The current cost of living is pushing more people into poverty, with almost 68% of low income...
Wealth
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18/03/2016
Tackling the wealth gap
The increasing private ownership of capital is leading to a growing wealth gap. To tackle this skewing of the economy in favour of the rich, Stewart Lansley argues for the creation of social wealth funds with the returns evenly shared across society.
Category: Articles -
01/02/2016
Books
OUT NOW - the two-volume study based on the findings of the Poverty and Social Exclusion in the UK research. Volume 1 examines the extent of poverty and volume 2 the different dimensions of disadvantage. Published by Policy Press on November 29, 2017.
Category: -
17/03/2014
Five families worth more than poorest 20 per cent
The five richest families in the UK are now wealthier than the bottom 20 per cent of the entire population, according to a briefing drawn up by Oxfam. That means just five households have more money than 12.6 million people put together – almost the same as the number of people living below the poverty line.
Category: Reports -
12/11/2013
Wealth and inheritance – from 1896 to now
Inherited wealth has started to increase as a percentage of national income since the 1970s, reversing the long-term decline going back at least as far as the nineteenth century, according to a new paper from the LSE's Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion.
The paper, by Professor Tony Atkinson, looks at the transmission of wealth in the form of estates and, insofar as it is possible, lifetime gifts – starting from 1896, when the modern estate duty was introduced.
Category: Reports -
23/10/2013
Wealth inequality – Birmingham Commission report
The highly unequal distribution of personal wealth is put under the spotlight in a new report from an independent Commission. It points out that the overall wealth share of the top tenth of the population in 2008-2010 was more than 850 times the share of the bottom tenth, and that the distribution of wealth is much more unequal than the distribution of income.
The Policy Commission on the Distribution of Wealth was launched in October 2012 by the University of Birmingham, with the aims of reviewing existing knowledge on wealth inequality; questioning the extent to which wealth inequality is a problem; and considering appropriate policy responses.
Category: Reports -
04/06/2013
Unequal distribution of household wealth
Household wealth is highest among those aged 45–64 and among those living in the south east region, according to a new analysis from the Office for National Statistics based on the Wealth and Assets Survey.
Total household wealth is found by adding together property wealth (net), financial wealth (net), physical wealth and private pension wealth. It excludes business assets, accrued rights to state pensions and assets held in trusts.
Category: Reports -
24/03/2013
Wealth gap – ‘no simple link’ to income inequality
There is no simple link between high wealth inequality and high income inequality, according to a new study by researchers at the London School of Economics. They examine data on cross-country differences in household wealth, and in household wealth inequality, for five countries – the UK, Italy, Finland, Sweden and the USA.
Category: Reports -
18/03/2013
Wealth taxes – options for reform
Wealth taxes are in need of comprehensive reform, according to a report from the Institute for Public Policy Research. But the authors stress the need for an approach that takes into account the political realities facing politicians attempting to introduce change.
Category: Reports -
14/02/2013
House price boom reduces wealth inequality
Rising house prices in the period before the global financial crash had the effect of reducing overall wealth inequalities in Britain, according to a paper from LSE academics.
The paper looks at trends in the distribution of household wealth in Great Britain from 1995 to 2005, using longitudinal data from the British Household Panel Survey. It focuses on the role of ageing or life-cycle saving, and the gains and losses associated with the house price boom.
Category: Reports -
19/01/2013
Super-rich could end poverty 'four times over'
The annual incomes of the world's 100 richest people could end global poverty four times over, according to a report from Oxfam. The report was published as world leaders prepared to meet at the annual economic summit in Davos, Switzerland.
Category: Reports
