Vcas-Soriano, Carlos, Fernández-Macías, Enrique, (2017), “EU Income Inequality And The Great Recession”, Social Europe, 21 March
EU-wide income inequality declined notably prior to 2008, driven by a strong process of income convergence between European countries. The Great Recession broke this trend. After 2008, income convergence has been sluggish, while inequality within many countries has increased significantly.
Despite the implicit assumption stemming from many EU policy documents that European economic integration should lead to some degree of convergence between countries, studies adopting an EU-wide approach to mapping trends in income disparities remain surprisingly sparse. These are, however, especially necessary when the process of European integration has first been accelerated by the adoption of the euro and EU enlargement towards the East and then dramatically put to the test by the uneven impact of the Great Recession across Europe.
Relevant Posts
- Darvas, Zsolt, (2016), “Income inequality has been falling in the EU”, Bruegel, 23 November
- Marzinotto, Benedicta, (2016), “How income inequality affects euro area current account imbalances”, LSE Europpblog, 27 July