The Distribution of Income in Ireland (2000) - Combat Poverty Agency

Chapter 5Ireland's Income Distribution inInternational PerspectiveBrian Nolan and Bertrand Maitre5.1 INTRODUCTIONWe have looked at the shape of the income distribution in Irelandand how it has been changing, but a comparative perspectiveis also essential if we are to know what to make ofthese results. The aim of this chapter is thus to compare thedistribution of income in Ireland with other countries. Greatcare is needed in making such comparisons: without careful attentionto comparability in terms of income concept, income unit,time period, nature and coverage of data source, equivalencescale (where relevant) and so on, misleading conclusions can bereached. Much of the chapter is taken up with a comparisonbased on data for the mid-1990s from the European CommunityHousehold Panel (ECHP), which has the major advantage ofbeing a harmonised survey across all the participating countries,covering most of the EU. We then look at available comparisonsfor the 1980s, relying mostly on the income distributiondatabase assembled by the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS)which for Ireland includes data from the 1987 ESRI survey. Wethen draw on the results of some recent comparative analyses ofincome inequality carried out by the OECD, which once again forIreland relies on data provided from the ESRI surveys.The chapter is structured as follows. Section 5.2 looks at thedistribution of income in Ireland versus other EU member