Artus – How to reduce wealth inequalities?

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CHRONIC. While income inequality is stable in France, the gap is inexorably widening between the rich and the rest of the population.

By Patrick Artus*

One of the solutions to fight against inequalities in wealth would be for companies, like those of the CAC 40, to distribute more free shares to their employees.
© JOAO LUIZ BULCAO / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP

Published on 02/18/2023 at 09:06

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LIncome inequality in France is stable, at a fairly low level, when compared to other countries: the Gini index of income inequality (which is all the higher the greater the inequality) is, after taking taking into account redistributive policies, 0.38 in the United States, 0.36 in the United Kingdom and 0.3 in Germany against 0.29 in France. Income sharing between companies and employees is very stable in the medium term, real wages increase at the same rate in France as productivity gains. But this stability of income inequalities is not found when we examine wealth inequalities.

Thus, the share of the richest 10% of French households in overall wealth has increased from 18% in 1990 to 26% in 2021. The illustration…