Inequality: What Can Be Done? - Softcover

Atkinson, Anthony B.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0674979788 ISBN 13: 9780674979789

Publisher: Harvard UP, 2018

Synopsis

Winner of the Richard A. Lester Award for the Outstanding Book in Industrial Relations and Labor Economics, Princeton University An Economist Best Economics and Business Book of the Year A Financial Times Best Economics Book of the Year Inequality is one of our most urgent social problems. Curbed in the decades after World War II, it has recently returned with a vengeance. We all know the scale of the problem--talk about the 99% and the 1% is entrenched in public debate--but there has been little discussion of what we can do but despair. According to the distinguished economist Anthony Atkinson, however, we can do much more than skeptics imagine. "[Atkinson] sets forth a list of concrete, innovative, and persuasive proposals meant to show that alternatives still exist, that the battle for social progress and equality must reclaim its legitimacy, here and now... Witty, elegant, profound, this book should be read." --Thomas Piketty, New York Review of Books "An uncomfortable affront to our reigning triumphalists. [Atkinson's] premise is straightforward: inequality is not unavoidable, a fact of life like the weather, but the product of conscious human behavior. --Owen Jones, The Guardian

About this title

Review

Like it or loathe it, this is ambitious stuff.--Tim Harford"Financial Times" (04/24/2015)

Tony Atkinson, in many ways the father of modern inequality research, has [written] a terrific new book.--Paul Krugman"New York Times" (05/23/2015)

[Atkinson] does not mind speaking uncomfortable truths. Among them: that the comfort and opportunity provided by wealth matter just as much as the consumption that wealth affords; that holding down a job may not be enough to provide most workers with a standard of living that keeps up with economic growth; and that economic power helps protect itself in subtle and pervasive ways which might well demand an interventionist government response. Sir Anthony's answer might not be the right one. But if his book reminds the reader how far out of fashion the policies of the post-war decades have fallen, it also conveys how skewed the economy of today might look to an observer from the not so distant past--or, perhaps, from the not so distant future.-- (06/06/2015)

Though it has not attracted the celebrity attention, in many respects Atkinson's [Inequality] is more important than Thomas Piketty's pathbreaking Capital in the Twenty-First Century, and is the perfect sequel. Where Piketty explained the tendency of wealth and income to concentrate, Atkinson digs deeper into what drove this shift and why conventional remedies will not reverse the trends. He has a far surer grasp than Piketty of the political dynamics that made possible the anomalous egalitarian era of the 30 glorious years after World War II.-- (01/01/2016)

Atkinson knows his stuff. He understands arguments used by free marketeers (largely successfully) to marginalize inequality as a front-and-center issue... This is why Atkinson devotes much space in Inequality to rebutting these arguments and asserting that tackling the rich-poor divide should, and can, be a priority... By presenting a strategic combination of new and established ideas, Atkinson shows why addressing the growing pervasiveness of inequality in the twenty-first century requires a sustained attack on many fronts. It also requires seeing economics not just as a debate about numbers but as a debate about people... Atkinson shows what might be possible if we stretch our collective imagination and focus on innovative ways to address what is emerging as the defining issue of our time.-- (10/01/2015)

Atkinson has done a very good job by making suggestions that are actually being professed, albeit hesitantly, by governments. By taking head-on the basic apprehensions of doing so, he shows that if we do not employ these solutions, we are probably making excuses and do not want to shake the present equilibrium due to vested interests. For one who agrees with Piketty, this book will get a big nod, and for those who are not sure, it should probably remove some doubt.-- (07/26/2015)

[An] important contribution... Those who desire a thought-provoking guide to policy options [to address inequality] in advanced countries should grapple with Atkinson's work.--Martin Wolf"Financial Times" (05/01/2015)

The best of the new crop of books [on income inequality] is Anthony B. Atkinson's Inequality: What Is to Be Done? Not unrelatedly, it is also the most solutions-oriented.-- (05/30/2015)

Atkinson is a pioneer of the study of the economics of poverty and inequality. His latest work, Inequality: What Can Be Done?, is an uncomfortable affront to our reigning triumphalists. His premise is straightforward: inequality is not unavoidable, a fact of life like the weather, but the product of conscious human behavior.-- (04/08/2015)

There have been countless books on inequality in the recent past--some arguing that it is a pressing problem and others arguing that it is not--but Atkinson's stands above the crowded field. By pairing quantitative economic analysis with a clear moral argument, he provides lay readers with a bracing and accessible guide to the current inequality debates... Atkinson's book represents the best case an economist can make on these issues... The fact that we even understand inequality as a real problem with nuanced constraints is something we owe to Atkinson, who helped make it the serious focus of inquiry it is today. This book is a forceful summary of that body of work, and stands as the best introduction to the concerns that will hang over all of our discussions of the economy in the 21st century.-- (11/01/2015)

About the Author

Anthony B. Atkinson was a Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford, and Centennial Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard UP
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 0674979788
• ISBN 13: 9780674979789
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 264