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

Milanovic, Branko

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 067473713X ISBN 13: 9780674737136

Publisher: Belknap Press: An Imprint of 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 globalization, 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, fueled 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

About the Author:

Branko Milanovic is Visiting Presidential Professor and Core Faculty at the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. He was formerly Lead Economist in the World Bank’s research department. His books include Global Inequality (Harvard) and The Haves and the Have-Nots: A Brief and Idiosyncratic History of Global Inequality.

Review:

“The data [Milanovic] provides offer a clearer picture of great economic puzzles, and his bold theorizing chips away at tired economic orthodoxies.”―The Economist

“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

“This outstanding book adds significantly to recent works by Thomas Piketty, Anthony Atkinson and François Bourguignon. Milanovic concludes that inequality is rising within most countries, although global inequality, albeit huge, has been falling. Unfortunately, he sees no end to the current upswing in inequality in the high-income countries. That creates disturbing political dangers.”―Martin Wolf, Financial Times

“[Milanovic] makes a case that the rapid growth of poorer countries since 1988 has brought the first decline in inequality since the Industrial Revolution...The very rich or the very corrupt may still hide their wealth in tax havens. Politicians in developed countries may decry rising inequality. But global trends and new data tell an alternative story about the progress already made to lift the poor.”―Christian Science Monitor

“Branko Milanović’s much underestimated Global Inequality: A New Approach for the Age of Globalization, now being published in many languages, tells us more than any other recent book about the state of the world we live in and, at a time when hope is so urgently needed, offers us thought-provoking insights into the world we could become.”―Gordon Brown, The Guardian

“Continuing with his extraordinarily important work on the empirics of global inequality, Branko Milanovic in this book expands on that work to lay the basis for a more theoretical understanding of the evolution of inequality. It is seen to be the product of two forces: Kuznets cycles of rising and decreasing within-nation inequalities, and convergence of mean incomes among countries. The relative strength of these two forces has profound political implications: Shall we live in the world of class cleavages, or of huge international income gaps? Is the world to be ruled by the global top 1 percent, or by a large global middle class?”―Joseph Stiglitz, Columbia University

“[Milanovic] believes that growing inequality within countries will not threaten capitalism as a system for allocating economic resources but will pose a serious threat to liberal democracy. As middle classes everywhere get squeezed, the United States will become even more plutocratic, and nativistic populism will become more mainstream in Europe―a process that is already under way, aided in no small part by the influx of migrants, a feature of globalization that is likely to only intensify.”―Richard N. Cooper, Foreign Affairs

“[Milanovic] brings an enormous scope of knowledge of recent and past income trends...The data assembled in the book are incredibly useful and will be eye-opening to most readers...There is an enormous amount of valuable material in a short book and he does raise a number of important basic moral questions that deserve careful thought. The book is well worth reading.”―Dean Baker, Huffington Post

“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

“Milanovic offers us not just a plethora of facts about income inequality that will surely make his readers think twice. More importantly, he shows us the power of bringing the facts into focus by putting a new lens over these pressing issues―a global perspective...If you do read it, your focus will be sharper, you will be able to see further, perhaps even globally, and your image of a whole host of public policy challenges will be clearer and much more nuanced.”―Miles Corak, American Prospect

About this edition

• Publisher: Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 067473713X
• ISBN 13: 9780674737136
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320