Economics Stack Exchange
Economics Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [inequality]

Differences in resource allocations or opportunities that arise within or between countries.

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If women are paid less for the same work, why don't employers hire just women?

If women are paid less for the same work, why don't employers hire just women? Do employers decide to lose profits just out of sexism, in feminists' and researchers' opinion? It doesn't make sense to me. In the free and competitive market, if people…
Sergey Zolotarev
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How do Gini coefficients correlate with the cost of higher education?

Are there any studies that explore the higher net present value (NPV) of education in countries with higher Gini coefficients? Additionally, do any of these studies include the impacts of economic mobility as a reducing factor of the NPV or price of…
Jason Nichols
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Why are real median household incomes stagnant?

This image shows US real median household income. It seems remarkable for its lack of growth over the last 20 years. This has been the subject of much political debate (around the "1%" and "occupy Wall Street" movements, etc.) but I am interested…
Ubiquitous
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Why do many occupations show a gender bias?

Yesterday we had a question about the alleged underpayment of women in work, asking why employers would hire fewer cheaper female workers and would instead hire a larger number of expensive male workers. A large amount of discussion ensued. I'd like…
Steve
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Is the Occupy Wall Street famous 1% stable?

Occupy Wall Street has a famous slogan "we are the 99%", refering to the "fact" that 1% of the people in the US take nearly the quarter of the national income. However, this does not seem to consider that many people with extreme incomes have very…
Cass
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How does everyone not become poor over time?

Look at the whole world --the union of all goods and services and workers and customers. Everyone who is a customer is a worker somewhere (they had to get the money to be a customer somehow). But not all revenue goes toward worker wages--some goes…
DeeDee
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Where can I find data on income and social mobility over time? How far back is data available?

I'm interested in income and social mobility. I understand that Piketty's research deals with the the distribution of income over a long time period. I have also seen some of Chetty and Saez's research concerning income and social mobility in the…
jmbejara
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Does economic theory support the notion that the wealth of the wealthy is based on the poverty of the poor?

Almost any discussion about poverty and wealth and income inequality at some point includes arguments based on the premise that the wealth of the wealthy is causally related to the poverty of the poor; more specifically, there often seems to be a…
Constantin
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Causes of income inequality in the US

I read an article in BusinessWeek that talked about income inequality in the US. The article attributed the difference to the Intel chip that came in 1971. Since that time big hi-tech companies have grown in US, which caused income growth among…
XWorm
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Has the world become poorer?

This question is not backed by serious economic research but mainly by a very simple attempt to look at how the world economy has changed. I am asking whether and why the world has, over the past 50 or so years, become less productive (not used in…
fishlein
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Piketty's Return on Capital

How exactly does Piketty et al's method (as in his book) for computing the interest rate over time and countries work? I know that they use reported tax returns, and that some criticize them for also using increase in housing values even if…
FooBar
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Differing Inflation Rates for Separate Income Groups; Literature?

So here's a few ideas that have been floating around my head since undergraduate university. It seems that money owned by the highest net wealth owners is always moving around and making a return, but only in markets that don't particularly affect…
Kitsune Cavalry
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How is money created?

This might seem like a really simple question, but I am really troubled by it on a macro scale. The money has to come from somewhere. Someone might start up a business that creates things or takes things from the Earth. You could say this is…
Josiah Savoie
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Reconciling low wages with high technology and high education

This is one example of many recent doom storied prognosticating that the "millennial" generation will be the first in (recent) history to experience lower incomes than their predecessors—at least in western societies like the UK. How can we…
Ubiquitous
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Is inequality increasing? Does it correspond to increasing social harm?

I have a series of related questions. My understanding is. Economic wealth (ie. GDP) per capita is increasing around the world. We can refer to this as 'the pie is getting bigger'. At the same time, inequality (the distribution of the pie) is…
dwjohnston
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