Description
This class offers a comprehensive perspective on the role that distributional analysis plays in comparative economic studies. It begins discussing the dynamics of income inequality and poverty during the transition from planned, to market economies in eighteen formerly socialist countries. A bird-eye view on inequality dynamics across the XXth Century in the west is, then, presented. Specifically, an emphasis is put on (i) the production of novel data and statistics that have allowed the comparative analysis of inequality dynamics across countries and epochs, and (ii) the discovery of novel stylized facts concerning the evolution of income and wealth inequality in a vast number of countries. The trade-off between institutional specificity and general laws of capitalism is also highlighted. After introducing the subject matter, the class branches into four parts. The first part illustrates the basic concepts and tools for distributional analysis. The second part focuses specifically on income and wealth inequality dynamics from the 1980s until today in the western world. As economic systems become more economically interconnected, the study of global inequality gains relevance: this is the focus of the third part of the class. Finally, the fourth part shows the emergence of new forms of capitalism. This conclusive section hinges on recent studies on compositional inequality in terms of capital and labor.
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Introduction: Why is distributional analysis important for comparative economics?
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- The case of transition economies (Atkinson and Micklewright, 1992, Milanovic, 1998)
- Inequality dynamics across the XXth Century: new data and statistics for distributional comparative analysis (Piketty, 2014)
- New theoretical perspectives on the distribution of income and wealth among individuals (Stiglitz, 2016)
- Institutional specificity or general laws? (Acemoglu and Robinson, 2015)
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Part I: Concept and tools for distributional analysis
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- Income and wealth: concept and theory
- Mathematical tools for distributional analysis (Atkinson, 1970, Cowell and Flachaire, 2014)
- Data for distributional analysis: survey vs tax data (Lustig, 2020)
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Part II: Income and Wealth Inequality Dynamics, 1980-2020
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- North America and Western Europe (Saez and Zucman, 2020, Blanchet et al., 2019)
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This class offers a comprehensive perspective on the role that distributional analysis plays in comparative economic studies. It begins discussing the dynamics of income inequality and poverty during the transition from planned, to market economies in eighteen formerly socialist countries. A bird-eye view on inequality dynamics across the XXth Century in the west is, then, presented. Specifically, an emphasis is put on (i) the production of novel data and statistics that have allowed the comparative analysis of inequality dynamics across countries and epochs, and (ii) the discovery of novel stylized facts concerning the evolution of income and wealth inequality in a vast number of countries. The trade-off between institutional specificity and general laws of capitalism is also highlighted. After introducing the subject matter, the class branches into four parts. The first part illustrates the basic concepts and tools for distributional analysis. The second part focuses specifically on income and wealth inequality dynamics from the 1980s until today in the western world. As economic systems become more economically interconnected, the study of global inequality gains relevance: this is the focus of the third part of the class. Finally, the fourth part shows the emergence of new forms of capitalism. This conclusive section hinges on recent studies on compositional inequality in terms of capital and labor.
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Introduction: Why is distributional analysis important for comparative economics?
听
- The case of transition economies (Atkinson and Micklewright, 1992, Milanovic, 1998)
- Inequality dynamics across the XXth Century: new data and statistics for distributional comparative analysis (Piketty, 2014)
- New theoretical perspectives on the distribution of income and wealth among individuals (Stiglitz, 2016)
- Institutional specificity or general laws? (Acemoglu and Robinson, 2015)
听
Part I: Concept and tools for distributional analysis
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- Income and wealth: concept and theory
- Mathematical tools for distributional analysis (Atkinson, 1970, Cowell and Flachaire, 2014)
- Data for distributional analysis: survey vs tax data (Lustig, 2020)
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Part II: Income and Wealth Inequality Dynamics, 1980-2020
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- North America and Western Europe (Saez and Zucman, 2020, Blanchet et al., 2019)
- Post-Socialist Europe (Bandelj and Mahutga, 2010)
- Latin America (L贸pez-Calva and Lustig, 2010)
- Russia, India and China (Novokmet et al., 2018, Yang et al., 2019, Chi, 2012)
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Part III: Inequality in a global perspective
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- Global inequality studies: concept and measures (Milanovic, 2006, Anand and Segal, 2008)
- The rise of the global middle class (Lakner and Milanovic, 2015)
- Global wealth and land inequalities (Davies et al., 2008, 2017, Bauluz et al., 2020)
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Part IV: New Forms of Distributional Capitalism
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- "Capitalism, Alone" (Milanovic, 2019)
- Compositional inequality and Homoploutia: concept and measurement (Ranaldi, 2021a, Berman and Milanovic, 2020)
- Capitalist systems and income inequality (Ranaldi and Milanovic, 2021)
- The evolution of income composition inequality in Italy, 1989-2016 (Iacono and Ranaldi, 2021)
- The rise of a new aristocracy in the US (Berman and Milanovic, 2020)
- Towards a global multiple-sources-of-income economy? (Ranaldi, 2021b)
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References
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Acemoglu, D. and Robinson, J. A. (2015). The rise and decline of general laws of
capitalism. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 29.
