Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/192185 
Year of Publication: 
1997
Series/Report no.: 
Discussion Papers No. 201
Publisher: 
Statistics Norway, Research Department, Oslo
Abstract: 
We analyse how inequality of disposable income evolved in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden during the late 1980s and early 1990s when unemployment rose dramatically in all four countries. We find that a standard measure of inequality - the Gini coefficient - was surprisingly stable in all countries over this period. By decomposing the Gini coefficient into a number of income components, we can test hypotheses about the reasons for the stable income distribution. Our most straightforward hypothesis, that rising unemployment benefits have counteracted the impact of more unequally distributed earnings, gets only limited support. More complex mechanisms seems to have been at work in the Nordic countries.
Subjects: 
Unemployment
income inequality
JEL: 
D31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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