Concern about rising inequality in advanced economies increased with the advent of the Great Recession in 2007. Rising unemployment and fiscal consolidation were expected to lead to greater inequality. We examine how the distribution of income in the EU countries that were hardest hit during the recession evolved over this time. We decompose the overall change in income inequality in Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain into parts attributable to changes in employment and wages, demographic changes, discretionary tax–benefit policy and automatic stabilisation effects. We implement this approach using the microsimulation model, EUROMOD, linked to EU-SILC survey data. Employment and wages were the main drivers of market income inequality increases. Automatic stabilisation effects, particularly through benefits, are found to play an important role in reducing inequality in all of the crisis countries. Their role is less important if we focus on the working-age population only, due to the limited nature of working-age benefits in southern European welfare systems. Discretionary policy changes also contributed to reductions in inequality, but to a much lesser extent.

中文翻译：

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是什么导致了大萧条期间欧盟危机国家的收入不平等？

随着 2007 年大衰退的到来，对发达经济体不平等加剧的担忧加剧。预计失业率上升和财政整顿将导致不平等加剧。我们研究了在经济衰退期间受打击最严重的欧盟国家的收入分配在这段时间内是如何演变的。我们将葡萄牙、爱尔兰、意大利、希腊和西班牙收入不平等的总体变化分解为可归因于就业和工资变化、人口变化、可自由支配的税收福利政策和自动稳定效应的部分。我们使用与 EU-SILC 调查数据相关联的微观模拟模型 EUROMOD 来实施这种方法。就业和工资是市场收入不平等加剧的主要驱动因素。自动稳定效果，特别是通过好处，发现在减少所有危机国家的不平等方面发挥着重要作用。如果我们只关注工作年龄人口，他们的作用就不那么重要了，因为南欧福利体系中工作年龄福利的性质有限。酌情政策的变化也有助于减少不平等，但程度要小得多。