Branko Milanović: VISIONS OF INEQUALITY

Robert Misik in conversation with Branko Milanović





VISIONS OF INEQUALITY





A sweeping and original history of how economists across two
centuries have thought about inequality, told through portraits
of six key figures.


 


“How do you see income distribution in your time, and how and why
do you expect it to change?” That is the question Branko
Milanović imagines posing to six of history’s most influential
economists: François Quesnay, Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Karl
Marx, Vilfredo Pareto, and Simon Kuznets. Probing their works in
the context of their lives, he charts the evolution of thinking
about inequality, showing just how much views have varied among
ages and societies. Indeed, Milanović argues, we cannot speak of
“inequality” as a general concept: any analysis of it is
inextricably linked to a particular time and place.





Meticulously extracting each author’s view of income distribution
from their often voluminous writings, Milanovic offers an
invaluable genealogy of the discourse surrounding inequality.
These intellectual portraits are infused not only with a deep
understanding of economic theory but also with psychological
nuance, reconstructing each thinker’s outlook given what was
knowable to them within their historical contexts and
methodologies.





Branko Milanović is Senior Scholar at the Stone
Center on Socio-Economic Inequality at the City University of New
York and Visiting Professor at the International Inequalities
Institute at the London School of Economics and Political
Science. Formerly Lead Economist in the World Bank’s research
department, he is the author of Capitalism, Alone;
and The Haves and the Have-Nots.





Robert Misik, Author and Journalist