Based on an extensive review of relevant literature and an econometric analysis of inequality indexes, this volume provides the first systematic analysis of the changes in within-country income inequality over the last twenty years. In particular, it shows that inequality worsened in seventy per cent of the 73 developed, developing, and transitional countries analysed, and evaluates possible causes for this widespread rise in income inequality. The book goes on to offer the first empirical assessment of the relation between policies towards liberalization and globalization and income inequality.