Economic Inequality, Pareto, and Sociology: The Route Not Taken

Economist and sociologist Vilfredo Pareto (1848–1923) developed a general theory of social inequality inspired by his discovery of similarities in the shape of the income distribution across societies. Pareto’s approach is characterized by (1) a focus on individual, continuous income variation rather than discrete classes; (2) attention paid to the entire socio-economic distribution rather than summary statistics; (3) an emphasis on social heterogeneity (labor supply) rather than a view of social structure as a collection of empty places (labor demand); and (4) a conception of the inequality structure – and movements of individuals within it – as resulting from the distribution of human abilities interacting with a structure of opportunities (i.e., a structure of social selection). Pareto’s vision -part of the common patrimony of economics and sociology -foreshadows emergent approaches to socio-economic inequality.