Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/82127 
Year of Publication: 
2013
Series/Report no.: 
EPRU Working Paper Series No. 2013-01
Publisher: 
University of Copenhagen, Economic Policy Research Unit (EPRU), Copenhagen
Abstract: 
We use historical publications and – for more recent years – micro-data from the income tax and wealth tax returns to estimate the development in income inequality in Denmark over the last 140 years. The paper breaks new ground in treating the specific features of the Danish Tax system and in analysing the implications of the switch from joint to individual taxation. We show that income inequality have declined substantially over the last century with an income share for the top 1 per cent dropping from 27.6 per cent from its peak in 1917 to 6.4 in 2010. However the decline is not simply a secular downward trend consistent with the downward part of a Kuznets curve. Instead there seems to be several distinct phases, interleaved with periods of stability.
Subjects: 
Income inequality
Income distribution
Wealth distribution
Top incomes
Taxation
Denmark
JEL: 
D31
H2
J3
N3
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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