01 - Inequality Flashcards
(26 cards)
What effect can social movements have
They can raise awareness about inequality in its various forms
Give 2 examples of social movements motivated by observations of inequality
Occupy Wall Street protests (2011)
Black Lives Matter Riots (2020)
What is likely exacerbate inequalities
Cost of living crises (e.g. 2023-24)
What highlighted differences in health/education outcomes
The covid pandemic
Which organisation publishes the ‘world inequality report’ each year
World inequality lab
What are the two kind of economic inequalities
Income (disposable income)
Wealth
How much of global income goes to the top 10% of earners
50-60%
How much of global income goes to the bottom 50% of earners
5-15%Is
Is wealth or income more unequally distributed
Wealth
What is market income
Income from wages, businesses, investments
What is disposable income
Market income - taxes + transfers
Is there more equality in market or disposable income, why
Disposable income, the tax and transfer (benefit) system
What is a potential way to make wealth more equally distributed
By raising inheritance tax (bring down the wealthy)
What is a way to measure inequality within an equality
Gini coefficient
What is the range of values of Gini coefficient
0 (perfect equality) to 1(perfect inequality)
How to find the Gini coefficient
Find the area between the Lorenz curve of income distribution and the line of perfect equality
What axes do you find on the Lorenz curve
Y axes (% of cumulative income) and X axes (%of cumulative household share)
Why did the Gini coefficient rise in the UK in the 1980s
Closing the mines
M Thatcher
Austerity based policies
Weaker unions
Skill-biased technological change which cased rising wage inequality
What is the 90:10 ratio
The income of the richest 10% over the income of the poorest 10%
What 3 reasons are there for both measures of inequality to have fallen since 1990s
1990s-2000s inclusive growth
2008 market crash
2010s to 2020s low end incomes fell
What does Daron Acemoglu’s research say may have had a small effect on inequality of income
Automation - by replacing labour
Can inequality be beneficial
Yes, it provides an incentive to work to become ‘more equal’
What does inequality provide an incentive for
To work harder than others - competition at the individual level
When can inequality cause problems
When it is excessive
