The issue of inequality in wealth and income has gained prominence in the political discussion
not at least because inequality had not been expected to increase in countries wealthy already.
How to gauge that process? Using which indicators? Can economics suffice to explain the
mechanics of this development? For if it were due to economics only how to explain the still
marked differences in OECD countries with some such as prominently the US or the UK having
become very unequal while the rise in inequality had been much more dampened in other OECD
countries such as the Scandinavian ones or in Austria? What then are the driving forces behind
the process and what the causes for the widely different outcomes in OECD countries? In putting
these questions one opens a vast field for inquiry. Herwig Meyer has not shied from attempting
such an overview. In a trans disciplinary approach and with the use of a vast array of
resources he has done so successfully thus providing a kind of basic easily accessible reader
on the subject. Dozent Dr. Thomas Nowotny Vienna University
