The New Economics of Inequality and Redistribution

Samuel Bowles heads the Behavioral Sciences Program at the Santa Fe Institute. He previously taught economics at Harvard University, the University of Massachusetts and the University of Siena. He is the author, most recently, of Microeconomics: Behavior, Institutions, and Evolution (2004), A Cooperative Species: Human Reciprocity and its Evolution (2011, with Herbert Gintis) and articles in Science, Nature, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Journal of Public Economics and other academic journals. He has also served as an economic advisor to presidential candidates Robert F. Kennedy and Jesse Jackson, and former South African President Nelson Mandela and has taught crash courses in economics to trade unionists, community activists and others.

• List of figures; List of tables; Preface; 1. The new economics of inequality and redistribution; 2. The economic cost of wealth inequality; 3. Feasible egalitarianism in a competitive world; 4. Cosmopolitans, parochials and the politics of social insurance; 5. Altruism, reciprocity, and the politics of egalitarian redistribution; 6. Conclusion; Appendices; Works cited; Index.

'Over the past forty years, the gap between rich and poor has widened dramatically in many industrialised countries, and what Americans call the 'middle class' has shrunk. Samuel Bowles argues that, quite apart from its moral dimension, such inequality is economically inefficient. It leads to excessive expenditure on the enforcement of property rights and on crime prevention. It also reduces labour productivity. He argues that a redistribution of income and wealth would increase productivity and encourage entrepreneurship amongst social strata that are currently locked out of credit markets. These stimulating essays are a valuable contribution to the current debate about equality.' Robert Rowthorn, Emeritus Professor of Economics, University of Cambridge