Flat-lining or seething beneath the surface?: two decades of changing economic inequality in the UK

Obolenskaya, Polina ORCID: 0000-0002-2571-2931 and Hills, John (2019) Flat-lining or seething beneath the surface?: two decades of changing economic inequality in the UK. Social policies and distributional outcomes in a changing Britain (4). Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, London, UK.

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Abstract

This paper analyses what happened to economic inequalities in the United Kingdom in the two decades from 1995-96. In aggregate, inequality changes were unremarkable, especially by comparison with sharp increases in the 1980s. However, over the first decade economic outcomes improved across population groups, while over the second near-stagnation accompanied continuing high inequality. We show that the apparent stability of inequality in this period masked the way in which the nature and depth of economic inequalities changed after the economic crisis, leading to substantial differences between and within groups defined in different ways. Pervasively, younger adults lost out in the second decade compared to older ones. When population groups are defined in other ways (such as region, housing tenure or ethnicity) patterns are more complex, but with the worst-off in particular groups often being ‘left behind’. more complex, but with the worst-off in particular groups often being ‘left behind’.

Item Type:	Monograph (Working Paper)
Additional Information:	© 2019 The Authors
Divisions:	Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion Social Policy
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform
JEL classification:	D - Microeconomics > D3 - Distribution > D30 - General D - Microeconomics > D3 - Distribution > D31 - Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions
Date Deposited:	08 Jul 2019 10:33
Last Modified:	11 Dec 2024 19:30
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/101128

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