Generating Prosperity for Working Families in Rich Countries

The challenge of how to ensure that working families see their living standards improve over time is central in rich countries. Many argue that conditions are stagnating for many, driving political polarization and threatening social stability. Generating Prosperity for Working Families in Rich Countries investigates how common such a "squeeze" on middle-income earners has actually been, and what forces underlie it in terms of globalization, technology, and government policies.

Generating Prosperity for Working Families in Rich Countries presents the findings of a comprehensive analysis of performance in improving living standards across the wealthy nations of the OECD. It relates performance to overall economic growth, exploring why these often diverge substantially, and to the different models of capitalism or economic growth embedded in each country. Going beyond income, other indicators and aspects of living standards are also incorporated including non-monetary indicators of deprivation and financial strain, wealth and its distribution, and intergenerational mobility. Through looking across this broad canvas, this book teases out how ordinary households have fared in recent decades in these critically important respects, and how that should inform the quest for inclusive growth and prosperity.

Brian Nolan is Director of the Employment, Equity and Growth Programme at the Institute for New Economic Thinking, Oxford Martin School, Professor of Social Policy at the Department of Social Policy and Social Intervention, and Senior Research Fellow at Nuffield College Oxford. His main areas of research are income inequality, poverty, and the economics of social policy, on which he has published widely.

1. Introduction, Brian Nolan
2. The Evolution of Living Standards for Middle and Lower Income Households in OECD Countries, Brian Nolan and Stefan Thewissen
3. Inequality and Ordinary Living Standards in OECD Countries, Brian Nolan and Stefan Thewissen
4. Median Household Income and GDP, Brian Nolan, Max Roser, and Stefan Thewissen
5. Sources of Household Income Growth in Rich Countries, Brian Nolan, Stefan Thewissen, and Alice Lazzati
6. Evolution of Median and Lower Incomes across Countries: The Role of Institutions and Growth "Models", Brian Nolan and Chloe Touzet
7. The Labour Market: Wage Inequality, Occupations and Mobility, Craig Holmes
8. Sifting through the ASHE: Job Polarisation and Earnings Inequality in the UK, 1975-2015, Annalisa Cristini, Andrea Geraci, and John Muellbauer
9. Minimum Wages and Supporting Wage Growth, Brian Nolan
10. Strengthening Redistribution, Brian Nolan, Chrysa Leventi, Holly Sutherland, and Iva Tasseva
11. Middle and below living standards: what can we learn from beyond income measures of economic wellbeing?, Marii Paskov, Joan Madia, and Tim Goedeme
12. Wealth Inequality, Salvatore Morelli and Brian Nolan
13. Income inequality, living standards and intergenerational social mobility, Erzsebet Bukodi and Marii Paskov
14. Conclusions and Implications, Brian Nolan