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In this volume, the author seeks to analyze various aspects of growing inequality of income in society. What is income inequality? How is it measured? How does it relate to poverty? The author addresses these and other conceptual issues in the book.

Discrimination against particular groups has existed throughout history and in all types of societies. Few would challenge the idea that inequality of income based on discrimination is unjust. The more problematic issues are the extent to which discrimination is in fact a significant source of inequality and whether such discrimination-based inequality is inherent in a capitalist system.There is little doubt that discrimination can affect a group's income. But the link is by no means automatic or certain. Thus, the incomes of blacks, particularly in past decades, seem surely to have been lowered by discrimination. Yet other examples are less clear. Jewish and Japanese Americans, for instance, have had incomes substantially above those of white non-Jewish groups, despite evidence of discrimination against them.

This article focuses on the inequality of incomes between the very
rich and the rest of society. Accordingly, it measures inequality as the
ratio of the share of national income of the top five percent of households
over the share of the rest of society. It shows that this measure
of inequality increases when productivity grows in the manufacturing
sector and decreases when productivity grows in the nonmanufacturing
sector. These results suggest the rich earn relatively more when productivity
lags in the nonmanufacturing sector. A model is presented
that provides an explanation for these results. With complete markets,
risk-averse individuals will hold a portfolio of assets that effectively
produces the goods they intend to consume in order to insure they get
the consumption mix they want. Since the rich spend relatively more
on superior goods, they will hold relatively more assets in the superior
good sector. When productivity grows in the necessity sector, the relative
price of superior goods increases and the rich, holding relatively
more of the assets producing superior goods, will become richer. The
opposite occurs when productivity grows in the superior-good sector.
Evidence suggests that nonmanufactured goods are superior goods.

Previous studies have investigated the factors underlying China's income inequality. However, an important factor-the influence of natural resources-has been overlooked. To reinforce understanding of the factors contributing to income inequality in China, this study examines the role of energy resources in income inequality. This study established a 2005-10 provincial panel data set and adopted a dynamic panel data model with system GMM (generalised method of moments) estimators as empirical strategies. The results demonstrate that provinces that are more dependent on energy resources exhibit higher levels of income inequality and the findings are robust under different measures of income inequality. (China/GIGA)

INCOME INEQUALITY: AN ALARMING U.S. TREND -- INCOME INEQUALITY: AN ALARMING U.S. TREND -- CONTENTS -- PREFACE -- Chapter 1 TRENDS IN THE DISTRIBUTION OF HOUSEHOLD INCOME BETWEEN 1979 AND 2007 -- NOTES AND DEFINITIONS -- PREFACE -- SUMMARY -- Increased Concentration of Market Income -- Income at the Very Top of the Distribution -- The Role of Government Transfers and Federal Taxes -- Increased Concentration of after-Tax Income -- TRENDS IN THE DISTRIBUTION OF HOUSEHOLD INCOME BETWEEN 1979 AND 2007 -- Introduction -- CBO's Analysis -- Increased Dispersion of Households' after-Tax Income

Sociological investigations of income inequality have neglected Stanislaw Andreski's theory (Military Organization and Society, Berkeley: U of California Press, 1968) based on military organization. Andreski's thesis is tested as it applies to the military participation ration (MPR), using data from 37 nations. Control variables are drawn from other eminent theories of income inequality. While multiple-regression analysis finds support for Andreski's position, the degree of political democracy was more closely associated with variance in inequality of incomes than was the MPR. Support was also found for Richard Rubinson's world economy perspective on inequality (see SA 24:5/I2049). Level of economic development was unrelated to inequality. Future research should include the MPR to explain secondary variation in inequality. 2 Tables, 1 Figure, Appendix. Modified AA.

This paper distinguishes between income inequality and standard of living inequality. It examines the case where the utility of individuals is positively affected by a private good and a public good. We show that a wealthy individual will bear the financial burden of financing the public good, which increases the utility of the poor and reduces utility inequality. Moreover, at certain levels of inequality in income, it turns out that an individual whose share in income has decreased will not experience a reduction in utility as a result of the reduction in income. This may explain why within certain ranges of income inequality there is no attempt on the part of either the wealthy or the poor to struggle for income redistribution.