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Some studies show that high inequality [encourages] poor people to choose very high tax rates on the rich, which reduces investments and growth rates. That’s one [reason we should care.] Another thing we see very much nowadays is that the social stability and the social fabric of a society are torn apart if there are very large income differences.
- Drawing A Picture of Inequality
- How Inequality Has Changed
- Why Care About Inequality
- What Causes Inequality and What Can Be Done
- References
The picture we draw of inequality depends a lot on how we measure it. Most discussions focus on people’s income and wealth, though these are simply easily measured proxies for overall welfare. McGregor et al. (2019) point out that, when it comes to welfare, the type of wealth matters (whether it is liquid or illiquid, earned or inherited) and that ...
Income and wealth inequality increased in most of the OECD between 1980 and the 2008 crisis, most notably in Finland, Sweden, and the UK. Nolan and Valenzuela (2019) find that, since the 2008 crisis, inequality in the OECD countries “went down or was stable as often as it increased”. But even in those countries where inequality did not increase or ...
There are several reasons. The first, often linked to notions of ‘fairness’, is that inequality matters for its own sake. Fairness is hard to pin down, but perhaps the widest agreement can be found in the idea of a level playing field, or ‘equality of opportunity’. This is closely linked to Sen’s (1985) ‘capabilities approach’ to welfare, where pol...
What, then, causes inequality, and what can be done to mitigate it? Furceri and Ostry (2019) point to important roles of the stages of economic development, demographics, technology, globalisation, fiscal policy, and structural reforms. To these, Nolan and Valenzuela add financial market influences and capital income, and Gans et al. (2019) and Enn...
Atkinson, A B (1999), “Is rising inequality inevitable? A critique of the Transatlantic Consensus”, UNU/WIDER. Baldwin, R, and B Weder di Mauro (eds.) (2020), Economics in the Time of COVID-19, London: CEPR. Breen, R (2019), “Education and intergenerational social mobility in the US and four European countries”, Oxford Review of Economic Policy35(3...
Mar 21, 2016 · We should have seen a decrease in inequality with globalization, but that’s not what has happened in the last 25 years, according to Nobel Laureate and Harvard Professor Eric Maskin. While there are a number of reasons to care about inequality, he says there is a high correlation between high inequality and social and political unrest, with consequences for a country’s political and ...
Apr 26, 2024 · Economic Mobility Fellow Efraín García Sánchez and colleagues find in new research that beliefs and attitudes about inequality shape how we feel about ourselves, perceive others, and justify inequality. They found: Perceiving higher levels of economic inequality reduces people’s satisfaction with their lives and status in society
Nov 20, 2019 · The authors find that people put up with high levels of inequality for two reasons: first, people generally care deeply about where they stand in terms of earnings within a group – for example ...
Sep 22, 2015 · The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. Incorporated as a not-for-profit foundation in 1971, and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the Forum is tied to no political, partisan or national interests.
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Why should we care about inequality?
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Why does inequality matter?
Nov 1, 2022 · Why inequality matters The rich tend to spend less of their money than the poor. As a result, the extreme concentration of wealth can slow the pace of economic growth .
