Please join the Washington Center for Equitable Growth on Tuesday, March 29 at 9:30a.m. for a presentation by Branko Milanovic on the findings of his new book, “Global Inequality: A New Approach for the Age of Globalization.”
“Global Inequality” is a comprehensive addition to the growing popular literature on inequality, expanding the scope of existing research in both time and space. Milanovic argues that inequality is historically not just an inverted-U shape, as Simon Kuznets claimed, nor a right-side-up U, as Thomas Piketty contends, but both.
The implications of Milanovic’s research for the current inequality debate pertain to the simultaneous decline of inequality between countries, as average incomes in the developing world grow rapidly, and the rise of inequality within countries, with the emergence of a global plutocracy and the stagnation or even decline of labor incomes for the middle class of developed economies. Milanovic connects all of these trends to the rise in globalization and pro-rich economic policies adopted around the world, and speculates about what sorts of forces might emerge to counteract the global trend, as they have in past periods.
Copies of “Global Inequality” will be available for purchase at the event.
Registration and breakfast: 9:00 a.m.
Presentation and discussion: 9:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
On Wednesday, March 16 at 9:30 a.m. Eastern, the Washington Center for Equitable Growth and the Economic Policy Institute will host economists David Card and Alan Krueger for a 20th anniversary discussion of their seminal work, “Myth and Measurement.”
In “Myth and Measurement,” Card and Krueger used novel empirical methods to show how minimum wage increases improve living standards without necessarily leading to job losses. Card and Krueger will discuss how their work has influenced contemporary debates over raising the minimum wage and informed the development of empirical research in economics. EPI President Lawrence Mishel and Equitable Growth Executive Director Heather Boushey will provide comments.
Please join the Washington Center for Equitable Growth for a presentation by Gabriel Zucman on the findings in his book, “Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens.”
Zucman offers an inventive and rigorous approach to quantifying how big the problem of tax havens are, how they work and are organized, and how we can begin to approach a solution. His research reveals that tax havens are quickly a growing danger to the world economy. In the past five years, the amount of wealth in tax havens has increased over twenty five percent – and there has never been as much money held offshore as there is today. Fighting the notion that any attempts to solve the tax haven problem are futile, since some countries will always offer more advantageous tax rates than others, as well as the counter-argument that after the financial crisis many countries have successfully fought tax evasion, Zucman argues that both sides are actually very wrong.
Hidden Wealth of Nations offers an ambitious agenda for reform, focused on ways in which countries can change the incentives of tax havens. The author argues that only by first understanding the extent of wealth held in secret can policymakers begin to address the problem.
Registration and breakfast: 8:30 a.m.
Presentation and panel: 9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
Watch full video of Equitable Growth 2014 Conference here.
Join the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, prominent academic leaders, and public policymakers for our 2014 conference: “Building a Strong Foundation: Understanding Whether and How Economic Inequality Affects Economic Growth.” The conference brings together top experts to debate and discuss the latest research related to economic inequality and economic growth and the implications for the U.S. workforce and future U.S. economic competitiveness.
The event will conclude with a rare opportunity to hear prominent intellectuals from across the political spectrum come together to discuss and debate the implications for the United States of Thomas Piketty’s “Capital in the Twenty-First Century.”
Over the last 30 years, economic inequality in the United States has returned to levels last seen in the 1920s. Today, the United States is in the top quarter of the world’s most unequal countries. Economic mobility—a child’s likelihood to occupy a different position on the income ladder than their parents did—has fallen well behind Canada, Britain, and other advanced economies. Inequality has worsened over the course of the economic recovery, with economists Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty finding that the top 1 percent of earners took home 95 percent of all income gains since the recession ended in 2009.
Economists have documented these changes extensively, but we need to know more about the effects, if any, of rising economic inequality on America’s overall economic growth. If, as some research suggests, worsening inequality erodes our economy’s ability to function efficiently and at full potential, we are faced with a second question: What are the best ways to promote more equitable economic growth?
The Washington Center for Equitable Growth is a new, nonpartisan organization, housed at the Center for American Progress, that will explore these important questions.
