The Political Economy of Inequality [Hardcover]

During the last few decades, the gap between the incomes, wealth and living standards of rich and poor people has increased in most countries. Economic inequality has become a defining issue of our age.

In this book, leading political economist Frank Stilwell provides a comprehensive overview of the nature, causes, and consequences of this growing divide. He shows how we can understand inequalities of wealth and incomes, globally and nationally, examines the scale of the problem and explains how it affects our wellbeing. He also shows that, although governments are often committed to growth at all costs and trickle down economics, there are alternative public policies that could be used to narrow the gap between rich and poor.

Stilwells engaging and clear guide to the issues will be indispensable reading for all students, general readers and scholars interested in inequality in political economy, economics, public policy and beyond.Preface

Preliminaries

1. Mind the Gap

2. Incomes, Wealth, Poverty and Equity

Patterns

3. Scales and Shapes of Inequality

4. Shifting Shares

5. Multi-dimensional Inequalities

Processes

6. Explaining Who Gets What

7. Driving the Disparities

Problems

8. Hazards to Handle: Opportunities to Grasp

9. Towards Happier Societies?

Policies

10. Redistribution

11. Progressive Pre-distribution

12. A Global Challenge

Prospects

13. Impediments to Equity

14. Making the Future

References

Index

'This is a very valuable book that will be helpful to anyone studying economic inequality. It containslÓ4