Inequality & Distribution

The focus of this year’s monsoon school is on pluralistic approaches to research on inequality, bringing together perspectives from varied streams of economic thought. It will provide an interactive platform for advanced-level PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, and scholars affiliated with Indian research institutes to engage with diverse concepts, debates, and methodologies related to inequality.

Inflation persists not just because of spending or interest rates, but because underlying social conflicts over income, expectations, and power remain unresolved.

How inflationary inertia, driven by distributional conflict, disrupts the economy’s path to an effective demand equilibrium.

In Capitalism and Its Critics, New Yorker writer John Cassidy brings to life the figures who warned of monopoly power, inequality, environmental peril, and authoritarianism—forces still at work today. He discusses his book with Lynn Parramore.

Times have changed. Now we have David Brooks, of The New York Times, and economics blogger Noah Smith defending neoliberal globalization from the pincer movement of anti-trade populists from both the right and the left.

The most likely outcome of the second Trump administration is a recession and an exacerbation of inequalities, and a further degradation of the living standards of working and middle-class Americans.

The conference aims to examine the complex interplay of housing, law, economics, and spatial justice in an unequal world, and we welcome scholars and practitioners to participate.

As the world grapples with rapid technological advancements, demographic shifts, environmental challenges, and governance transformations, new forms of inequality are emerging.

Fred Block, Research Professor of Sociology at UC Davis, joins Rob Johnson to discuss his latest book, The Habitation Society, which explores the need to move beyond industrial-era economic models to create an economy that prioritizes community well-being. Block critiques how economic policies have fueled inequality and stagnation while offering solutions—such as restructuring public finance—to foster prosperity for all.

Author and Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Democracy Collaborative, Marjorie Kelly, talks about her recently released book, Wealth Supremacy: How the Extractive Economy and the Biased Rules of Capitalism Drive Today’s Crises (Berrett-Kohler, September 2023), which also outlines a vision for democratizing the economy so that it serves the broader public good.

Connecticut is the first state to fund and enact a baby bonds program, inspiring more states to create their own plans. Can it make a difference?

White House contenders ignore root causes threatening the program, potentially worsened by cuts. Is it due to reliance on wealthy donors?

When working within the same employment spell, female workers, particularly those of color and those working in low-wage service and care jobs, earn significantly less when facing greater volatility than their male counterparts or those working in non-service, non-care occupations.

Alessandro Roncaglia has mulled the topic of power over his long and distinguished career – a topic most economists avoid. His new book explores the historical dynamics of power and asks how we can change its distribution today.

Research on labor market experience does not explain the link between the volatility low-wage workers encounter and their earnings and it leaves open numerous pressing questions, such as what, if anything, can be done to reduce racial and ethnic differences in economic well-being.