Global Inequality: A New Approach for the Age of Globalization - Hardcover

Branko Milanovic

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 067473713X ISBN 13: 9780674737136

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 2016

Synopsis

One of the world's leading economists of inequality, Branko Milanovic presents a bold new account of the dynamics that drive inequality on a global scale. Drawing on vast data sets and cutting-edge research, he explains the benign and malign forces that make inequality rise and fall within and among nations. He also reveals who has been helped the most by globalisation, who has been held back, and what policies might tilt the balance toward economic justice. Global Inequality takes us back hundreds of years, and as far around the world as data allow, to show that inequality moves in cycles, fuelled by war and disease, technological disruption, access to education, and redistribution. The recent surge of inequality in the West has been driven by the revolution in technology, just as the Industrial Revolution drove inequality 150 years ago. But even as inequality has soared within nations, it has fallen dramatically among nations, as middle-class incomes in China and India have drawn closer to the stagnating incomes of the middle classes in the developed world. A more open migration policy would reduce global inequality even further. Both American and Chinese inequality seems well entrenched and self-reproducing, though it is difficult to predict if current trends will be derailed by emerging plutocracy, populism, or war. For those who want to understand how we got where we are, where we may be heading, and what policies might help reverse that course, Milanovic's compelling explanation is the ideal place to start.

About this title

Review

"Branko Milanovic has written an outstanding book. Global Inequality: A New Approach for the Age of Globalization is informative, wide-ranging, scholarly, imaginative and commendably brief. As you would expect from one of the world's leading experts on this topic, Milanovic has added significantly to important recent works by Thomas Piketty, Anthony Atkinson and François Bourguignon... Ever-rising inequality looks a highly unlikely combination with any genuine democracy. It is to the credit of Milanovic's book that it brings out these dangers so clearly, along with the important global successes of the past few decades."

Martin Wolf, Financial Times

"In this fascinating book, Milanovic is able to articulate the study of inequality between and within countries in the clearest possible way. A must-read." --Thomas Piketty, Paris School of Economics

"The data [Milanovic] provides offer a clearer picture of great economic puzzles, and his bold theorising chips away at tired economic orthodoxies."

The Economist

"Global Inequality goes well beyond the narrative of rising inequality captured by French economist Thomas Piketty's surprise 2014 best-seller, Capital in the Twenty-First Century. In his highly readable account, Milanovic puts that development into the context of the centuries-long ebbs and flows of inequality driven by economic changes, such as the Industrial Revolution, as well epidemics, mass migrations, revolutions, wars and other political upheavals." --Matt Phillips, Quartz

"Milanovic makes global inequality his central focus, though with considerable attention to related political issues. He brings fresh insights to one of today's most talked about issues, clearing up confusion on the way."

New Statesman

"Milanovic's outstanding book adds significantly to recent works by Thomas Piketty, Anthony Atkinson and Francois Bourguignon." --Financial Times best books for summer.

About the Author

Branko Milanovic is Senior Scholar at the Luxembourg Income Study Center, and Visiting Presidential Professor, Graduate Center, City University of New York.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 067473713X
• ISBN 13: 9780674737136
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 320