Wealth inequality

With the US and China, Two Types of Capitalism Are Competing With Each Other

Capitalism’s global victory has been achieved through two different types of capitalist systems: the liberal meritocratic capitalism that has developed incrementally in the West,...

Thomas Piketty's New Book Brings Political Economy Back to Its Sources

In the same way that Capital in the Twenty-First Century transformed the way economists look at inequality, Piketty's new book Capital and Ideology will...

The Future of Capitalism and the Utopia That Never Was

In his review of Paul Collier’s recent book The Future of Capitalism, Branko Milanovic discusses ideology, social democracy, and the "ethical world."     Paul Collier’s...

Angus Deaton: Today’s Inequalities Are Signs That Democratic Capitalism Is Under Threat

At the launch of the IFS Deaton Review, a 5-year review of rising inequalities in the UK, Sir Angus Deaton decried extreme inequality and the...

Wealth Inequality in America: A Race Between the Stock and the Housing Market

Booming stock markets and the collapse of house prices in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis have increased wealth inequality in the US...

The Nation-State: The Common Root of Our Failure to Deal with High Global Inequality and Climate Change

Inequality and climate change are both global problems that cannot be solved by a single country. Yet we are stuck with the political limitations...

Governments Bear Much of the Responsibility for Rising Inequality—But Also Have the Tools to Reduce It

A new study tracks the influence of public policy on inequality and argues that the main rise in inequality has been a result of...

How Market Power Worsens Income Inequality

Inequality in stock ownership has grown considerably over the past two decades and is far more pronounced than inequality in consumption or income. A...

Reducing Wealth Inequality Through Wealth Taxes Without Compromising Economic Growth

New research proposes two ways of using wealth taxes to reduce inequality and increase efficiency. Economic inequality has risen significantly within major economies around the...

Davos Elites Love to Advocate for Equality – So Long As Nothing Gets Done

The return to the industrial relations and tax policies of the early 19th century has been spearheaded by people who speak the language of...

LATEST NEWS

Uninhibited Campaign Donations Risks Creating Oligarchy

In new research, Valentino Larcinese and Alberto Parmigiani find that the 1986 Reagan tax cuts led to greater campaign spending from wealthy individuals, who benefited the most from this policy. The authors argue that a very permissive system of political finance, combined with the erosion of tax progressivity, created the conditions for the mutual reinforcement of economic and political disparities. The result was an inequality spiral hardly compatible with democratic ideals.

Did the Meme Stock Revolution Actually Change Anything?

Many financial commentators thought that the surge of retail investors participating in the stock market, the most notable of whom boosted “meme stocks” like GameStop, would democratize corporate governance and improve prosocial firm behavior, including the promotion of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals. In new research, Dhruv Aggarwal, Albert H. Choi, and Yoon-Ho Alex Lee find evidence that the exact opposite took place.

The Kroger-Albertsons Merger Will Not Help Grocery Competition

Kroger and Albertsons say they need to merge to compete with Walmart. Claire Kelloway argues that what they really want is Walmart’s monopsony power, and permitting mergers on these grounds will only harm suppliers, workers, and consumers.

Innovators Respond to Their Presidential Candidate Winning With More Innovation

Does an inventor’s political identity influence their productivity? In a new paper, Joseph Engelberg, Runjing Lu, William Mullins, and Richard Townsend examine the impacts of the 2008 and 2016 United States presidential elections on Democrat and Republican inventors, with a particular focus on the quantity and quality of patents after the country elects a new president.

Letter to the Editor: Former FTC and DOJ Chief Economists Urge Separation of Economic and Legal Analysis in Merger Guidelines

Seventeen former chief economists of the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice Antitrust Division urge current Agency heads to separate the legal and economic analysis in the draft Merger Guidelines to strengthen the role of the latter in merger review.