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
22
Embed
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. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
The Ambiguous Crisis ofGlobal Economic Inequality:
Contradictory National and International Trends?
WUN Horizons in Human Geography Seminar SeriesNovember 11, 2008
Malcolm FairbrotherLecturer in Global Policy and Politics
School of Geographical SciencesUniversity of Bristol
Inequality: A Classic Concernin the Social Sciences
• Marxism• sociology• economics• geography?
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??
Growing Inequality:Conservative Responses
1. don’t talk about it2. deny it’s a problem (esp. if poverty declining)3. deny it’s occurring4. attribute inequality to laziness/inferiority of the
poor5. deny the possibility of controlling it6. deny the advisability of controlling it7. deny that conservative/neoliberal policies are
causing it
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…
Global Income Inequality
• key decomposition (Firebaugh):• within nation inequality
one-third of global income inequality
• between nation inequality two-thirds of global income inequality
Source: NBER, based on tax data
Source: Nielson, Alderson, and Beckfield 2005 (from Luxembourg Income Study data)
Trends in Within-Nation Income Inequality, Mid-1990s to Mid-2000s
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?
Consequences of GrowingWithin-Nation Inequality?
1. more nationalism? (Solt 2008)2. more corruption? (You & Khagram 2005)3. lost biodiversity? (Mikkelson et al. 2007)4. worse health? (Wilkinson & Pickett 2006)5. less political engagement? (Solt 2008)6. less economic development? (Sokoloff &
Engerman; Acemoglu and Robinson; Easterly)
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?
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)