Overview and Objectives

This class is open to all who are interested. To make sure you can benefit from this class, you should have taken courses in econometrics and in microeconomics before.

The purpose of this class is twofold. First, to teach you about economic inequality, some of its causes, and how it is affected by policy. Second, to teach you econometric methods that have been used in the literature on economic inequality, which will help prepare you to conduct your own research on this or related topics.

We will focus on mechanisms affecting income inequality, such as racial discrimination, (de)unionization, minimum wages, shifts in labor demand due to changes in technology and trade, shifts in labor supply due to migration, intergenerational transmission of economic status, and taxation. We will briefly talk about the historical evolution of income and wealth inequality, as well as about international inequality; mostly, however, we will focus on mechanisms affecting the distribution of incomes in the United States. This focus is a reflection of the focus of the economics literature. There is ample opportunity for applying and adapting the ideas we will discuss to other countries and contexts.

Class time will be dedicated to:

teachingmaxkasy@gmail.com

Recommended books

1. Normative theories of distributive justice:

 • Rawls, J. (1973). A theory of justice. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

 • Sen, A. (1995). Inequality reexamined. Oxford University Press, Oxford

 • Roemer, J. E. (1998). Theories of distributive justice. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

2. Economists on the history of inequality:

 • The long run evolution of wealth-inequality and its causes: Piketty, T. (2014). Capital in the 21st Century. Harvard Univer- sity Press, Cambridge

 • Education, technology, and inequality:

   Goldin, C. D. and Katz, L. F. (2009). The race between education and technology. Harvard University Press

 • Global inequality of health and incomes:

    Deaton, A. (2013). The great escape: Health, wealth, and the origins of inequality. Princeton University Press, Princeton

 • Historical origins - slavery in the United States

    Fogel, R. W. (1994). Without consent or contract: the rise and fall of American slavery. WW Norton & Company

 • Policy alternatives:

    Atkinson, A. B. (2015). Inequality: What Can be Done? Harvard University Press

3. Perspectives outside economics:

 • The sociology of social classes:

    Wright, E. O. (2005). Approaches to class analysis. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

 • Feminist perspectives:

   Fraser, N. (2013). Fortunes of Feminism: From State-Managed Capitalism to Neoliberal Crisis. Verso Books