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The paper derives world income or expenditure distribution of individuals for 1988 and 1993. It is the first paper to calculate world distribution for individuals based entirely on household surveys from 91 countries, and adjusted for differences in purchasing power parity between countries. Measured by the Gini index, inequality increased from 63 in 1988 to 66 in 1993. The increase was driven more by differences in mean incomes between countries than by inequalities within countries. The most important contributors were rising urban‐rural differences in China, and slow growth of rural incomes in South Asia compared to several large developed economies.

We present an improved panel database of national household surveys between 1988 and 2008. In 2008, the global Gini index is around 70.5%, having declined by approximately 2 Gini points. China graduated from the bottom ranks, changing a twin-peaked global income distribution to a single-peaked one and creating an important global "median" class. 90% of the fastest growing country-deciles are from Asia, while almost 90% of the worst performers are from mature economies. Another "winner" was the global top 1%. Hence the global growth incidence curve has a distinct supine S shape, with gains highest around the median and top. JEL codes: D31 This paper provides new evidence on the evolution of global interpersonal income inequality between 1988 and 2008. We measure inequality among all individuals in the world irrespective of their country of residency thus implicitly assuming a "cosmopolitan" social welfare function (Atkinson and Brandolini 2010) and translating the concern for within-country inequality to the global level (Pogge 2002; Singer 2002). Over this period, the face of globalization changed dramatically with the end of the Soviet Union and the integration of many developing countries into the world economy. Our analysis of global

It applies two new concepts: the inequality possibility frontier and the inequality extraction ratio. They compare the observed income inequality to the maximum feasible inequality that, at a given level of income, might have been Ôextracted' by those in power. The results give new insights into the connection between inequality and economic development in the very long run.

We present an improved panel database of national household surveys between 1988 and 2008. In 2008, the global Gini index is around 70.5%, having declined by approximately 2 Gini points. China graduated from the bottom ranks, changing a twin-peaked global income distribution to a single-peaked one and creating an important global "median" class. 90% of the fastest growing country-deciles are from Asia, while almost 90% of the worst performers are from mature economies. Another "winner" was the global top 1%. Hence the global growth incidence curve has a distinct supine S shape, with gains highest around the median and top. JEL codes: D31 This paper provides new evidence on the evolution of global interpersonal income inequality between 1988 and 2008. We measure inequality among all individuals in the world irrespective of their country of residency thus implicitly assuming a "cosmopolitan" social welfare function (Atkinson and Brandolini 2010) and translating the concern for within-country inequality to the global level (Pogge 2002; Singer 2002). Over this period, the face of globalization changed dramatically with the end of the Soviet Union and the integration of many developing countries into the world economy. Our analysis of global

Since the beginning of transition to market economy, in Inequality during inequaiity has increased in all the Transition transition countries. The factors driving inequality up: increasing wage inequality (as Braniko Milanzotvic workers move from a relatively egalitarian state sector to a less equal private sector), and the rising share of income from selfemployment and property (both very unequally distributed). Social transfers have failed to dampen the increase in inequality because they have remained, as under socialism, unfocused.

New data derived directly from household surveys are used to examine the effects of globalization on income distribution in poor and rich countries. The article looks at the impact of openness (proxied by the ratio of trade to GDP) and of direct foreign investment on relative income shares across the entire income distribution. It finds strong evidence that at low average income levels, the income share of the poor is smaller in countries that are more open to trade. As national income levels rise, the incomes of the poor and the middle class rise relative to the income of the rich. The article explains why using the trade to GDP ratio in purchasing power parity terms, as favored by some analysts, is inappropriate in studies of the effect of trade on income distribution.

This article presents an overview of calculations of global inequality, recently and over the long term, and outlines the main controversies and political and philosophical implications of the findings. It focuses in particular on the winners and losers of the most recent episode of globalization, from 1988 to 2008. It suggests that the period has witnessed the first decline in inequality between world citizens since the Industrial Revolution. However, the decline can be sustained only if countries' mean incomes continue to converge (as they have been doing during the past ten years) and if internal (within-country) inequalities, which are already high, are kept in check. Mean-income convergence would also reduce the huge 'citizenship premium' that is enjoyed today by the citizens of rich countries.