This book addresses key questions about whether inequality in incomes, wealth and education have been widening in a consistent fashion across 30 rich nations, and whether this is exacerbating social problems and undermining the healthy functioning of democratic processes. It sets out to answer these questions by looking in depth at the experience of 30 countries over the past 30 years, examining what has actually been happening to these inequalities and investigating how this can be related to social and political outcomes such as poverty, family structures, health and health inequalities, crime, political participation, and attitudes and values. This brings out that although many countries have seen some increase in income inequality country experiences have varied widely, that an immediate impact on average levels of social problems is difficult to see though there may be some interaction with political behaviours and changes to social gradients. What does stand out is that policies matter both in terms of ameliorating background inequality pressures and mitigating the extent to which inequalities in income spill-over to other domains.
Edited by:
Brian Nolan,
Wiemer Salverda,
Daniele Checchi,
Ive Marx,
Abigail McKnight
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 253mm,
Width: 181mm,
Spine: 50mm
Weight: 1.508kg
ISBN: 9780199687428
ISBN 10: 0199687420
Pages: 784
Publication Date: 09 January 2014
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Further / Higher Education
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Foreword ; Preface ; 1. Introduction ; 2. Revisiting Grand Narratives of Growing Inequalities: Lessons From 30 Country Studies ; 3. Australia: Inequality and Prosperity and their Impacts in a Radical Welfare State ; 4. Austria: The Bastion of Calm? Stability and Change in Inequalities in Times of Welfare State Reforms and Employment Flexibilization ; 5. Between Economic Growth and Social Justice: Different Inequality Dynamics in the Baltic States ; 6. Belgium: When Growing Background Inequalities Meet Resilient Institutions ; 7. Bulgaria: Rising Inequality in the Period of Transition and Restrictive Incomes Policy ; 8. Rising Inequality and Its Impact in Canada: The Role of National Debt ; 9. Sources and Impact of Rising Inequality in Denmark ; 10. Finland: Growing Inequality with contested consequences ; 11. France: How Taxation Can Increase Inequality ; 12. Germany: Rising Inequality and the Transformation of Rhine Capitalism ; 13. Greece: The (Eventual) Social Hardship of Soft Budget Constraints ; 14. Hungary: A Country Caught in its Own Trap ; 15. Ireland: Inequality and its Impacts in Boom and Bust ; 16. Italy: How Labour Market Policies Can Foster Earnings Inequality ; 17. Rising Inequality in Japan: A Challenge Caused by Population Aging and Drastic Changes in Employment ; 18. Korea: The Great U-Turn in Inequality and the Need for Social Security Provisions ; 19. Luxembourg: Has Inequality Grown Enough to Matter? ; 20. The Netherlands: Policy-Enhanced Inequalities Tempered by Household Formation ; 21. The Rise of Inequalities in Poland and their Impacts: When Politicians Don't Care but Citizens Do ; 22. Portugal: There and Back Again, An Inequality's Tale ; 23. Romania: High Rising Inequality over Two Decades of Post Communist Transformation ; 24. Slovakia and the Czech Republic: Inequalities and Convergences after the Velvet Divorce ; 25. Slovenia: An Equal Society Despite the Transition ; 26. Spain: What Can We Learn From Past Decreasing Inequalities? ; 27. Sweden: Increasing Income Inequalities and Changing Social Relations ; 28. Divided We Fall? The Wider Consequences of High and Unrelenting Inequality in the UK ; 29. The United States: High and Rapidly-Rising Inequality ; 30. Learning from Diversity about Increasing Inequality, its Impacts, and Responses?
The seven editors together have organised and coordinated the 3.5-year Growing Inequalities' Impacts GINI project, which has generated the results reported in this volume. They are an international team drawn from different disciplines and with important and complementary expertise in the fields covered by the book. They share a history of joint publications, including edited volumes, and extensive cooperation in research networks such LoWER (European Low-wage Employment Research network, 1996-2008), Equalsoc (Network of Excellence, since 2005), and ImPRovE (Poverty Reduction in Europe: Social Policy and Innovation, since 2012).
