Inequality and Economic Policy Essays In Honor of Gary Becker

Drawing from a 2014 Hoover Institution Conference on Inequality in honor of Gary Becker, a group of distinguished contributors explore various measures of inequality in America and address the issue of whether or not it is increasing. In looking at this question and examining policy implications, the authors draw on research on human capital and intergenerational mobility. The authors suggest that the emphasis on inequality and redistribution, while not wrong, is nevertheless misplaced, for it may lead us to adopt policies that will disrupt the progress we have made while doing nothing to promote the kind of growth that is essential to national progress.

Tom Church is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. He studies income inequality, poverty, health care policy, entitlement reform, and immigration reform. Chris Miller is a research associate at the Hoover Institution, where he studies inequality, mobility, labor markets, and economy policy. John B. Taylor is the George P. Shultz Senior Fellow in Economics at the Hoover Institution and the Mary and Robert Raymond Professor of Economics at Stanford University. He chairs the Hoover Working Group on Economic Policy.