Publications

SSRN

27 Oct 2011
News

HBS Professor Studies Wealth Inequality

Forthcoming
Article

Social Security and Trends in Wealth Inequality

By: Sylvain Catherine, Max Miller and Natasha Sarin

Recent influential work finds large increases in inequality in the U.S. based on measures of wealth concentration that notably exclude the value of social insurance programs. This paper shows that top wealth shares have not changed much over the last three decades when... View Details

Keywords: Wealth; Equality and Inequality; Taxation; Insurance; Welfare

20 Aug 2012
News

How Americans view wealth and inequality

December 2018 (Revised March 2020)
Technical Note

Note on Economic Inequality (2020)

By: Rebecca Henderson, Jessica A. Gover, Aldo Sesia and Mariana Oseguera Rodriguez

For over half a century, most of the world's economies have enjoyed steady growth and prosperity. While this economic growth has reduced the number of people living in poverty, it has come with an increase in economic inequality. The gap between the "haves" and the... View Details

Keywords: Economic Inequalty; Wealth Inequality; Equality Of Opportunity; Political Polarization; Economic Growth; Economics; Income; Wealth; Equality and Inequality; Society; Problems and Challenges

23 Sep 2014
News

We Can't Talk about Inequality without Talking about Talent

Keywords: human capital; financial capital; talent; wealth inequality

January 2015
Background Note

Note on Economic Inequality (2015)

By: Clayton S. Rose and Aldo Sesia

For over half a century, most of the world's economies have enjoyed steady growth and prosperity. However, beginning in the 1980s, and continuing essentially unabated to the present, the gap between the "haves" and the "have-nots" in developed countries has widened,... View Details

Keywords: Economic Inequalty; Income Inequality; Growth and Development; Economics; Equality and Inequality; Society; Problems and Challenges; United States

March 2014
Case

Inequality and Growth in the 'Chinese Dream'

By: Rafael Di Tella, Meg Rithmire and Kaitlyn Szydlowski

Xi Jinping assumed his position as head of China's fifth generation of leaders in 2012. Xi was head of both the People's Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party, which had ruled China since 1949. Xi inherited a country far more unequal than the one that Mao... View Details

Keywords: China; Growth; Inequality; Wealth And Poverty; Social Stability; Perceptions Of Inequality; Chinese Dream; Chinese Political Thought; Corruption; Equality and Inequality; China

08 Nov 2010
News

Spreading the wealth

10 Sep 2015
News

Harvard MBAs say fighting wealth inequality is a top priority

December 2014 (Revised November 2015)
Case

Governing the 'Chinese Dream': Corruption, Inequality and the Rule of Law

By: Rafael Di Tella, Meg Rithmire and Kait Szydlowski

Xi Jinping assumed his position as head of China's fifth generation of leaders in 2012. Xi was head of both the People's Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party, which had ruled China since 1949. Xi inherited a country far more unequal than the one that Mao... View Details

Keywords: China; Growth; Inequality; Wealth And Poverty; Social Stability; Perceptions Of Inequality; Chinese Dream; Chinese Political Thought; Corruption; Equality and Inequality; China

August 29, 2022
Other Article

Income Inequality Is Rising. Are We Even Measuring It Correctly?

By: Jon M. Jachimowicz, K. Blesch and Oliver P. Hauser

Income inequality is on the rise in many countries around the world, according to the United Nations. What’s more, disparities in global income were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, with some countries facing greater economic losses than others. Policymakers... View Details

Keywords: Income Inequality; Gini Coefficient; COVID-19 Pandemic; Government Administration; Equality and Inequality; Health Pandemics; Measurement and Metrics

March 2011 (Revised May 2011)
Case

Inequality in Brazil

By: Aldo Musacchio

This case examines the evolution of inequality in Brazil in the last few years and generates two debates. First, the case discusses inequality and whether it is a problem or not for capitalist societies, in this case Brazil. Second, the case discusses some of the... View Details

Keywords: Economic Growth; Economic Systems; Policy; Government and Politics; Business and Government Relations; Poverty; Equality and Inequality; Brazil

May 2005 (Revised May 2011)
Background Note

Inequality and Globalization

By: David A. Moss, Anna Harrington and Jonathan Schlefer

Inequality represented a major issue at the dawn of the 21st century. By many measures, inequality had increased over the previous several decades, within both developed and developing countries. Whether global inequality (measured across countries or among the people... View Details

Keywords: Equality and Inequality; Wealth and Poverty; Income; Globalization

Article

(Mis)perceptions of Inequality

By: Oliver P. Hauser and Michael I. Norton

Inequality is arguably the defining societal issue of the 21st century. The debate over “who gets what’ underlies policy debates ranging from taxation to health care to wages and permeates society at all levels, attracting increasing interest from policymakers,... View Details

Keywords: Equality and Inequality; Wealth and Poverty; Perception; Society; Policy

07 May 2014
What Do You Think?

How Should Wealth Be Redistributed?

accelerated since the 1990s. (Work by a number of other economists, disputed at times, suggests that inequality of wealth is associated with slowing economic growth.) To Piketty's way of thinking, forces... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

21 Mar 2011
News

Rising Wealth Inequality: Should We Care

November 2002 (Revised March 2006)
Case

Inequality and the "American Model"

By: Rafael M. Di Tella and Ingrid Vogel

Official data that suggest economic inequality has been mounting in the United States on various dimensions since 1979. Many causes of such inequality have been postulated: technological change, globalization, demographic factors, and changes in public policy (notably... View Details

Keywords: Equality and Inequality; Wealth and Poverty; Corporate Governance; Social Issues; Government Administration; United States