Figure 23. Income Inequality and Political Stability in 141 Countries, 2008Sources: Authors’ calculations using Solt (2009) and Kaufmann et al. (2009)
Note: -2.5 is high political instability and politically-motivated violence/terrorism and 2.5 is absence of.
5.D. Leads to more severe social inequalities, especially
among children
In addition to poorer growth, more health and social problems, and
greater political instability, income inequality is also associated with
graver social inequalities, among children in particular. UNICEF’s
2010 Report Card 9 (UNICEF 2010a)^35 offers a compelling analysis
of social inequalities in terms of child well-being by assessing three
dimensions of inequality—including material, education and
health—among a sample of rich countries. Given our interest in
understanding the relationship between income and different social
disparities, we adjust the overall child equality score by removing
the material indicator and re-calculating country scores based on
education and health scores alone.^36 This gives us a good estimate
for levels of basic education and health inequality among 24 OECD
(^35) The Report Card series is founded on the premise that a country’s real
economic and social progress is gauged by how well it cares for its children—
their health and safety, material security, education and socialization, and
inclusion in society, among others
(^36) National education scores are based on literacy in reading, math and science,
and national health scores reflect self-reported health complaints, healthy eating
and physical activity.