Income polarization and inequality across countries: an empirical study

This paper finds that the world economy has become more unequal and more polarized over the last 40 years. At the same time it has become wealthier and more globally integrated. Entering the WTO does not appear to decrease polarization and inequality among the member countries. "Globalizers" exhibit lower within group polarization and inequality than "non-globalizers." Other groups of countries like the OECD show decreasing within group polarization and inequality. (C) 2003 Society for Policy Modeling. Published by Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.