Inequality & Distribution

The Institute for New Economic Thinking held its sixth Annual Conference from April 8 to April 11, 2015, in collaboration with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris.

Thomas Piketty and Joseph E. Stiglitz discuss the causes of, consequences of, and remedies for inequality.

We develop adjustments to align the NIPA measures of key household flows with cash flow concepts that better reflect household budgets and demand.

This paper discusses the main issues about increasing inequality, whether it matters and its impact on economic activity and growth. It starts by briefly considering the empirical evidence of the share of income going to the top one percent since 1945 in the advanced countries. It then considers whether this represents an increase in the productivity of the top one percent or merely an extraction of economic rent.

How can we reconnect economic success to socioeconomic outcomes?

The Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Global Working Group (HCEO) is an interdisciplinary collaboration incorporating biological, sociological and psychological perspectives into traditional economic questions of inequality and human capital.

Inequality and distribution—areas underserved by mainstream economics—sit at the heart of The Institute’s work. This program brings together researchers from a variety of disciplines to develop alternative approaches to the problem of inequality.

Rana Dasgupta shares his view of the contradictions and tensions of India’s economic and political scenes.

The interaction between social structure and markets remains a central theme in the social sciences. In some instances, markets can build on and enhance social networks’ economic role; in other contexts, markets appear to be in direct competition with social networks. The impact of markets on inequality and welfare is also varying: while markets can sometimes offer valuable outside options to marginalised individuals, in other situations only well connected and better off individuals can benefit from them.

When the adoption of a new labor‐saving technology increases labor productivity, it is an open question whether the economy adjusts in the medium‐term by decreasing employment or increasing output. This paper studies the effects of cheaper electricity on the labor market during the Great Depression.