European-Wide Inequality in Times of the Financial Crisis

40 Pages Posted: 17 Jun 2015

See all articles by Timm Bönke

Timm Bönke

Free University of Berlin (FUB) - Department of Business and Economics

Carsten Schröder

Free University of Berlin (FUB) - Department of Business and Economics

Date Written: April 2015

Abstract

In view of rising concerns over increasing inequality in the European Union since the financial crisis, this study provides an inequality decomposition of the overall European income distribution by country. The EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions are our empirical basis. Inequality has risen moderately within the core Euro area, particularly in the last two years of the observation period (2010/11). Widening disparities between EU Member States are the driving force behind this trend, while inequalities within countries do not exhibit systematic changes. An analysis of binational distributions reveals that it is the countries hit worst by the crisis — Greece and Spain — for which the between-country disparities have changed most markedly.

Keywords: Inequality, decomposition, crisis

JEL Classification: D30, D31, D39

Suggested Citation

Bönke, Timm and Schröder, Carsten, European-Wide Inequality in Times of the Financial Crisis (April 2015). DIW Berlin Discussion Paper No. 1482, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2619547 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2619547

Timm Bönke

Free University of Berlin (FUB) - Department of Business and Economics ( email )

Boltzmannstrasse 20
D-14195 Berlin, 14195
Germany

Carsten Schröder (Contact Author)

Free University of Berlin (FUB) - Department of Business and Economics ( email )

Boltzmannstrasse 20
D-14195 Berlin, 14195
Germany
+49 030 838-52259 (Phone)
+49 030 838-52560 (Fax)

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