IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/101810.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Inequality: what can be done?

Author

Listed:
  • Atkinson, Anthony B.

Abstract

Economic inequality has become centre stage in the political debate, but what the political leaders have not said is what they would do about it. There are repeated calls for equitable growth but little clue as to how this is to be achieved. In this Working Paper, I seek to show what could be done to reduce the extent of inequality if we are serious about that objective. I draw on the lessons of history, and take a fresh look - through distributional eyes - at the underlying economics. I identify ambitious new policies in five areas - technology, employment, social security, the sharing of capital, and taxation – that could bring about a genuine shift in the distribution of income towards less inequality.

Suggested Citation

  • Atkinson, Anthony B., 2015. "Inequality: what can be done?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 101810, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:101810
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/101810/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John Hills, 1989. "Counting the family silver: the public sector's balance sheet 1957 to 1987," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 10(2), pages 66-85, May.
    2. Anthony B. Atkinson & Salvatore Morelli, 2014. "Chartbook of economic inequality," Working Papers 324, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zachary Van Winkle & Emanuela Struffolino, 2018. "When working isn’t enough: Family demographic processes and in-work poverty across the life course in the United States," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 39(12), pages 365-380.
    2. Anthony Atkinson, 2013. "Reducing income inequality in Europe," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 2(1), pages 1-11, December.
    3. Anthony B. Atkinson, 2018. "Wealth and inheritance in Britain from 1896 to the present," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 16(2), pages 137-169, June.
    4. Daron Acemoglu & James A. Robinson, 2015. "The Rise and Decline of General Laws of Capitalism," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 29(1), pages 3-28, Winter.
    5. Tommaso Ciarli & André Lorentz & Marco Valente & Maria Savona, 2019. "Structural changes and growth regimes," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 29(1), pages 119-176, March.
    6. Zuzanna Brzozowska & Eva Beaujouan & Kryštof Zeman, 2022. "Is Two Still Best? Change in Parity-Specific Fertility Across Education in Low-Fertility Countries," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 41(5), pages 2085-2114, October.
    7. Lefranc, Arnaud, 2018. "Intergenerational Earnings Persistence and Economic Inequality in the Long-Run: Evidence from French Cohorts, 1931-1975," IZA Discussion Papers 11406, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Yeung, Timothy Yu-Cheong, 2017. "Political philosophy, executive constraint and electoral rules," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 67-88.
    9. Mathonnat, Clément & Williams, Benjamin, 2020. "Does more finance mean more inequality in times of crisis?," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 44(4).
    10. Magnac, Thierry & Roux, Sébastien, 2021. "Heterogeneity and wage inequalities over the life cycle," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    11. Anders Akerman, 2024. "Market concentration and the relative demand for college‐educated labour," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 91(361), pages 292-319, January.
    12. Greg Kaplan & Gianni La Cava & Tahlee Stone, 2018. "Household Economic Inequality in Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 94(305), pages 117-134, June.
    13. Heshmati, Almas & Kim, Jungsuk, 2014. "A Survey of the Role of Fiscal Policy in Addressing Income Inequality, Poverty Reduction and Inclusive Growth," IZA Discussion Papers 8119, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Arnaud Lefranc, 2018. "Intergenerational earnings persistence and economic inequality in the long-run : Evidence from French cohorts, 1931-1975," Post-Print hal-02528217, HAL.
    15. Ian Gazeley & Andrew Newell & Kevin Reynolds & Hector Rufrancos, 2024. "Household structure, labour participation, and economic inequality in Britain, 1937–61," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 77(1), pages 41-59, February.
    16. Wayne Simpson & Harvey Stevens, 2015. "The Impact of Converting Federal Non-Refundable Tax Credits into Refundable Credits," SPP Research Papers, The School of Public Policy, University of Calgary, vol. 8(30), August.
    17. Henryk Gurgul & Łukasz Lach, 2019. "Regional patterns in technological progress of Poland: the role of EU structural funds," Central European Journal of Operations Research, Springer;Slovak Society for Operations Research;Hungarian Operational Research Society;Czech Society for Operations Research;Österr. Gesellschaft für Operations Research (ÖGOR);Slovenian Society Informatika - Section for Operational Research;Croatian Operational Research Society, vol. 27(4), pages 1195-1220, December.
    18. Roth, Christopher & Wohlfart, Johannes, 2018. "Experienced inequality and preferences for redistribution," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 251-262.
    19. Facundo Alvaredo & Leonardo Gasparini, 2013. "Recent Trends in Inequality and Poverty in Developing Countries," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0151, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    20. Mirko Armiento, 2016. "The Sustainable Welfare Index for Italy, 1960-2013," Working Papers 1601, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Department of Economics, Society & Politics - Scientific Committee - L. Stefanini & G. Travaglini, revised 2016.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Inequality; poverty; wealth; redistribution;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General
    • H30 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - General
    • H40 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - General
    • H50 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - General
    • H60 - Public Economics - - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt - - - General
    • I30 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General
    • E20 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • E60 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:101810. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.