This note is motivated by recent arguments made by Martin Feldstein in which the relevance of inequality is dismissed (if everybody's income goes up, who cares if inequality is up too?), and the argument is made that only poverty alleviation should matter. This note shows that we all do care...

Inequality between world citizens in mid-19th century was such that at least a half of it could be explained by income differences between workers and capital-owners in individual countries. Real income of workers in most countries was similar and low. This was the basis on which Marxism built...

Alle reden von Ungleichheit, seitdem der Mittelstand schrumpft und die Schere zwischen Arm und Reich gröe︢r wird. Doch stimmt das wirklich: Führt Kapitalismus zwangsläufig zu Ungleichheit? Wie müssen wir dann die Wohlstandsphase nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg verstehen? Branko Milanovic zählt...

"Is inequality largely the result of the Industrial Revolution? Or, were pre-industrial incomes and life expectancies as unequal as they are today? For want of sufficient data, these questions have not yet been answered. This paper infers inequality for 14 ancient, pre-industrial societies using...