Cross-national income inequality: how great is it and what can we learn from it?

In recent years there has been increasing interest in the topic of income distribution in a cross-national context. A secular growth of income inequality has taken place over the past two decades affecting almost every rich nation, matched by the growth in comparable household income inequality data which makes these types of comparisons possible. While clear patterns of disposable income inequality differences are found in both level and trend, we are still a long way from explaining why these differences came about, whether they will continue to grow or stabilize, and what the social consequences of these changes might be.