The Reasons for the Growth of Income Inequality in Developed Countries

Student: Bespoyasov Ilya

Educational Programme: Applied Economics (Master)

Year of Graduation: 2017

This paper provides an overview of global inequalities, recently and the longterm perspective, and outlines the main facts about the long-term evolution of income. This paper answers the following questions: is the increase in taxes for the rich leading to a reduction in inequality, as T. Piketty suggests? Does inequality affect such indicators as economic growth, inflation, and the standard of living in the country? The paper examines the causes of income inequality in the case of four countries: the United States of America, the United Kingdom, France and Germany. The regressors are the share of taxes for the rich population, GDP per capita and its square, inflation and GDP growth rate. The data is examined using panel data and OLS.

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