Income Inequality

The Real “China Shock”: Political Fallout from Slowing Exports in China

As China’s export growth has slowed down over the past five years, workers have responded by taking to the streets with increasing frequency. The...

Do the Sons of Rich Families Recover After a Large Wealth Shock? Evidence From the US Civil War

One striking feature of many underdeveloped societies is that economic power is concentrated in the hands of very small powerful elites. Why is it...

When American Capitalism Meant Equality

Americans used to have a relatively egalitarian view of markets. How did they come to accept extreme inequality as an innate part of their...

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...

“Economics Now Points Away From the Laissez-Faire Approach”

Columbia professor Suresh Naidu on Economics for Inclusive Prosperity, the new initiative he launched with Dani Rodrik and Gabriel Zucman, and why he believes...

Watch: Raghuram Rajan on How Markets and States Leave Communities Behind

In a recent Stigler Center conversation with Luigi Zingales, Rajan talked about his new book The Third Pillar and explained why today’s populists “are...

The Costs of Trump’s Import Tariffs Have Landed Entirely on US Citizens

US importers and consumers experienced $12.3 billion in added tax costs and another $6.9 billion from unrecoverable reductions in welfare arising from the 2018...

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...

How Finance Affects Income Inequality

There is mounting evidence that income inequality and disparities in wealth have been rising in advanced economies in the recent decades. Using data on...

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...

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