InequaliTalks

Progressive wealth taxes may be difficult to enforce if wealthy individuals underreport their wealth, but disclosure incentives and greater enforcement can improve tax collection. Juliana Londoño-Vélez presents her work with Javier Avila-Mahecha which uses rich administrative data from Colombia and leverages a government-designed program for voluntary disclosures of hidden wealth, as well as the t...

An (almost) unedited conversation with Thomas Piketty about his last book "Capital and Ideology" (2019). We talked about private property, slavery, colonialism, Haiti and arts. Book: "Capital and Ideology" by Thomas Piketty https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674980822 Recommendation: "La voluntad y la fortuna" (2008) by Carlos Fuentes https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50254105-volu...

The earnings difference between white and Black workers fell dramatically in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Claire Montialoux, in a paper with Ellora Derenoncourt, shows that the expansion of the minimum wage played a critical role in this decline. Recommendation: "The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America" by Richard Rothstein https://www...

Does a person's gender influence the way we interpret information about his or her ability? Heather Sarsons tests this hypothesis in a unique setting using Medicare data on referrals from physicians to surgical specialists. She finds that the referring physicians view their patients' surgical outcomes differently depending on whether the surgeon is a man or a woman. Recommendations: "Privilege: Th...

Housing is the main asset in most individual portfolios. The recent rise in private wealth with respect to national income has been mainly driven by capital gains on housing. How do house price cycles affect wealth inequality? Clara Martínez-Toledano explores the dynamics of wealth accumulation over forty years in Spain. Recommendations: "The Hidden Wealth of Nations" by Gabriel Zucman http://gabr...

STEM classes, especially computer science and engineering, are increasingly popular on college campuses, often because they are seen as offering better employment prospects and higher earnings. What happens to this early STEM pay premium in the long run? Kadeem Noray from Harvard talks about his research with David J. Deming on how changing job skills affect the career dynamics of people majoring...

Despite significant process of industrialization in developping countries across the world, agricultural land is still a vital resource for three out of four of the poorest billion individuals in the world. How does land ownership inequality vary across countries and regions of the world? How different is the picture if we account for land area and value, or for the landless population? Yajna Govi...

Do politicians know enough about voters to adequately represent them? Are they responsive to new information about their constituency? How does it affect the representation of marginalized groups? Asad Liaqat presents the results of large experiment he conducted on politicians in Pakistan, and reveals large information asymmetries in politics. Recommendations: "Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life,...

Lydia Assouad revisits the "Arab Inequality puzzle" : survey estimates suggest that inequality in the Middle East is not particularly high. In reality, the Middle East is the most unequal region in the world, with both enormous inequality between countries and large inequality within countries. Recommendations: Comics "Palestine" by Joe Sacco https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/769712.Palestine Mo...

What would have been the economic impact of COVID-19 in a less integrated world? Is trade openness a good or a bad thing to mitigate the shock of a pandemic? How can we quantify the welfare effect of such a large disruption in production? Alessandro Sforza explains why the economic effects of a pandemic crucially depend on the extend to which countries are connected in global production networks....

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the U.S economy at an incredibly rapid pace. Michael Stepner presents his most recent work with Opportunity Insights. Combining anonymized data from private companies, the Opportunity Insights Economic Tracker provides a real-time picture of how the economy is performing. How and where do people spend their money? Who are the most vulnerable workers? Where are lo...

Inequality is one of the most pressing issues in the public conversation. Economic research can help us find the tools to address it. Here is a quick taste of what's to come every second Wednesday. By Clémentine Van Effenterre