Inequality: What Can Be Done? PDF
Preview Inequality: What Can Be Done?
Inequality I n e q ua l It y What Can Be Done? Anthony B. Atkinson Harvard University Press cambridge, massachusetts london, eng land 2015 Copyright © 2015 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America First printing Book design by Dean Bornstein Library of Congress Cataloging-i n-P ublication Data Atkinson, A. B. (Anthony Barnes), 1944– Inequality : what can be done? / Anthony B. Atkinson. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978- 0- 674- 50476- 9 (alk. paper) 1. Income distribution. 2. Poverty. 3. Equality. 4. Welfare economics. I. Title. HC79.I5A822 2015 339.2¢2–dc23 2015000848 To the wonderful people who work in the National Health Ser vice Contents Acknowledgements :: ix Introduction :: 1 Part One: Diagnosis :: 7 1. Setting the Scene 9 2. Learning from His tory 45 3. The Economics of Inequality 82 A Summing-U p So Far 110 Part Two: Proposals for Action :: 113 4. Technological Change and Countervailing Power 115 5. Employment and Pay in the Future 133 6. Cap ital Shared 155 7. Pro gres sive Taxation 179 8. Social Security for All 205 Proposals to Reduce the Extent of Inequality 237 Part Three: Can It Be Done? :: 241 9. Shrinking the Cake? 243 1 0. Globa l is at ion Prevents Action? 263 11. Can We Afford It? 281 The Way Forward :: 301 Glossary :: 309 Notes :: 315 Contents in Detail :: 351 List of Tables and Fig ures :: 353 Figu re Sources :: 355 Index :: 361 Acknowledgements This book is the result of research on the economics of inequality carried out since I graduated as an economist in 1966. In nearly fifty years, I have accumulated many debts—to those with whom I have worked, to col- leagues around the world, to students, and to writers in different fields. I can single out only a few. Over a long period, I have collaborated in the field of income inequality with (in alphabetical order) François Bourgui- gnon of the Paris School of Economics; Andrea Brandolini of the Bank of Italy; Andrew Leigh (now Member of the Australian Parliament); Eric Marlier of CEPS, Luxembourg; John Micklewright of University College London; Brian Nolan of Oxford; Thomas Piketty of the Paris School of Economics; Emmanuel Saez of the University of California, Berkeley; Amartya Sen of Harvard; Tim Smeeding of the University of Wisconsin– Madison; and Holly Sutherland of the University of Essex. In recent times, I have worked with Rolf Aaberge and Jørgen Modalsli at Statistics Norway; with Facundo A lvaredo, Salvatore Morelli, and Max Roser at the Programme for Economic Modelling at INET at the Oxford Martin School; with Jakob Søgaard of the University of Copenhagen and the Danish Ministry of Fi nance; and with Charles Diamond, founder of In- equality Briefing (http://inequalitybriefing.org/). In Nuffield College, an ideal research environment, I have enjoyed discussions with, among oth- ers, Bob Allen, Christopher Bliss, Duncan Gallie, John Goldthorpe, Da- vid Hendry, Paul K lemperer, Meg Meyer, and John Muellbauer. I owe a great deal to all those listed above, and I would like to say what a pleas ure it has been to work with them. In writing this book, I have ben efi tted much from having r ecently edited, with François Bourguignon, the sec- ond volume of the Handbook of Income Distribution, published by Else- vier in December 2014. I express here my gratitude to the more than fifty authors who con trib uted to that work. This book grows out of two public lectures and an article: the Arrow Lecture “Where Is inequality Headed?” given in May 2013 at Stanford University; the plenary lecture “Can We Reduce Income Inequality?” ix
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