The current cost of living is pushing more people into poverty, with almost 68% of low income...
Inequality
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13/08/2012
PSE: Northern Ireland bulletin, No. 2, December 2011
This bulletin reports on OECD measures of inequality, the rise in income poverty, the final report of the High Pay Commission, fuel poverty, the Family Resources Survey deprivation indicators for Northern Ireland, HM Revenue and Customs child poverty measure, and the Child Poverty Act.
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08/08/2012
Parental wealth key to children’s outcomes
Parental wealth is positively associated with a wide range of outcomes for children in early adulthood, according to a paper from the London School of Economics.
The study claims to provide the first UK estimates for the associations between parental wealth during adolescence and various children’s outcomes in early adulthood (at age 25), based on data from the British Household Panel Survey.
Category: Reports -
07/08/2012
Material deprivation linked to economic stress
Basic deprivation is the key dimension associated with economic stress, according to a study funded by the European Commission.
Researchers examined the relationship between material deprivation and economic stress in European countries, using data from the 2009 European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC). Stress was measured by reference to how difficult households felt it was to make ends meet.
Category: Reports -
06/08/2012
2011 England riots linked to inequality
Income inequality contributed to the outbreak of widespread social unrest in English cities in the summer of 2011, according to a new briefing paper.
The paper examines the issues raised in the government-commissioned Riots, Communities and Victims Panel report, and points out that all of them are powerfully affected by inequality.
Category: Reports -
01/08/2012
Progress for the Poor by Lane Kenworthy
Oxford, Oxford University Press, 176 pp, ISBN 978-0-19-959152-7 (hbk)
Kenworthy examines the relationship between economic growth and changes in living standards among low-to-middle income households in 20 rich nations, including the UK and the USA, over the period from 1979 to 2005. He also examines how this relationship varies between countries, and what drives this variation.
Kenworthy argues that one of the principal goals of antipoverty efforts should be to improve the absolute living standards of the least well-off. He addresses a set of questions at the heart of political economy:
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30/07/2012
Inequality and support for redistribution in OECD countries
People in developed (OECD) countries are more likely to support redistribution measures if inequality is high, according to an academic study. But it goes on to suggest the link is not a simple one, and that certain ‘fundamental country characteristics’ may also play an important role.
The research looked at individuals’ perceptions of inequality, distributional norms and redistributive preferences, and how these relate to the effective level of inequality and redistribution.
Category: Reports -
19/07/2012
Inequality ‘far worse’ than thought
Inequality has reached extreme proportions in many countries - but, according to campaigners, the problem is far worse than anyone has understood it until now. This is because all studies exploring economic inequality have systematically underestimated the wealth and income enjoyed by the world's wealthiest individuals.
Eight of the world's most respected economists specialising in economic inequality were interviewed for the study. They all confirmed a huge under-reporting problem in this area.
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12/07/2012
Wealthiest 20 per cent own nearly two-thirds of all household wealth
Sharp inequalities persist in the distribution of household wealth, according to the latest official statistics.
The figures come from the second wave of the official Wealth and Assets Survey – a longitudinal survey of how wealth is distributed among households in Great Britain. The latest survey covers the period 2008–2010.
Category: Reports -
27/06/2012
Better skills ‘to cut poverty’
Improving people’s skills over the rest of this decade will cut both absolute and relative poverty, according to three linked reports.
The Joseph Rowntree study looks at the relationship between income inequality, poverty and skills.
Category: Reports -
15/06/2012
‘Near-record’ drop in average incomes since recession
Average incomes have fallen by near-record amounts in the aftermath of the global economic recession, according to a think-tank report. Inequality has fallen back to levels last seen in the mid-1990s but only because the ‘poverty line’ has also been falling.
The analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies is based on the latest statistics for households with below-average income.
Category: Reports
