Assal, Capéau, Decancq, Decoster, Kuypers, Vanderkelen, Vanheukelom, and Verbist (2022), Income inequality in Belgium: what we know and do not know

Assal, E.-M., Capéau, B., Decancq, K., Decoster, A., Kuypers, S., Vanderkelen, S., Vanheukelom, T. & Verbist, G. (2022), Income inequality in Belgium: what we know and do not know, BE-PARADIS working paper, wp.22.1, www.beparadis.be
ABSTRACT

In this paper, we review the existing evidence about the evolution of income inequality in Belgium between 1985 and 2020. We include information from academic studies and publicly available databases that contain statistics on the evolution of market (or factor) income, gross or pre-tax income, taxable income or disposable income. This evidence relies on data from surveys, administrative tax register data or national accounts. Most sources document that income inequality in Belgium is rather stable over the period considered. Yet, an overall definitive conclusion about the evolution of inequality for different income concepts is hard to distil from the different sources, given missing information, inconsistent definitions over time and structural breaks between the underlying datasets.