Econometric analysis of the persistence of income inequality in different countries

Abstract

This paper analyses the persistence of income inequality in Denmark, France, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, UK and US. It provides a description of the economic background of each country in order to understand the reasons behind today's inequality levels. Four different econometric tests has been applied to demonstrate the persistence of inequality in the countries. For the purpose of this paper, unit root tests and stationary test have been employed to gain a wider perspective. Data from Solt (2016) has been used to compute Gini coefficients from 1963 to 2012. The results reveal that the persistence of inequality is showed in Denmark, France, Spain, Sweden, US and UK. On the other hand, Norway and Singapore follow a stationary trend.