Makroekonomiska faktorers påverkan på ekonomisk ojämlikhet

Sammanfattning: The study develops a panel data framework to highlight the relationship between income inequality and macroeconomic and demographic factors. The macroeconomic variables are selected with regard to previous research and tested for significance. Some proved to be significantly relevant for the final regression and some were excluded. Overall, based on the available data we can show that income inequality has risen in most countries over the past decades. One of the study’s key findings is that an increase in inflation and education reduce income inequality. Education was found to be the single most significant variable, with the largest effect in regards to a decrease in income inequality. Also, we found that an increase in unemployment leads to a decrease in income inequality but the sole effect is relatively small. This can be attributed to national social safety nets that dampen the effect on income inequality because more people live on transfers that have lower dispersion than market income.