The global significance of national inequality decline
The global significance of national inequality decline
复制标题
国家不平等现象下降的全球意义
DOI：
10.1080/01436597.2019.1662287
复制
发表时间：
2019
影响因子：
2
通讯作者：
M. Savage
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
R. Simson;M. Savage
摘要自20世纪80年代以来，不平等现象在欧洲、北美和亚洲部分地区不断加剧。如果覆盖范围扩大到其他发展中国家，我们对全球不平等动态的理解会发生什么变化？为了重新平衡对全球不平等趋势的看法，本文调查了拉丁美洲、亚洲、非洲和中东最近不平等趋势的数据和文献。报告发现，在这些地区，过去20年来，以收入或消费不平等的基尼系数衡量，不平等程度下降的国家多于上升的国家。因此，在全球一级，有迹象表明不平等现象趋于一致，因为在1990年代不平等程度高的国家（特别是拉丁美洲），不平等现象一直在下降，而在历史上不平等程度低的国家，不平等现象则在上升。我们讨论了基尼系数稳步下降的国家不平等下降的政治和经济驱动因素。这表明了地球仪在缩小收入差距方面的一些共同趋势，包括民主化的作用、新社会运动的兴起、教育和社会安全网的扩大以及有利的商品价格。本文呼吁对不平等趋势进行更多国家层面的比较，以突出全球化最新阶段路径的多样性。
Abstract Since the 1980s, inequality has been rising in Europe, North America and parts of Asia. How does our understanding of global inequality dynamics change if coverage is extended to the rest of the developing world? To rebalance the perspective on global inequality trends, this paper surveys data and literature on recent inequality trends in Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. It finds that in these regions there are more countries with falling than rising inequality over the past 20 years, as measured by Ginis of income or consumption inequality. At the global level, therefore, there are signs of inequality convergence, as inequality has been falling in countries with high inequality in the 1990s (particularly Latin America), and rising in historically low-inequality countries. We discuss the political and economic drivers of inequality decline in countries with a steady fall in the Gini. This suggests some common trends across the globe, including the role of democratisation, the rise of new social movements, and the expansion of education and social safety nets and favourable commodity prices, in reducing income disparities. This paper calls for more country-level comparisons of inequality trends, to highlight the multiplicity of paths in this latest phase of globalisation.