This chapter reviews the existing theories of persistent inequality across generations. The chapter discusses total economic inequality both in wealth and in earnings and focuses on the intergenerational mobility dimension of total inequality. The chapter presents a nonexhaustive, nontechnical...

The main driver of inequality—returns on capital that exceed the rate of economic growth—is again threatening to generate extreme discontent and undermine democratic values. Thomas Piketty’s findings in this ambitious, original, rigorous work will transform debate and set the agenda for...