Economics of Inequality and Redistribution

Objectif

The last four decades have witnessed an increase in income and wealth inequality in all OECD countries. This increase in inequality together with the economic stagnation and the economic crises of the last fifteen years are crucial for understanding the political economy of capitalism today and the social unrest that is now observed in most developed countries.
The aim of this course is to provide an introduction to the analysis of income and wealth distribution, its relation to macroeconomic performance and technical change, and how different policies are linked to distributional outcomes.

Descriptif

The first part of the course will be devoted to the presentation of statistical tools for measuring inequalities and -based on them- the examination of the historical trajectory of income and wealth distribution in developed and developing economies. It will also be discussed how income and wealth inequalities intersect with other socioeconomic factors such as gender and race, and how distribution is affected by the globalization of economic activity and migration.
The second part of the course will survey the Classical, the Keynesian and the Neoclassical approaches to distribution, economic growth and technical change, and how these approaches provide different explanations for the increasing inequalities and the stagnation of output and productivity growth of the last decades.