Income Distribution and Poverty

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Critics of the market economy often claim that the underlying economic processes lead to greater inequality within countries and that economic opportunities are not open to all people in the same way. The work below looks at whether the evidence supports this claim. It examines trends in income inequality and poverty for OECD countries based on data for the mid-1980s to the mid 2000s.

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September 2009:

Policy Brief: In-Work Poverty: What can Governments do? from OECD Employment Outlook 2009

Spring 2009:

International Seminar: Employment and Inequality Outcomes - New Evidence, Links and Policy Responses in Brazil, China and India
Joint OECD/University of Maryland International Conference: Measuring Poverty, Income Inequality, and Social Exclusion - Lessons from Europe
OECD's Roundtable Discussion Forum on Monitoring the effects of financial crisis on vulnerable groups of society

October 2008:

The OECD report Growing Unequal?: Income Distribution and Poverty in OECD Countries, analyzing long-term trends in income distribution and poverty in OECD countries, was presented at the OECD Conference Centre , by:

Angel Gurría (OECD Secretary‐General)
Martin Hirsch (Haut Commissaire aux Solidarités Actives contre la Pauvreté, France)
Professor Sir Anthony Atkinson (Research Professor, Nuffield College, Oxford University).

Other "Income Distribution and Poverty" documents, prior to 2008:

Working papers (and related documents):

Income Distribution and Poverty in OECD Countries in the Second Half of the 1990s (March 2005)

OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Paper No. 22 (.pdf)
Selection of figures from OECD Questionnaire on Income Distribution and Poverty: poverty rates, Gini coefficients, Income composition (.xls)
Policy Brief: Combating Poverty and Exclusion through Work (.pdf)

Trends and Driving Factors in Income Distribution and Poverty in the OECD Area (2000) - Labour Market and Social Policy Occasional Paper No. 42 (.pdf)

Income distribution and poverty in selected OECD countries (1998) - Economics Department Working Paper No. 189 (.pdf)

Measurement of Low Incomes and Poverty in a Perspective of International Comparisons (1994) - Labour Market and Social Policy Occasional Paper No.14 (.pdf)

Publication:

Income Disparities in China - An OECD Perspective (2004)

Other:

Conference/Meeting: How to design active social policies to tackle poverty ? (2005)

Manual / Methods / Notes: