Contemporary Economic Challenges A 5 - Income Inequality

Question 1

What are the different forms of Inequality? Both ones heavily covered by Economics and not

Answer 1

Heavily covered by Economics:
- Income
- Wealth
- Opportunity
- Gender
- Race
- Inter alia

Not much covered:
- Beauty
- Class
- Health
- Religion
- Homophobia
- Transphobia

Question 2

Describe & explain the changes in attitudes to Inequality

Answer 2

What “we” or “society” sees as acceptable inequality has changed over time. Partly this reects moral progress: e.g. in the UK it is no longer legal to
discriminate by gender or religion.
Partly this reects attitudinal changes. E.G. equality of opportunity is seen as ian
important principle today.
Likewise campaigns for gay and trans rights have made important progress in
recent decades.

Question 3

Elaborate on how Income Inequality is measured

Answer 3

There is no one (good) way to measure inequality.
Indeed there are different approaches to measuring any one form of inequality.
We are going to focus on quantitative approaches to inequality.
This has many advantages.
But, isn’t the whole story. Important, always, to listen to what people say about their experience rather than
just the statistics.
What is measured is itself a choice reecting inequalities and bias.
Other subjects often focus on less quantitative approaches.
But, important —for, example, to expose ways in which the lives of the poorest
are difficult beyond what is suggested by their consumption.
For example, the compound effects of multiple forms of deprivation. Our approach is going to be what Economists term positive .
That is, we are going to talk about what is. Not how things should be.
We can disagree about what level of CEO pay is acceptable.
Or even whether some jobs should pay more than others.
And these are important debates.
But, first we need to establish the facts