BigBang_1971_2010

This study examines the causal impact of Britain's 1986 'Big Bang' financial deregulation on living standards inequality in the United Kingdom. Using the synthetic control method, the study constructs a counterfactual UK from a donor pool of 14 high-income peer countries over the period 1971–2000. The primary outcome variable is the Gini coefficient of consumption distributions. Predictor variables cover four domains: economic indicators (GDP growth, GDP per capita, trade openness, stock market capitalisation, government expenditure, inflation, unemployment); financial openness and regulation (Chinn-Ito index, Quinn capital and current account indices, income and capital gains taxation); political institutions (executive party orientation, electoral system, legal origin); and education and labour market conditions (employment protection strictness, years of schooling). Data are drawn from the World Bank World Development Indicators, the Global Financial Development Database, the Database of Political Institutions, the OECD Indicators of Employment Protection, and the Chinn-Ito and Quinn indices. Supplementary analyses draw on net personal wealth by percentile from the World Inequality Database and regional disposable income and GDP growth data from the Office for National Statistics, covering UK regions over the periods 1971–1985 and 1986–2000.