Does Inequality Matter?
How People Perceive Economic Disparities and Social Mobility
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The recovery after the COVID-19 crisis requires policies and reforms that tackle inequalities and promote equal opportunities. However, the implementation of such reforms requires widespread support from the public. To better understand what factors drive public support, this report provides a detailed cross-country analysis of people’s perceptions of and concern over inequality. It documents how concern over income disparities has risen in OECD countries over the long run. Nowadays, in most countries a large majority of the population believes that income disparities are too large and that intergenerational mobility is low. Yet, sufficient support for inequality-reducing policies may fail to arise if people do not agree on concrete policy options, or doubt the effectiveness of such policies. Moreover, even when the majority demands more equality, a divided public opinion can complicate the introduction of reforms. The report highlights how people within the same country are often divided as to the extent of inequality and what should be done to address this challenge. The report illustrates how the findings from analysis of perceptions and concerns can serve to inform policy making.
Also available in: French
Foreword
Most people in OECD countries are concerned about high and increasing inequality and the lack of equal opportunities. Indeed, in the past decades the income gap between rich and poor has widened and social mobility has stagnated in many OECD countries, as documented by in-depth OECD analysis over the past years. Does Inequality Matter? How People Perceive Economic Disparities and Social Mobility is the sixth in a series of OECD flagship publications on the trends, causes and consequences of inequality and the remedies needed to address them. Growing Unequal? (2008) and Divided we Stand (2011) analysed the key features and causes of rising inequality. In it Together (2015) extended the evidence and showed that rising inequality harms economic growth by constraining the opportunities of the worse-off. The Broken Social Elevator(2018) highlighted that sticky floors and sticky ceilings limit social mobility and opportunities for low- and middle-income families to move up the social ladder. The OECD’s most recent report in this series Under Pressure: The Squeezed Middle Class (2019) documented the three main challenges for the middle class: unfairness, uncertainty, and affordability. The present report Does Inequality Matter? turns the attention to how people perceive inequality and social mobility, and why analysing people’s views helps design successful inequality-reducing policies.
Also available in: French
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