The economics of inequality.

Abstract

This book was written and first published in 1997. It was subsequently updated for several new editions, most recently in 2014. It should be noted, however, that the overall structure has not been changed since 1997 and that the work essentially reflects the state of knowledge and data available at that time. As a consequence, this book does not fully take into account the results of the past fifteen years of international research on the historical dynamics of inequality. In particular, recent research has demonstrated that there are important historical variations in the capital-income ratios and the capital shares in national income, and not only in the concentration of capital ownership at the individual level. That is, the macroeconomic or functional distribution of national income and national wealth is substantially less stable than what I was taught in graduate school and what I report in this book. The large historical variations in top income shares also receive insufficient treatment in the present book, because the corresponding research became fully available only recently. Readers interested in a detailed account of that more recent research and the lessons that can be drawn from it are advised to consult the World Top Incomes Database (available online) and my book Capital in the Twenty-First Century (Belknap Press, 2014).