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This article examines how the middle class has fared in twenty-six European countries between 2004 and 2014 based on European Survey on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) data. We define individuals living in households with a median equivalized disposable household income between 75% and 125% to be middle class. We find that the middle class has decreased in eighteen out of twenty-six countries, which is accompanied by an increase of income polarization. Income redistribution is most influential for explaining differences in the size of the middle class across European countries.

A clear sign of the heightened interest in economic inequality was the surprising popularity of Thomas Piketty’s book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, presenting a dense synopsis and major contribution to the economics of inequality. This article investigates discourses on inequality in news media, through the highly controversial debate raised by Piketty’s best-selling book, in selected print media in four European countries.We conceive of the media as having an impact on the perceptions and knowledge of economic processes, thus influencing preferences of the public for economic policy making. This is in line with Veblen, who terms the press an “educational system.” Regarding the topics of inequality, we will show that media coverage leads to a biased picture of both inequality and the role of redistribution policies to possibly curb such a development.