Income Inequality

To Understand Earnings Inequality, We Need To Study Hours Inequality

A growing literature on income inequality and labor earnings has overlooked the contribution of disparities in hours worked. In new research with...

Plagues Upon the Earth: How Wealth Intersects With Mortality

Kyle Harper’s new book, Plagues Upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History, shows that the story of disease is...

How Insufficient Enforcement Led to Prevalent Tax Evasion and Contributed to American Inequality

The prevalence of tax evasion among the top 1 percent of the income distribution is much worse than previously thought, a study...

Most Americans Consider Themselves Middle-Class. But Are They?

There are different ways of determining who should be considered middle-class. But there is one thing they have in common: all reveal...

Barriers to Entry as Another Source of Top Income Inequality

A new book, The Power of Creative Destruction, explores how lobbying contributes to the increase in the top 1 percent’s share of...

What the US Can Learn From Denmark About Inequality and Social Mobility

Denmark has many generous social policies that American progressives seek to emulate. Yet Denmark also has substantial inequality of child outcomes across...

The Effects of Student Debt Forgiveness

While student loan forgiveness is undoubtedly expensive, research suggests that individuals whose debt is forgiven get better jobs, experience higher mobility, and...

Covid-19 Aggravates Existing Income, Gender, and Race Inequalities, and Further Increases Political Divisions

Seventy percent of Americans know someone who tested positive; one in five know someone who died from coronavirus, survey shows.

Income-Driven Repayment Provides a Way to Offer Student Loan Forgiveness to Those Who Need It the Most

Direct loan cancellation is not the only policy option to lower student debt. If policymakers want more targeted loan forgiveness, aimed at lower income...

Bethany McLean’s Weekend Reading List: Inequality, Remote Learning and the First Female Recession

Corruption, lobbying, corporate malfeasance, and frauds: a weekly unconventional selection of must-read articles by investigative journalist Bethany McLean.

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LATEST NEWS

Monetary Policy

How Many Banks Are at Risk of Insolvency Right Now?

Amit Seru, Erica Xuewei Jiang, Gregor Matvos, Tomasz Piskorski

Given the recent banking turmoil and failure of SVB and Signature and issues in First Republic, it is important to understand the...

Misinformation

The Challenges of Regulating Disinformation

Federico Vaccari

In response to rising concerns about political disinformation, governments have introduced a slew of interventions. Federico Vaccari warns in new research that...

Development

India’s Evolving Industrial Policy Is Critical for Realizing Its Development Vision

Nagesh Kumar

Industrial policy was once so out of fashion that it was jokingly called “the policy that shall not be named.” Now it’s...

Big Tech

Can Twitter Be a Force for Good? Social Media Helps Curb Corporate Misconduct

Jonas Heese, Joseph Pacelli

Collective shaming on social media is crucial in reducing corporate misbehavior — and society would be significantly worse off without watchdog platforms.

Populism

The Historical Cost of Populism

Moritz Schularick, Christoph Trebesch, Manuel Funke

Most work on populism has investigated the reasons why voters choose populist leaders and governments. In new research, Moritz Schularick, Christoph Trebesch,...