Income Distribution and Income Sources in Uruguay
Journal of Applied Economics, Vol 9, No. 1, May 2006
Posted: 14 Jun 2006 Last revised: 6 Oct 2010
Date Written: October 5, 2010
Abstract
This paper is concerned with changes in the distribution of income sources in Uruguay after the late eighties. An apparent stability in the distribution of total incomes is hiding deep transformations affecting the generation of that income. The distribution across all income earners at the end of the eighties exhibited two well-distinguished poles, each associated with one of the main income sources: pension benefits and wages. This bimodality diminished during the nineties due to the reduction in polarization by income sources. In the same period we find that in the case of labor earnings there was a net transfer of population mass from the middle of the distribution to both extremes, which results in an increasing polarization within this income source. This phenomenon resembles the Anglo-Saxon experience of the shrinking middle class.
Keywords: income sources, inequality, labor market, pension benefits, polarization
JEL Classification: D33, D31, I38
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation