Dear colleagues,
The Department of Economics cordially invites you to the WU Economic Research Seminar (Department Seminar) on
Wednesday, January 23, with
Andreas Peichl
(LMU München & IFO)
on
"Measuring Unfair Inequality: Reconciling Equality of Opportunity and Freedom from Poverty"
Abstract: Rising income inequalities are widely debated in public and academic discourse. In this paper, we contribute to this debate
by proposing a new family of measures of unfair inequality. To do so, we acknowledge that inequality is not bad per se, but that its underlying sources need to be taken into account. Thereby, this paper is the first to reconcile two prominent fairness principles,
namely equality of opportunity and freedom from poverty, into a joint measure of unfair inequality. Two empirical applications provide important new insights on the development of unfair inequality both over time (in the US) and across countries (in Europe).
First, unfair inequality shows different time trends and country rankings compared to total inequality. Second, average unfair inequality doubles when complementing the ideal of an equal opportunity society with poverty aversion. Furthermore, we show that
an exclusive focus on top incomes may misguide fairness judgments.
Time and place:
Wednesday, January 23, 4.30
– 6.00
p.m., Campus WU, Welthandelsplatz 1, 1020 Vienna, building D4, entrance A, 2nd floor,
Department meeting room 2.008.
With best regards,
Harald Oberhofer
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Univ.-Prof. Dr. Harald Oberhofer
Institute for International Economics
WU Vienna University of Economics and Business
Phone: +43/1/31336-4984
Fax: +43/1/31336-4984
Email:
harald.oberhofer@wu.ac.at
Webpage:
https://www.wu.ac.at/ie/mitarbeiter/harald-oberhofer/
Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO)
Phone: +43/1/7982601-468
Fax: +43/1/7989386
Email:
harald.oberhofer@wifo.ac.at
Webpage:
http://www.wifo.ac.at/harald_oberhofer