Purchasing power per capita was analysed in seven developed countries: five European countries (Germany, France, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom), the United States and Japan. Between 2000 and 2007, purchasing power per capita increased in all these countries, mainly due to productivity gains. Since the 2007 crisis, the dynamics of purchasing power per capita have resulted in the emergence of three groups of countries: Germany and Japan, where the change was more favourable than before the crisis (around +0.5 points annually on average); France and the United States, where the change was less favourable (-1.5 points annually), and the United Kingdom, Spain and Italy, where it was substantially less favourable (-3 points annually). The change in purchasing power per capita depends on change in activity, measured by GDP per capita, and change in the ratio of household purchasing power to GDP, which is called the distribution effect. The drop in activity following the crisis affected all the countries concerned, though to varying degrees: between the periods 2000-2007 and 2007-2014, GDP growth per capita decreased substantially in Spain, Italy and to a lesser extent in the United Kingdom; it declined more moderately in the other four countries studied. The distribution effect changed in different ways in the different countries, mitigating the effects of the variation in activity on household purchasing power for some countries (Germany, Japan and Spain) and strengthening them in the others. In all the countries, however, the share of benefits in household income increased between 2007 and 2014. In France, Germany and Italy, this trend was accompanied by an increase in the share of contributions (taxes and social contributions).