Multidimensional inequality in the European Union. The joint distribution of household income, wealth and consumption

Abstract

We use a novel cross-country data set to measure multidimensional inequality of income, wealth, and consumption in 21 EU countries. We investigate the correlation between the positions of the household in their distributions. We use the bootstrap method to assess the statistical significance of cross-country differences. We find that the correlation between the position of the household in considered distributions varies significantly across countries. Homeownership, median income, and level of unidimensional inequalities are correlated with the strength of the link between distributions. Multidimensional analysis of inequality changes the picture emerging from the unidimensional inequality analysis. Wealth inequality is a crucial contributor to multidimensional inequality. Cross-country differences in multidimensional inequality in the European Union are rather mild.