Inequality, Too Much of a Good Thing

2002

148 citations recorded by the source corpus.

As the title of this essay suggests, I believe there are both positive and negative effects of inequality. On the positive side, differential rewards provide incentives for individuals to work hard, invest and innovate. On the negative side, differences in rewards that are unrelated to productivity -- due to racial discrimination, for example -- are corrosive to civil society and cause resources to be misallocated. Even if discrimination did not exist, however, income inequality would be problematic in a democratic society if those who are privileged use their economic muscle to curry favor in the political arena and thereby secure monopoly rents or other advantages. Moreover, for several reasons discussed in the next section, poverty and income inequality create negative externalities. Consequently, it can be in the interest of the wealthy as well as the poor to raise the incomes of the poor, especially by using education and training as a means for redistribution.

Subfields: Economics and Econometrics, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/9cdfb14b15a8bbc71cab2328e733c8defa90f2a8

Citations in the corpus

• Income inequality and solidarity in Europe (2012, unknown): “We could furthermore also refer to the somewhat old-fashioned idea in sociology that a certain amount of inequality seems to be ‘normal’ or ‘necessary’ in order for the complex division of labor in modern societies to function effi ciently (Krueger, 2008; Lenski, 2008).”
• The Evidence on Credit Constraints in Post-Secondary Schooling (2002, unknown): “It is sometimes claimed that these returns are very high and therefore people are credit constrained or some other market failure is present (Krueger, 2003).”
• Multiple Inference and Gender Differences in the Effects of Early Intervention: A Reevaluation of the Abecedarian, Perry Preschool, and Early Training Projects (2008, unknown): “…movement for universal prekindergarten education (Kirp 2005) and play an important role in the debate over the optimal pattern of human capital investments, with all parties agreeing that early education is a crucial component of human capital policy (Carneiro and Heckman 2003; Krueger 2003).”
• Mathematics Learned by Young Children in an Intervention Based on Learning Trajectories: A Large-Scale Cluster Randomized Trial (2011, unknown): “From a human capital perspective, the greatest benefit is gained from interventions with the youngest children (Carneiro & Heckman, 2003; Heckman, 2003; Krueger, 2003).”
• The Non-Cognitive Returns to Class Size (2008, unknown): “Krueger (2003b), for example, asserted that a “consensus is emerging that smaller classes raise student achievement, both on average and in particular for children from low-income and minority communities” (p. 36).”