It's nearly impossible to read the news these days without running across mentions of economic inequality. In recent months, politicians have debated the merits of raising marginal tax rates on the wealthy, a move proponents say could reduce economic inequalities. Likewise, economic inequality takes center stage when columnists discuss the extreme riches of some of today's business
Conventional seat belts do not fit pregnant women properly and motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of fetal death related to maternal trauma. Analyses of sex differences have led to the development of pregnant crash test dummies that enhance safety in automobile testing and design. In medicine, osteoporosis has been conceptualized primarily as a
In 2008, economist Harry Holzer estimated that child poverty was costing the United States more than $500 billion annually, because of increased health-care costs and criminal-justice expenditures, along with lost economic productivity when children in poverty reach adulthood. No one disputed the findings, but there was no groundswell of support for a legislative response, either. In
Market concentration, the economist’s term for how much an industry is dominated by one or a few firms, touches ever more aspects of American life. From the obvious (the Amazons and Walmarts of the retail economy) to the obscure (the beer industry, which may appear diverse, is dominated by two firms), market concentration has increased
The 2018 Environmental Performance Indicators and the 2018 Global Climate Risk Index together make a distressing argument: that India’s ‘environmental performance’ is the third worst among 180 countries even as it is the 14th most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Many of these effects have already assailed different parts of the country, including heavy rains,
Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates said Sunday that excellent basic health care that would prevent easily treatable but deadly conditions was achievable even in Africa’s poorest nations. “The good news about health is that by spending modest amounts on the prioritized areas, you can get phenomenal benefits,” he told AFP on the sidelines of the African
We are in an era of progress paradoxes. Unprecedented gains in technological innovation, poverty reduction, and life expectancy around the world coexist with persistent poverty traps in the poorest countries and increasing inequality and anomie in some of the wealthiest ones. In the U.S., one of the wealthiest countries, we see booming stock markets and
A growing body of research documents the importance of studying households in the top one percent of U.S. income distribution because they control enormous resources. However, little is known about whose income—men’s or women’s—is primarily responsible for pushing households into the one percent and whether women have individual pathways to earning one percent status based
Children are not only our most precious possession but also our most fragile. This may not seem correct: we are reminded constantly of the indomitable human spirit, of children rising from great poverty and hardship to the greatest heights of success. Such examples warm our hearts and yet mislead our judgment. Countless children suffer lifetimes
This viral tweet from the Spectator Index (which is in no way linked to the Spectator magazine) ranks the poverty rate of a number of different countries in Europe. But it’s incorrect to suggest that the UK’s poverty rate is higher than other European countries like Spain, Greece, and Italy as the tweet does. That’s
World Bank data indicates that global poverty rate is declining. But in sub-Saharan Africa, the number of those living in extreme poverty keeps rising. The Nigerian Sustainability Business Principles (NSBP), which was established to reverse the trend and bring better life to Africans, has brought stakeholders in the financial sector together to enhance economic growth
The United States is divided by wealth and social class, and the gap is widening. In 1980, according to the World Inequality Report, the richest 10% of the population held just under 35% of national income; by 2016, that share had risen to around 47%. As wealth disparities have widened, so have differences in outcomes.
Joseph Stiglitz at Columbia University reminded us in the Scientific American this month that just three Americans – Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett – account for more wealth than the entire poor half of the US population. As I watched the six pallbearers bringing Walter Kwok Ping-sheung’s coffin out of St John’s Cathedral last Thursday,
The stock market continues to be one of President Donald Trump’s favorite indicators of the country’s health as stocks continue to hit all-time highs. But a shrinking share of Americans are getting rich off the market’s dizzying rise, according to a new analysis. The top 10% of American households, as defined by total wealth, now
Investors are increasingly aware of the system-level effects of their investments. In a previous post I have written about how the very large asset owners and asset managers have to consider whether their investments are making a positive or negative contribution to the financial, environmental, and social systems that support human life on Earth. Sudden shocks (e.g.,
Economic inequality isn’t just an academic idea, as the recent wave of populist voting has made clear. But a new report suggests that worsening inequality in the U.S. could have financial repercussions for the country. That report, out in early October from the credit-ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service, is called “Government of the United States:
Conventionally, economists use gross domestic product (GDP) to estimate the sustainability of the economy and the quality of societal welfare. However, this approach is not only incorrect and logically flawed, but also in gross neglect of nature's contribution to the society. GDP measures the performance and level of economic activities though the market value of
Mumbai’s startling inequality presents itself in a variety of ways. It is visible when driving down the busy roads and from the windows of its suburban trains—swanky high-rises often stand in proximity to a sprawling network of shanties. But the clearest view of the disparity comes from up in the sky. It was from this
For millions of Americans Social Security represents an economic safety net. Yet recent research shows its benefits are tilting more and more in favor of the wealthiest retirees. And it’s due to how long we live. According to new analysis from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, big gains in life expectancy among the
“We are suffering not from the rheumatics of old age, but…from the painfulness of readjustment between one economic period and another.” John Maynard Keynes, Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren, 1930 As the quote from John Maynard Keynes reminds us, this is not the first time the economy has faced upheaval. Keynes wrote at the beginning of the
