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1 - Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2013

Bikas K. Chakrabarti
Affiliation:
Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata
Anirban Chakraborti
Affiliation:
Ecole Centrale Paris
Satya R. Chakravarty
Affiliation:
Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata
Arnab Chatterjee
Affiliation:
Aalto University, Finland
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Summary

Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,

Where wealth accumulates, and men decay.

Oliver Goldsmith, Anglo-Irish writer (1730–74)

It would be difficult to find any society or country where income or wealth is equally distributed among its people. Socioeconomic inequality is not limited to modern times; it has been a persistent fact, and a constant source of irritation to most, since time immemorial.

The issue of inequality in terms of income and wealth is perhaps the most fiercely debated subject in economics. Economists and philosophers have spent much time on the normative aspects of this problem (Rawls 1971; Scruton 1985; Sen 1999; Foucault 2003). The direct and indirect effects of inequality on society have also been studied extensively. In particular, the effects of inequality on the growth of the economy (Benabou 1994; Aghion et al. 1999; Barro 1999; Forbes 2000) and on the econopolitical scenario (Blau and Blau 1982; Alesina and Rodrik 1992; Alesina and Perotti 1996; Benabou 2000) have attracted major attention. Relatively less emphasis has been put on the sources of the problem itself. There are several nontrivial issues and open questions related to this observation: How are income and wealth distributed? What are the forms of the distributions? Are they universal, or do they depend upon specific conditions of a country? Perhaps the most important question is: if inequality is universal (as some of its gross features indicate), then what is the reason for such universality?

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2013

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