Income Inequality and Social Outcomes: Bivariate Correlations at NUTS1 Level
The last two decades have been marked by a growing concern about rising inequality. In a recent book (2012), Joseph Stiglitz,
a former Nobel prize winner in Economics argues that rising income inequality is one of the main factors underlying the
economic and financial crisis in the United States. The Economist magazine has also recently devoted a special report on
income inequality in the world (issue 13th‐19th October 2012). The social and economic challenges associated with rising
income inequalities have gained prominence in the public debate, after the publication in 2009, of a widely cited book by
Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett entitled “The Spirit Level, Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better". Using
cross‐national data, the authors show that income inequality correlates with lower levels of social capital as well as with a
host of other social challenges from poor health, crime, to underage pregnancies. The current report takes part in this debate
by examining the bivariate correlations at subnational level (NUTS 1 level) between income inequality and indicators of
education, health, criminality, political participation, social capital and happiness at the EU level. Findings suggest a
statistically significant negative relationship between income inequality and recorded voter turnout and participation in
voluntary organizations, used as a proxy of social capital; while a significant positive correlation between inequality and crime
rates as well as the percentage of early school leavers. On the contrary, rising income inequality seems not to be associated
with health and wellbeing indicators
ELIA Leandro;
D'HOMBRES Beatrice;
WEBER Anke;
2013-01-23
Publications Office of the European Union
JRC78630
978-92-79-28229-4,
1831-9424,
EUR 25761,
OP LB-NA-25761-EN-N,
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC78630,
10.2788/80746,
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