Inequality

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.

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.

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:

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.