In this class we will discuss and analyse Tony Atkinson's last book "Inequality - What can be done?" which is his intellectual estate for all scholars of inequality. Tony Atkinson (1944-2017) is certainly the doyen of the theory of distribution (you may have a look on his obituaries there).

Please buy, rent or organize this book in advance!

I will present Chap.1-3 in the first two units (30.11.2021 and 7.12.2021). (Due to the changes from presence to onlinine teaching the interim exam which was scheduled for Friday 10 December has been canceled).

Chap. 4 until Chap. 10 of the book will be presented by you (in groups of two or three; we will skip Chap.11). It is expected that you present the main content of each chapter. Additionally it is highly welcome if you also present current research on each respective chapter (at least one or two papers). Therefore the following additional sources should be used:

•     literature cited in the footnotes by each individual chapter
•     current empirical research (for Austria, the EU or/and globally) if available

The final exam which will focus mainly on Chap.1-3 (but not only) is scheduled for 25 January 2022.

Note: If COVID-19 will prohibit an exam with mandatory attendance on Campus I will offer oral exams only.

Contents of the the book can be found here. Chapters will be presented by a group of two or three. Please look at the contents of the book. Then chose your (three) prefered topics (by rank) and your associate, complete the excel-file and provide me your choice by mail: altzing@wu.ac.at until 3 December 2021.

We will discuss all details of class in the 1st unit on 30 November. Attendance in this unit is mandatory.

Participants should:

•     gain an overview of the most important aspects of the current distributional policy discussion
•     learn and understand important theoretical concepts of income and wealth distribution
•     get an overview on empirical studies of income and wealth distributions (global, Europe, USA, Austria)

Attendance and active participation is mandatory for all units.

Presence is mandatory in all units.

Participants will present chapter 4-10 of the book in groups of two or three.

In the last unit there will be a final exam.

Subject matter:

• Chap.1-10 (p.1-280)  and 'The Way Forward' (p.301-308)
• Slides provided by W.A.

• final exam: 40%
• Homework over Christmas: 10%
• written seminar paper: 20%
• presentation of the paper: 20%
• contributions at class: 10%

• basic knowledge in micro and macro

• (strong) interest in distributional issues

Homepage

altzing@wu.ac.at

Office hours: Monday 2-3 pm. (Please make an appointment in advance!)

You may also visit our Research Institute "Economics of Inequality" (where you can find a lot of additional materials on inequality).