Inequality matters

Why Status Matters for Inequality

To understand the mechanisms behind social inequality, this address argues that we need to more thoroughly incorporate the effects of status—inequality based on differences in esteem and respect—alongside those based on resources and power. As a micro motive for behavior, status is as significant as money and power. At a macro level, status stabilizes resource and power inequality by transformi...

Why Inequality Matters for Poverty - ODI Inequality Briefings 2

After around twenty years of neglect, inequality has been brought out of the cold. Inequality has re-entered the mainstream development policy agenda by featuring prominently in the World Bank’s World Development Report 2000/01. Inequality matters in its own right (see Inequality Briefing No 1) and it is key to reducing poverty. This paper draws on recent research to explore in what ways inequa...

Math Matters: Education Choices and Wage Inequality

SBTC is a powerful mechanism in explaining the increasing gap between educated and uneducated wages. However, SBTC cannot mimic the US within-group wage inequality. This paper provides an explanation for the observed intra-college group inequality by showing that the top decile earners’ significant wage growth is underpinned by the link between ex ante ability, math-heavy college majors and hig...

Inequality and Growth: Why Differential Fertility Matters

We develop a new theoretical link between inequality and growth. In our model, fertility and education decisions are interdependent. Poor parents decide to have many children and invest little in education. A mean-preserving spread in the income distribution increases the fertility differential between the rich and the poor, which implies that more weight gets placed on families who provide lit...

Age Matters: Class, Family Formation, and Inequality