This book explores the nexus between the phenomenon of increasing income inequality and redistributive effects of the public sector. In an empirical analysis of seven OECD countries the redistributive effect is examined by measuring the difference between inequality of market incomes and disposable incomes. Moreover, it tries to analyse the redistributive effect of public goods. The period of investigation is between the mid 1980s and the mid 2000s. The research of this book suggests that the public sector still reduces market income inequality significantly but to a lower extent than in the...