The Origins of Inequality

Joseph Stiglitz, Columbia University

Joseph E. Stiglitz is an American economist and a professor at Columbia University. He is also the co-chair of the High-Level Expert Group on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress at the OECD, and the Chief Economist of the Roosevelt Institute. A recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2001) and the John Bates Clark Medal (1979), he is a former senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank and a former member and chairman of the (US president's) Council of Economic Advisers. In 2000, Stiglitz founded the Initiative for Policy Dialogue, a think tank on international development based at Columbia University. He has been a member of the Columbia faculty since 2001 and received that university's highest academic rank (university professor) in 2003.

Part I. Broader Perspectives1. A Rigged Economy and What We Can Do About It2. The Origins of Inequality, and Policies to Contain It3. Inequality and Economic Growth4. Alternative Theories of Inequality: Historical and Theoretical Perspectives5. Rewriting the Rules of the Economy and the Shaping of American Inequality6. Wealth and Income Distribution: New Theories Needed for a New Era7. Eliminating Extreme Inequality: A Sustainable Development GoalPart II. The Basic Theory8. Distribution of Income and Wealth Among Individuals9. Intergenerational Transfers and Inequality10. Explaining the New Stylized Facts of Growth and Distribution11. Generalizing the Basic Model: Inequalities in Equilibrium Wealth Among Individuals with Heterogeneous Abilities and General Intertemporal Preferences12. Equilibrium Income and Wealth Distributions: Balancing Centrifugal and Centripetal forces13. The Role of Life Cycle Savings vs. Inherited Savings14. The Role of Land and Credit in Creating Wealth Inequality15. The Role of Credit and the Financial System in Creating Wealth Inequality16. Monopoly, Rents, and Political Equilibrium17. Distribution and Innovation (or inequality and innovation)18. The Future of Inequality: Artificial Intelligence, Worker-Replacing Technological Progress and Income Distribution19. Pareto Efficient Taxation and Expenditures: Pre- and Re-distributionPart III. Earlier Contributions20. Some Further Results on the Measurement of Inequality21. Simple Formulae for the Measurement of Inequality and the Optimal Linear Income Tax22. Dynastic Inequality, Mobility and Equality of Opportunity23. Reflections on Mobility and Social Justice, Economic Efficiency, and Individual Responsibility24. Remarks on Inequality, Agency Costs, and Economic Efficiency25. Credit Rationing, Tenancy, Productivity and the Dynamics of Inequality26. Landlords, Tenants and Technological Innovations27. Inequality and Growth28. A Two-Sector, Two Class Model of Economic Growth29. Capital, Wages and Structural Unemployment30. Inequality and the Business Cycle31. Macroeconomic Fluctuations, Inequality, and Growth32. Notes on Estate Taxes, Redistribution and the Concept of Balanced Growth Path Incidence33. Equality, Taxation, and Inheritance34. Approaches to the Economics of Discrimination35. Theories of Discrimination and Economic Policy36. Inequality and Taxation37. The Welfare State in the Twenty First Century