Widening Global Income Inequality

Inter-country income inequalities now account for about two-thirds of world inequality, with intra-country inequality accounting for only a third. Global income inequality narrowed in the post-second world war decades before the Reagan-Thatcher revolutions and then the Washington Consensus shifted the balance of power. Recent trends in the functional distribution of income point to a declining share for labour despite strong evidence of rising labour productivity. Evidence of growing wealth concentration in recent decades is consistent with the acceleration of the growth of rentier power.