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Anand, S. and Segal, P. (2008). What do we know about global income inequality?
Journal of Economic Literature, 46:57鈥94.
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Atkinson, A. (1970). On the measurement of inequality. Journal of Economic Theory, 2.
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Atkinson, A. B. and Micklewright, J. (1992). Economic transformation in eastern europe
and the distribution of income. Cambridge University Press.
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Bandelj, N. and Mahutga, M. C. (2010). How socio-economic change shapes income
inequality in post-socialist europe. Social Forces, 88.
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Bauluz, L., Govind, Y., and Novokmet, P. (2020). Global land inequality. WIDWorking
Paper.
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Berman, Y. and Milanovic, B. (2020). Homoploutia: Top labor and capital incomes
in the united states, 1950鈥2020. Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality Working
Paper Series, No. 26.
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Blanchet, T., Chancel, L., and Gethin, A. (2019). Show unequal is europe? evidence
from distributional national accounts, 1980-2017. WID.world WORKING PAPER N掳
2019/06.
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Chi, W. (2012). Capital income and income inequality: Evidence from urban china.
Journal of Comparative Economics, 40.
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Cowell, F. and Flachaire, E. (2014). Statistical methods for distributional analysis.
AMSE Working Papers 1507.
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Davies, J. B., Lluberas, R., and Shorrocks, A. (2017). Estimating the level and distribution
of global wealth, 2000鈥2014. Review of Income and Wealth, 63:731鈥759.
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Davies, J. B., Sandstrom, S., Shorrocks, A., and Wolff, E. N. (2008). The world distribution
of household wealth. In Davies, J. B., editor, Personal Wealth from a Global
Perspective, page 395鈥418. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
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Iacono, R., Ranaldi, M. (2021). The evolution of income composition inequality in Italy, 1989-2016. Review of Income and Wealth.
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Lakner, C. and Milanovic, B. (2015). Global income distribution: From the fall of the
berlin wall to the great recession. The World Bank Economic Review, 30:203鈥232.
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L贸pez-Calva, L. and Lustig, N. (2010). Declining inequality in latin america: A decade
of progress?
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Lustig, N. (2020). The 鈥渕issing rich鈥 in household surveys: Causes and correction
approaches. Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality Working Paper Series, No. 8.
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Milanovic, B. (1998). Income, inequality, and poverty during the transition from
planned to market economy. World Bank Regional and Sectoral Studies.
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Milanovic, B. (2006). Global inequality: A review. World Economics, 7.
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Milanovic, B. (2019). Capitalism, alone. Harvard University Press.
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Novokmet, F., Piketty, T., and Zucman, G. (2018). From soviets to oligarchs: Inequality
and property in russia 1905-2016. Journal of Economic Inequality, 16:189鈥223.
Piketty, T. (2014). Capital in the 21st century. Harvard University Press.
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Ranaldi, M. (2021b). Income composition inequality. Review of Income and Wealth.
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Ranaldi, M. (2021b). Global distributions of capital and labor incomes: Capitalization
of the global middle class. Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality Working Paper
Series, No. 30.
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Ranaldi, M. and Milanovic, B. (2021). Capitalist systems and income inequality. Journal of Comparative Economics.
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Saez, E. and Zucman, G. (2020). The rise of income and wealth inequality in america:
Evidence from distributional macroeconomic accounts. Journal of Economic Perspectives,
34.
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Stiglitz, J. (2016). New theoretical perspectives on the distribution of income and
wealth among individuals. In Basu, K. and Stiglitz, J., editors, Inequality and Growth:
Patterns and Policy. International Economic Association Series. Palgrave Macmillan:
London.
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Yang, L., Novokmet, F., and Milanovic, B. (2019). From workers to capitalists in less
than two generations: A study of chinese urban elite transformation between 1988
and 2013. WID Working Paper.
Module deliveries for 2024/25 academic year
Last updated
This module description was last updated on 19th August 2024.
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