and well-being.? Marc Fleurbaey, Erik Schokkaert and Koen Decancq

3. Multi-dimensional inequality and poverty.? Andrea Brandolini and Rolf Aaberge

4. Equality of opportunity.? John E. Roemer and Alain Trannoy

5. Polarization.?? Jean-Yves Duclos

6. Statistical methods for distributional analysis.? Frank Cowell and Emmanuel Flachaire

Part II Evidence

7. Long-run trends in the distribution of income and wealth.?? Daniel Waldenstrom and Jesper Roine

8. Post-1970 trends in within-country inequality and poverty.?? Timothy Michael Smeeding, Jeffrey Thompson and Salvatore Morelli

9. Post-1970 trends in inequality and poverty in developing and emerging countries.? Facundo Alvaredo and Leonardo Gasparini

10. Income mobility.? Markus Jantti and Stephen Jenkins

11. The Global distribution of income.? Sudhir Anand and Paul Segal

12. Gender inequality.? Dominique Meurs and Sophie Ponthieux

13. Experimental and survey evidence about attitudes to inequality.?? Andrew Clark and Conchita d'Ambrosio