Tony Atkinson has been working on the distribution of income and on the inter-relation between social policy and the macro-economy. Increased income inequality has attracted considerable attention, as evidenced by its appearance on the agendas of conferences of international agencies, and of central bankers. Indeed there has rapidly become established a ‘transatlantic consensus’ that increased inequality can be explained by a shift in the demand away from unskilled labour (due either to technological change or to international trade or a combination). Much of his research has been concerned with questioning this consensus, and pointing to the need to move beyond a simple supply and demand for skills interpretation of rising wage dispersion.

He has been reappointed as a member of the Conseil d’Analyse Economique, advising the French Prime Minister. He continues to be a member of the project constructing EUROMOD, a European tax-benefit model.

Publications

The Economic Consequences of Rolling Back the Welfare State. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1999.

‘Poverty in Ireland and Anti-poverty Strategy: A European Perspective’, in A Gray (ed.), International Perspectives on the European Economy. Dublin: Michael Yeats, 1998.

(with K Gardiner, V Lechene and H Sutherland) ‘Comparing Poverty Rates across Countries’, in S P Jenkins, A Kapteyn and B M S van Praag (eds.), The Distribution of Welfare and Household Production. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

‘Social Security, Macro-economics and the European Union’, in P Flora, P R de Jong, J le Grand, and J-Y Kim (eds.), The State of Social Welfare, 1997. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1999.

‘Setting and Monitoring Poverty Standards: Drawing on the Parallel with Macroeconomics’, in C Gandolfo and F Marzano (eds.), Economic Theory and Social Justice. London: Macmillan, 1999.

‘The Distribution of Income in Industrialized Countries’, in Income Inequality: Issues and Policy Options. Kansas City: Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, 1999.

‘Equity Issues in a Globalising World: the Experience of OECD Countries’ in V Tanzi, K Chu and S Gupta (eds.), Economic Policy and Equity. Washington, DC: International Monetary Fund, 1999.

‘Macroeconomics and the Social Dimension’, in Experts Discuss Some Critical Social Development Issues. New York: Division for Social Policy and Development, United Nations, 1999.

‘EMU, Macroeconomics and Children’, Innocenti Occasional Paper, EPS 68. Florence: UNICEF, 1999.

‘Beveridge and the 21^st Century’, in R Walker (ed.), Ending Child Poverty. Bristol: Policy Press, 1999.