The Polarisation of Work and the Distribution of Income in Britain

Recent studies have highlighted a polarisation in the distribution of work during the 1980's, and some have conjectured that this polarisation has been a principal cause of the rise in income inequality. Using data from the British Household Panel Survey, we document the pattern of work polarisation during the first half of the 1990s and show that polarisation was not mainly responsible for income inequality growth over this period and argue that it was unlikely to have done so during most of the 1980s either. It played a supporting role rather than a leading one.