Locating geographies of inequality: publication trends across OECD countries

ABSTRACT

This paper examines journal publications and article citations on the subject of the spatial dimensions of income inequality within the social sciences. A systematic literature review methodology is used to develop a dataset containing 2944 articles published between 1980 and 2014. Analysis reveals that the number of papers soared in the late 1990s with significant differences (1) between papers focusing on the causes versus consequences of inequality; and (2) in the spatial scales studied. Increases in interdisciplinary and multidimensional approaches to understanding regional inequalities are also key features of the literature. Areas for future work on spatial inequality are outlined.

KEYWORDS:

• spatial inequality
• literature review
• publication trends

JEL:

• B29
• I14
• J31
• R23

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

SUPPLEMENTAL DATA

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2017.1371292.

ORCiD

Alicia Cavanaugh http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4966-8397

Sébastien Breau http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5594-2674

Notes

1. For the 3050 studies dealing primarily with non-OECD countries, the number of publications on inequality has grown fastest in China, followed by India, Pakistan and Indonesia (see Wei, 2017, for a recent review of this literature).

2. Labelled as ‘ripple-making’ (10+ cites), ‘wave-making’ (40+ cites) and ‘splash-making’ papers (60+ cites).

3. Cross-national studies of inequality included in our analysis are those consisting of a majority of OECD countries.

4. A detailed thematic coding of the remaining n = 2024 papers on the consequences of inequality will be part of a follow-up study.

Additional information

Funding

This paper benefited from the financial support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [grant number 435-2012-0769].