Global Trends in Income Inequality: Theory Versus Reality
Keyword(s):
We compare the predictions of our theory with empirical income data from a dozen different countries. We define a new measure of inequality, called the non-ideal inequality coefficient. We show that Norway is close to ideal inequality for the bottom 99% of the population while the U.S. is the most non-ideal at the other extreme. The other countries are in between these two. We find it remarkable that the Scandinavian societies have discovered the near-ideal share by themselves in practice without any prior knowledge of even its existence.