What to do about the Persistence of Inequality?

Abstract

The focus of this paper is income inequality and, more pointedly, its persistence throughout generations. In the spirit of Atkinson (2014, 2015) and Roemer (1998), we take a normative stand and make concrete proposals to combat the persistence of inequality. In the view presented here, those inequalities derive, to an important extent, from inequalities in opportunities, themselves arising from “abnormal” differences in human capital endowments. The proposal developed in the paper relies on financial markets to complement extant government transfer programs and open universal access to services required for the formation of human capital.

Keywords

• inequality
• human capital
• microeconomic