Book Review of The Great Recession and the Distribution of Household Income

摘要

The Great Recession-henceforth GR-has been the major global macroeconomic downturn since World War Ⅱ. Aggregate output among OECD members fell by 5 % between early 2008 and early 2009. This came with an increase in unemployment and fiscal imbalance in numerous countries. Readers of the Journal of Economic Inequality will likely be interested in the distributional consequences of this episode of striking economic turbulence. The book edited by Jenkins, Brandolini, Micklewright and Nolan then comes in particularly useful as it provides a detailed, objective account of "the effects of the GR on the level and distribution of household incomes in rich industrialized countries" (p. 3).