Inequality and the State

Since the late 1970s, Britain has become a more unequal society. This book analyzes the dramatic widening of the income distribution, the growth of poverty, and the factors that have driven them. It examines how government spending and the taxes that pay for it affect people's incomes, why they take the forms they do, what we think of them, how things have changed since New Labour came to power in 1997, and the future pressures that any government will face as the population ages.

Since the late 1970s, Britain has become a more unequal society. This book analyzes the dramatic widening of the income distribution, the growth of poverty, and the factors that have driven them. It examines how government spending and the taxes that pay for it affect people's incomes, why they take the forms they do, what we think of them, how things have changed since New Labour came to power in 1997, and the future pressures that any government will face as the population ages.

John Hills is Director of CASE and Professor of Social Policy at the London School of Economics. He was Co-Director of the LSE's Welfare State Programme, and has worked as an economist and advisor in governmental and non-governmental institutions in the UK and internationally.