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Malcolm Fairbrother Lecturer in Global Policy and Politics School of Geographical Sciences

The Ambiguous Crisis of Global Economic Inequality: Contradictory National and International Trends? WUN Horizons in Human Geography Seminar Series November 11, 2008. Malcolm Fairbrother Lecturer in Global Policy and Politics School of Geographical Sciences University of Bristol.

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Malcolm Fairbrother Lecturer in Global Policy and Politics School of Geographical Sciences

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  1. The Ambiguous Crisis ofGlobal Economic Inequality:Contradictory National and International Trends?WUN Horizons in Human Geography Seminar SeriesNovember 11, 2008 Malcolm Fairbrother Lecturer in Global Policy and Politics School of Geographical Sciences University of Bristol

  2. Inequality: A Classic Concernin the Social Sciences • Marxism • sociology • economics • geography?

  3. Inequality:The Left-Leaning Social Science View • pessimistic about reality, optimistic about theory • the rich get richer, the poor get poorer • even worse: globalisation and neoliberalism • a growing/impending crisis of global inequality??

  4. Growing Inequality:Conservative Responses • don’t talk about it • deny it’s a problem (esp. if poverty declining) • deny it’s occurring • attribute inequality to laziness/inferiority of the poor • deny the possibility of controlling it • deny the advisability of controlling it • deny that conservative/neoliberal policies are causing it

  5. Two Types of Types of Inequality • First types: desirable things that can be distributed unevenly • health, longevity, education, mobility, political rights, status, wealth, income… • Second types: axes of social difference • ethnicity, gender, religion, citizenship status…

  6. Global Income Inequality • key decomposition (Firebaugh): • within nation inequality • one-third of global income inequality • between nation inequality • two-thirds of global income inequality

  7. Source: NBER, based on tax data

  8. Source: Nielson, Alderson, and Beckfield 2005 (from Luxembourg Income Study data)

  9. Trends in Within-Nation Income Inequality, Mid-1990s to Mid-2000s(Source: OECD 2008) large increase: Canada, Finland, Germany small increase: Austria, Denmark, Japan, Norway, Sweden, USA no change: Australia, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland small decrease: Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, UK large decrease: Mexico, Turkey

  10. Trends in Within-Nation Income Inequality, Mid-1980s to Mid-2000s(Source: OECD 2008) large increase: Finland, New Zealand small increase: Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, USA no change: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Spain, Turkey, UK small decrease: France, Ireland, Spain large decrease: [none]

  11. Trends in Between-Nation Inequality • unweighted by population? • growing (definitely) • many small, poor countries not growing • weighted by population? • shrinking (probably, a little) • heavily influenced by China and India • worldwide rate of absolute poverty declining

  12. Global Income Inequality • between nations, weighted by population: • declining (probably, a little) • within nations: • increasing (definitely, in many but not all) • overall: • hard to tell, but possibly decreasing

  13. Causes of GrowingWithin-Nation Inequality • globalisation? • skill-biased technological change? • conservative/neoliberal/other policies?

  14. Causes of (Probably) DecreasingBetween-Nation Inequality • in other words, what’s causing growth in China and India (and some other Asian economies)? • globalisation and/or neoliberalism?

  15. Consequences of GrowingWithin-Nation Inequality? • more nationalism? (Solt 2008) • more corruption? (You & Khagram 2005) • lost biodiversity? (Mikkelson et al. 2007) • worse health? (Wilkinson & Pickett 2006) • less political engagement? (Solt 2008) • less economic development? (Sokoloff & Engerman; Acemoglu and Robinson; Easterly)

  16. Consequences of Changing Between-Nation Inequality? • ??? • what if present trends continue? • do effects of global inequality parallel those of within-nation inequality? • should we be concerned about weighted or unweighted global inequality? • growing influence of international media?

  17. Final Thoughts • inequality is worsening… in some ways • probably not a crisis… yet • inequality appears to have a number of negative effects, but its full consequences are unclear • its causes are also unclear (though we have some ideas) • politics matters (even the OECD agrees)

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