The offshoring activities of multinational firms explain about one-third of the aggregate decline in US manufacturing employment, according to a new study.
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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 system that allows it. “As it is, capitalism is not delivering to large fractions of the population.”
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Basic Income as a Policy Lever: Can UBI Reduce Crime?
What would the effect of a universal basic income be on crime? A new study looks into Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend and suggests that it reduced property crimes.
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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 Chinese government is paying attention.
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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 the case that some elites show remarkable persistence and even retain their power after major economic disruptions, like civil wars or democratization? The fortune of wealthy white southern households and their sons after the American Civil War is one such case in point.
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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 to a new historical high. Meanwhile, the racial wealth gap has stayed put for over 70 years, with virtually no progress in reducing wealth inequality between black and white households.
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“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 economics shouldn’t be conflated with neoliberalism.
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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 asking the right question” but providing only wrong answers.
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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 of the nation-state.
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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 advanced and emerging economies, this column investigates the link between an economy’s financial structure—that is, the mix of bank-provided versus market-provided funds—and income inequality. Results show that the relationship is not monotonic. More finance reduces income inequality up to a point, but beyond that point inequality rises, especially if finance is expanded via market-based financing.
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The “Biggest Puzzle in Economics”: Why the “Superstar Economy” Lacks Any Actual Superstars
A new study finds that the contribution of superstar firms to US productivity growth has decreased by more than 40 percent over the past 20 years.
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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 the decline in public sectors in the OECD countries.
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