Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Kanbur and Stiglitz — Rent Seeking as a Major Driver of Wealth and Income Inequality

Yves here. This post is wonky but important. While Stiglitz has written regularly about inequality as problematic from an economic perspective, and has mentioned rent seeking as a contributor, to my knowledge, this is the first time he’s said that old theories need to be tossed and that rent seeking is one of the main factors now driving wealth and income inequality.
Game-changer.

Naked Capitalism
Kanbur/Stiglitz: Rent Seeking as a Major Driver of Wealth and Income Inequality
Ravi Kanbur, T. H. Lee Professor of World Affairs, International Professor of Applied Economics and Management, Professor of Economics at Cornell University and Joseph Stiglitz, University Professor at Columbia University. Originally published at VoxEU

3 comments:

circuit said...

Stiglitz has been saying that standard, neoclassical theories (including ISLM!) should be tossed since at least the 80s. The work he's done with Bruce Greenwald is cutting edge. IMO, it should be on everyone's reading list, along with the best heterodox stuff.

circuit said...

About ISLM...Stiglitz and Greenwald have modified the LM curve (money market) for a capital market curve representing credit. Anyway, for those who are interested.

Tom Hickey said...

This makes me much more confident after the appearance of Stiglitz and Galbraith with Bernie and Stephanie.