Globalization and the Great U-Turn: Income Inequality Trends in 16 OECD Countries

The debate on the resurgence of income inequality in some advanced industrial societies has often focused on the impact of an increasingly integrated world economy, typified by growing capital mobility, heightened international competition, and an increase in migration. This study represents one of the first systematic, cross‐national examinations of the role of globalization in the inequality “U-turn.” Results indicate, on the one hand, that total inequality variation is principally affected by the percentage of the labor force in agriculture, followed by the institutional factors union density and decommodification, and only then by globalization. On the other hand, longitudinal variation in inequality,…