The long run history of income inequality in Denmark

TY - JOUR

T1 - The long run history of income inequality in Denmark

AU - Atkinson, Tony B.

AU - Søgaard, Jakob Egholt

N1 - JEL Classification: D31; H2; J3; N3

PY - 2016/4/1

Y1 - 2016/4/1

N2 - We use historical publications and micro data from tax returns to construct internationally comparable estimates of the development in income inequality in Denmark over the last 140 years. The study shows that income inequality and top income shares have declined during several distinct phases in between periods of stability. Furthermore, the quality of the Danish data allows us to analyse not only the development in top income shares but also broader inequality measures such as the Gini coefficient. These analyses show that top income shares are a good proxy for the underlying development in inequality.

AB - We use historical publications and micro data from tax returns to construct internationally comparable estimates of the development in income inequality in Denmark over the last 140 years. The study shows that income inequality and top income shares have declined during several distinct phases in between periods of stability. Furthermore, the quality of the Danish data allows us to analyse not only the development in top income shares but also broader inequality measures such as the Gini coefficient. These analyses show that top income shares are a good proxy for the underlying development in inequality.

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

KW - Ulighed

KW - D31

KW - H2

KW - J3

KW - N3

U2 - 10.1111/sjoe.12143

DO - 10.1111/sjoe.12143

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0347-0520

VL - 118

SP - 264

EP - 291

JO - Scandinavian Journal of Economics

JF - Scandinavian Journal of Economics

IS - 2

ER -