Inequalities

Month: September 2013

  • Marriage and Parental Investment in Children

    Marriage ain’t what it used to be. Consider that: In 1950, almost half of all women were married by age 20 and for men the age was 23. By 2010, the median age of first marriage had increased to about 24 for women and 27 for men. More people are opting out of marriage. In […]

  • Should we get rid of corporation tax (part 2)

    In the last post I talked about why so many people endorse the idea of completely scrapping corporation tax.  To briefly reiterate the main arguments: We don’t know who mostly bears the costs of corporation tax. So if what we really want to do is tax the rich beneficiaries of corporate profits, then we’d be […]

  • California climate policy inequalities: Win-win, lose-lose, or somewhere in between?

    In 2006, California approved AB 32, a sweeping law to reduce carbon emissions that contribute to climate change. Fynnwin Prager, a researcher at the University of Southern California, examines the implications of AB 32 for economic inequality. It is often said that policies have winners and losers. AB32 – California’s landmark cap-and-trade climate policy – […]

  • A softening of attitudes?

    Yesterday, the latest British Social Attitudes report was released, and for once the story was about more positive attitudes around benefits. No more the headlines about ‘hardening’ attitudes; the headlines in the  BBC and Express talked about ‘softening attitudes’ (using the words of the official press release), or even that the ‘public’s rage against benefit claimants fades’. Given that I’ve […]

  • Should we get rid of corporation tax? (Part 1)

    It’s famously difficult to get a group of economists to agree about anything. Lock a left and right wing economist in a room and ask them to come up with the best method of taxation, or the most effective way to grow the economy, and you’d die of old age before they ever reached a […]