This book surveys recent developments in public economics by studying the proposals for a basic income/flat tax scheme. It discusses various approaches to taxation and presents a framework for a system which would affect both personal income and the social security system, replacing the one by a flat-rate income tax and the other by a guaranteed income. The idea has generated wide interest in a number of countries, and is being actively discussed by a number of political groups. This book explains how these changes would benefit a wide variety of social groups, but asks how a single reform...

As their Millennium Development Goals, world leaders have pledged by 2015 to halve the number of people living in extreme poverty and hunger, to achieve universal primary education, to reduce child mortality, to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS, and to halve the number of people without safe drinking water. Achieving these goals requires a large increase in the flow of financial resources to developing countries - double the present development assistance from abroad.
Examining innovative ways to secure these resources, this book sets out a framework for the economic analysis of different...

As their Millennium Development Goals, world leaders have pledged by 2015 to halve the number of people living in extreme poverty and hunger, to achieve universal primary education, to reduce child mortality, to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS, and to halve the number of people without safe drinking water. Achieving these goals requires a large increase in the flow of financial resources to developing countries - double the present development assistance from abroad.
Examining innovative ways to secure these resources, this book sets out a framework for the economic analysis of different...

Based on a pioneering research programme on the evolution of top incomes, this volume brings together studies from 10 OECD countries. This rapidly growing field of economic research investigates the top segment of the income distribution by using data from income tax records over the past century. As well as describing the source data and methods employed, the authors also discuss the dramatic changes that have occurred at the top of the income scale throughout the 20th century.
This fascinating study is the first of its kind to provide a comprehensive historic overview of top income...

Increasing disparities in income distribution, both national and international, keep this issue at the forefront of debates on economic policy.

Do individuals keep the same place on the earnings scale, or is there a great deal of mobility? This volume discusses the empirical studies of this issue.

Distributional issues may not have always been among the main concerns of the economic profession. Today, in the beginning of the 2000s, the position is different. During the last quarter of a century, economic growth proved to be unsteady and rather slow on average. The situation of those at the bottom ceased to improve regularly as in the preceding fast growth and full-employment period. Europe has seen prolonged unemployment and there has been widening wage dispersion in a number of OECD countries. Rising affluence in rich countries coexists, in a number of such countries, with the...

Who gains and who loses from economic transformation in Eastern Europe is a key question--but one that is too rarely discussed. To understand the implications of the move to a market economy, it is necessary to know more about the distribution of income under Communism. This book assembles evidence about earnings, dispersion, income inequality and poverty in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, the USSR (with separate information for Russia, the Ukraine and other republics). It adopts a comparative perspective--bringing out the differences between these countries and the West, as well as within...

The Welfare State in the 1990s is the subject of intense debate by economists, sociologists and political scientists. Professor Atkinson begins by setting the argument in the context of inequality and poverty in Europe. The role of the existing Welfare State is then described, especially retirement pensions and unemployment benefits. Finally, he suggests ways by which social security may be reformed. The case for targeting, a basic income and the Social Chapter are discussed as they apply to British policy in a European context.

The work draws upon recent research to examine the problem of poverty. In its exploration, Poverty in Europe challenges readers to reach an improved understanding of the problem and to seek improvement.