Report: Rich still getting richer
TOKYO: Global inequality has stabilised at high levels in recent years, a report said, despite gains among the poor in China and much milder disparities in incomes and wealth in Western Europe.
The World Inequality Report 2018 is based on a massive, interactive collection of data compiled by an international team of researchers that includes renowned economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez.
It shows inequality has soared since 1980 although the global top “one per cent” saw their share of global income slip slightly after the 2008 financial crisis, to just above 20%.
At the same time, the share of global income going to the bottom 50% rose slightly, to just under 10%, thanks to gains in populous, fastgrowing China and India.
The United States and Western Europe had similar levels of inequality in 1980, with the top 1% holding about 10% of income.
But by 2016, the top 1% in Europe held a 12% income share, compared with 20% in the US.
The bottom 50% of Americans saw their income share sink from more than 20% in 1980 to 13% in 2016, it said.
The report includes two charts illustrating the trends: In the US, the income share of the top 1% surpassed that of the bottom 50% in the mid1990s and has risen since, the two lines crossing in a big “X”.
In Europe, the two lines have remained parallel, with the top one per cent’s income share remaining well below that of the bottom 50%.
The authors of the report said the data it analyses were collected from a wide range of government sources over 15 years.
One of the aims of the study is to push governments to be more transparent about financial data to ensure that debates over inequality and the policies that affect incomes and wealth are well informed.
“Economic inequality is widespread and to some extent inevitable,” they said in the report’s summary. “It is our belief, however, that if rising inequality is not properly monitored and addressed it can lead to various sorts of political, economic and social catastrophes.” — AP