Recently, the issue of inequality has regained attention in economic and political debates. Although this interest is welcome, the debate is still mostly focused on income or wealth distribution, which is an important aspect but does not present a complete view of inequality. Most of the theoretical and empirical studies produced by economists concern personal income distribution or factor income distribution. This is more evident in the studies of the evolution and characteristics of contemporary capitalism and globalization. Varieties of Economic Inequality considers both theoretical perspectives and empirical evidence of aspects such as income, gender, race, technology, power, region, education and class. Ultimately, this text rejects the idea of supposed long run constant factor shares, the positive effects of inequality and the greater importance of absolute level of income compared to its unequal distribution, and instead reveals the structural inequalities that exist within societies. This book advocates a move away from the focusing on inequality at the level of the individual and suggests policy for eradicating these various forms of inequality. It is suitable for those who study political economy, social inequality as well as economic theory and philosophy.

Succinct, accessible, and authoritative, Thomas Piketty’s The Economics of Inequality is the ideal place to start for those who want to understand the fundamental issues at the heart of one the most pressing concerns in contemporary economics and politics. This work now appears in English for the first time.

The book “Economic Inequality – Trends, Traps and Trade-offs” presents the unexplored issues of economic inequality, including case studies of various countries. Inequality is a chronic divisive factor of society. It is well known that inequalities (such as economic, social, cultural, religious, geographical, etc.) have been omnipresent in human society. Inequalities can be found within each family, each community, and each nation and thus globally. Inequality is a major cause of political, economic, social instability, and creates crisis and conflict within society. A major cause of inequality is unequal, uneven, biased, power centric distributions of human economic, social, political, cultural and spiritual human necessities.The edited book examines the major parameters of the socio-economic issues of inequality and focuses on the key economic issues of inequality, namely, income and wealth distribution, equity & equality of outcome, and equality of opportunities. Economic inequality is measured by wealth, income dsiproportions in distribution and consumption patterns in a specific area. Mostly, inequality is measured using various statistical tools including the Gini Coefficient, inequality adjusted human development index, 20:20 ratio, Palma ratio, Hoover index, Galt score, Coefficient of variation, Theil index, wage share etc. However, not all income can be measured by these tools. By using case studies, this book encourages us to reframe economic development through the lens of growing inequalities and disparities. Economic growth per se is disproportional, and the efforts of scholars, practitioners and policymakers should be directed to empower the marginalized of society in a way that ‘no one should left behind’ (UN Slogan).

Comprehensive analysis of economic inequality in developed countries. The contributors give their view on the state-of-the-art scientific research in their fields and add their own visions of future research.

This state-of-the-art volume presents comparative, empirical research on a topic that has long preoccupied scholars, politicians, and everyday citizens: economic inequality. While income and wealth inequality across all populations is the primary focus, the contributions to this book pay special attention to the middle class, a segment often not addressed in inequality literature. Written by leading scholars in the field of economic inequality, all 17 chapters draw on microdata from the databases of LIS, an esteemed cross-national data center based in Luxembourg. Using LIS data to structure a comparative approach, the contributors paint a complex portrait of inequality across affluent countries at the beginning of the 21st century. The volume also trail-blazes new research into inequality in countries newly entering the LIS databases, including Japan, Iceland, India, and South Africa.

Economic inequality has become a focus of prime interest for economic analysts and policy makers. This book provides an integrated approach to the topics of inequality and personal income distribution. It covers the practical and theoretical bases for inequality analysis, applications to real world problems and the foundations of theoretical approaches to income distribution. It also analyses models of the distribution of labour earnings and of income from wealth. The long-run development of income - and wealth - distribution over many generations is also examined. Special attention is given to an assessment of the merits and weaknesses of standard economic models, to illustrating the implications of distributional mechanisms using real data and illustrative examples, and to providing graphical interpretation of formal arguments. Examples are drawn from US, UK and international sources.

In Understanding Economic Inequality, the author brings an economist’s perspective informed by new, groundbreaking research on inequality from philosophy, sociology, psychology, and political science and presents it in a form that it is accessible to those who want to understand our world, our society, our politics, our paychecks, and our neighbors’ paychecks better.

Millions of Americans don't earn enough money to pay for decent housing, food, health care, and education. Meanwhile the rich keep getting richer. Learn how governments, businesses, and citizens are fighting to close the economic gap.

Examining inequality through the lenses of moral traditions Rising inequality has attracted a great deal of attention in recent years from scholars and politicians, but the moral dimensions of inequality tend to be ignored. Is inequality morally acceptable? Is it morally permissible to allow practices and systems that contribute to inequality? Is there an ethical obligation to try to alleviate inequality, and if so, who is obligated to take that action? This book addresses these and similar questions not through a single lens of morality but through a comparative study of ethical traditions, both secular and religious, Western and non-Western. The moral and political traditions considered are: liberalism, Marxism, natural law, feminism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, Christianity, and Confucianism. The types of inequality examined include property, natural resources, products, wealth, income, jobs, and taxation. The editors open the book with an introduction providing information on contemporary dimensions of the problem of economic inequality, and the book concludes with a summary of the perspectives represented. Economic Inequality and Morality is unusual in that it addresses similarities and differences on the questions of inequality within and across moral traditions. Authors of the individual studies answer a common set of topic-related questions, giving the reader a broad perspective on how a broad range of traditions view and respond to inequality.

Focuses on intergenerational mobility, and intergenerational transmission of inequality.