Inequality & Distribution

Economists who dismiss inequality as a problem secondary to poverty miss the point: Inequality is part of what drives poverty

“We don’t look after each other at all,” says Jeffrey Sachs on America today

This paper examines the relationship between placement of publications in Top Five (T5) journals and receipt of tenure in academic economics departments.

Getting published in a top five economics journal is a near-requirement for tenure. But it’s a poor measure of research quality within a system that punishes creativity.

The Young Scholars Initiative (YSI) is supporting the conference “Hello, Can You Hear Me? Added Value and Inequalities in a Global Market,” that will be held at La Sapienza University of Rome (Italy), on September 20th and 21st. The event is promoted by CEST and funded by the Young Scholars Initiative – INET and by the “Luigi Einaudi” Research Centre.

In Europe and the United States, stock-based compensation discourages long-term corporate sustainability

This paper adds to the empirical evidence on the extent to which stock-based pay incentivizes and rewards European corporate executives. It shows that the actual realized gains (that is, take-home compensation) from stock-based pay of CEOs in European publicly-listed firms may be underestimated by the use of “estimated fair value” measures. The paper also documents the heterogeneity among countries in terms of the levels and components of CEO take-home pay. We base our work on a sample of 301 large, publicly-traded companies listed in the S&P Europe 350 index from 11 EU countries: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom for the fiscal year 2015. Through analyzing companies’ annual reports, we have hand-collected data on various elements of compensation of the company’s CEO in 2015, including the gains that executives realize from stock-based pay. We document that on average half of the total compensation of the European CEOs in our sample is stock-based, measured by actual realized gains, with large differences among countries. Although in some European countries the majority of total compensation is stock-based, the proportions are still well below those that prevail in the

When a small group of companies can dominate a labor market, wages—and workers—suffer

Winnie Byanyima shows how we all suffer when corporations evade taxes

To understand labor productivity—and growing inequality—you have to look at the “dual economy”

“Dualism” in the structure of production across sectors of the US economy, employment by sector, productivity levels and growth, real wages, and intersectoral terms-of trade increased markedly between 1990 and 2016.

A new report examines the path to global social progress. Unfortunately, there are no easy answers

Gay men earn 20% less than straight men, but gay women earn up to 20% more than straight women. Why?

Alissa Quart’s new book chronicles the pain of a disgruntled class that could change the country’s political landscape.

Young Scholars based in Latin America are invited to convene in Buenos Aires. The event serves to strengthen the Latin American network of new economic thinkers pursuing a new economic paradigm. Attendees will be able to enjoy several partner events during the same week.