Need for Equalising Endowments A Lesson from Two Centuries of Global Inequality (1820–2020)

Abstract

Rising income inequality is a major concern at the global level because it can have a mordant effect on social and political cohesion. Given the importance of the topic, Goal 10 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 2015–30) is dealing with the red­uction in inequality within and among countries. The World Inequality Lab at the Paris School of Economics makes a systematic exposition of inequality trends across world regions to offer an understanding on global imbalances and its evolving structure and concentration over the last two centuries. Initially, the World Inequality Database was created during 2011 as the World Top Incomes Database (WTID), which later subsumed in the World Wealth and Income (WID) Database in 2015.