6 hour course by Branko Milanovic (City University of New York)

• Schedule: 21, 22 & 23 June (15:00 - 17:00)

The central subject of the course is income inequality. Inequality has become a much more important topic in the press, social networks and academic publications over the last three or four years. This resurgence of interest is particularly striking in the United States where, because of the ideological dominance of the Chicago school of economics, the topic was considered irrelevant and “soft.” It was thought that only people mistrustful of markets or personally envious would care about inequality. Growth would ultimately improve everybody’s standard of living.

The course is divided into three parts. The first part is introductory. It discusses the methodology used in the work on inequality and the data sources. The second part reviews the most important theories of personal income distribution. The third part revise the political implications and world regional evidences.