Wealth inequality
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.
Do Wealth Taxes Significantly Curb Wealth Inequality?
Politicians and governments in the United States and elsewhere have recently proposed or implemented wealth taxes to supplement revenue and reduce wealth inequality. In a new study, Samira Marti, Isabel Z. Martínez, and Florian Scheuer show how decreases in wealth taxes led to increases in wealth inequality in Switzerland, though they find that these decreases alone are not enough to explain the magnitude of widening disparities.
Henry Simons’s Positive Program for Laissez-Faire
The 1930s were a difficult time for classical liberals. In response to the Great Depression, the federal government undertook a massive expansion of its...
George Stigler on Henry Simons, “Crown Prince” of the Chicago School
To mark 75 years since the passing of Henry Simons, professor of Economics and Law at the University of Chicago, ProMarket is republishing George...
How Protests Against the Jim Crow Credit Market Changed the Civil Rights Movement
Before the civil rights movement captured the nation’s attention, activists and community groups were protesting against exploitative credit and exclusionary lending practices rooted in...
Three Ways Tax Policies Increase the Black-White Racial Wealth Gap
Dorothy Brown, the author of The Whiteness of Wealth, explains how tax breaks for marriage, college, and gifts and inheritance contribute to the black-white...
“I Wanted to Call People’s Attention to the Extent of Amazon’s Takeover of Washington”
In an interview with ProMarket, author and ProPublica reporter Alec MacGillis discusses the rise of Amazon and regional inequality, the role of politics in...
The Case for Optimism About America
The good news is that America is still the engine of global wealth creation: nothing fosters political pragmatism like prosperity. But there is also...
Capital and Ideology: a Webinar With Thomas Piketty, Robert Topel, and Edward Luce
As part of the Stigler Center’s Political Economy of Covid-19 Series of online programming, which explores the economic and political implications of Covid-19 with...
Piketty on the Covid-19 Crisis: “It Is High Time to Use This Opportunity to Counter the Dominant Ideology and Significantly Reduce Inequality”
In an interview with ProMarket, Thomas Piketty speaks about his new book, the role of ideology as a driver of inequality, and what the...
