Measuring Distribution and Mobility of Income and Wealth

Book excerpt: "Economic research on the efficient allocation of resources has a long history. Increasingly, attention has turned to inequality in the distribution of personal resources and outcomes, and whether individuals or children are locked in their respective places in this distribution or whether mobility is possible. Research focuses not only on measuring inequality and mobility, but on understanding its historical, economic, and social determinants, and how policies might affect these distributions. This volume explores the latest developments in our understanding of income and wealth distribution and mobility. The first section addresses observed patterns of income inequality and shifts in compensation and fluidity that drive or reinforce income inequality. The next focuses on wealth inequality, including the difficulties of defining and measuring wealth. The third section presents new evidence on the intergenerational transmission of inequality and the mechanisms that sustain these patterns. A fourth set of chapters studies the mitigation of inequality, including variations in intervention strategies across time and geography. Finally, issues related to using national accounting data in comparison with survey and microdata are examined. Lack of data, particularly wealth data at the individual or household level in most countries, presents a challenge. Momentum has been building to link multiple sources of survey, administrative and other data in order to mitigate measurement problems in single sources and to provide more comprehensive data on income and wealth"--