Chapter “Pluralist View on Inequality from Luxemburg Income Study (LIS)” by Daniele Checchi, Piotr R. Paradowski

The authors start by reviewing the history of the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS), originating from an interdisciplinary project involving economists, sociologists, and political scientists, centered on the cross-country perspective in inequality analysis. They then conduct a meta-analysis of the papers produced by scholars who have taken advantage of the data availability, showing how the theme of income/wealth inequality has been differently addressed in the research conducted thank to free availability of LIS data. The analysis is based on 268 LIS/LWS working papers produced since 2013 by LIS data users. Inequality analysis, an elusive and multidimensional concept, cannot become prerogative of a specific discipline or school of thought, favoring a pluralist approach to the topic. As a consequence, we present how four academic communities (economists, sociologists, social policy, and political scientists) adopt different methodological perspectives in terms of unit of analysis (the individual, the household, or the community), heterogeneity (by gender, age, race, education), outcomes (income, wealth, consumption, education, employment, and work hours, fertility), institutional framework (household, firm, local labor markets, nations) and methodological approach (poverty, inequality, income shares).

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