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In this paper we study the contribution of migrants to the rise in UK top incomes. Using administrative data on the universe of UK taxpayers we show migrants are over-represented at the top of the income distribution, with migrants twice as prevalent in the top 0.1% as anywhere in the bottom 97%. These high incomes are predominantly from labour, rather than capital, and migrants are concentrated in only a handful of industries, predominately finance. Almost all (85%) of the growth in the UK top 1% income share over the past 20 years can be attributed to migration.
Authors
Research Fellow University of Warwick
Arun is a Research Fellow at IFS, an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick and a Commissioner at the Wealth Tax Commission.
Felix Koenig
Lorenzo Pessina
Research Fellow London School of Economics
Andy Summers is an Associate Professor of Law at the London School of Economics and an Associate of the International Inequalities Institute at LSE.
Working Paper details
- DOI
- 10.1920/wp.ifs.2020.3120
- Publisher
- The IFS
Suggested citation
Advani, A et al. (2020). Importing inequality: immigration and the top 1 percent. London: The IFS. Available at: https://ifs.org.uk/publications/importing-inequality-immigration-and-top-1-percent (accessed: 29 March 2024).
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