Inequalities

Month: June 2013

  • Is ‘the paradox of redistribution’ dead?

    It has all the makings of a great academic fist-fight.* In a classic 1998 article, Walter Korpi and Joakim Palme wrote a hugely influential article called ‘the paradox of redistribution,’ which argued that a targeted benefit system ended up achieving redistribution than a more universal one (see here).  Now in 2013, three Belgian academics have […]

  • Truth as a disadvantage

    If you’re reading this blog, you’re likely to be someone who’s interested in ‘truth’ – finding out the evidence on inequalities, and using this as a platform for action.  You might have protested about the way that politicians and the media perpetuate inequalities by peddling ‘myths’. You may even have dedicated your whole life to […]

  • Who Gets Health Care Priority? Resource Allocation in a Middle Income Country

    Adriane Gelpi, a doctoral candidate in Health Policy at Harvard and a fellow at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, describes the intricate ethics and politics of health care resource allocation in Chile. This was originally posted on the Safra Center blog. Imagine that you are the Minister of Health for Chile, a middle-income […]

  • Should media representation of women be a feminist priority?

    Should media representation of women be a feminist priority?

    This week the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3 for short) was held in Los Angeles. This is an event the makers of computer games hold ever year to show off their wares; and every year sparks the same debate about the representation of women. This year marked the announcement of the next generation of Playstations and […]

  • Has Income Inequality Really Ballooned Since the 1970s?

    One of the most influential lines of research on income inequality come from Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez’s study of income tax records in the United States and elsewhere. Summarizing this work in Slate, Timothy Noah states: “The share of national income going to the top 1 percent (the Rich) more than doubled during the […]

  • Thatcherism, Spirituality and Public Policy

    In a guest post that takes a more reflective look than our typical, more empirically-minded writing, Owen Davis mulls over a relatively neglected side of Thatcher’s legacy. News of Margaret Thatcher’s death was received with a mixture of grief, relief and in some less tasteful cases, triumph and celebrations. My personal reaction was one of […]

  • The plight of poorly-educated US women: Trickle down isn’t happening

    I have a post on The Incidental Economist documenting the decades-long and continuing decline in life expectancy among poorly-educated white women in the US. The figure below (from J. Olshansky and colleagues) shows the sharp decline in life expectancy among white women who have not completed high school. Please read that post. Then I want […]