Robert Misik in conversation with Branko Milanović

VISIONS OF INEQUALITY

A sweeping and original history of how economists across two centuries have thought about inequality, told through portraits of six key figures.

“How do you see income distribution in your time, and how and why do you expect it to change?” That is the question Branko Milanović imagines posing to six of history’s most influential economists: François Quesnay, Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Karl Marx, Vilfredo Pareto, and Simon Kuznets. Probing their works in the context of their lives, he charts the evolution of thinking about inequality, showing just how much views have varied among ages and societies. Indeed, Milanović argues, we cannot speak of “inequality” as a general concept: any analysis of it is inextricably linked to a particular time and place.

Meticulously extracting each author’s view of income distribution from their often voluminous writings, Milanovic offers an invaluable genealogy of the discourse surrounding inequality. These intellectual portraits are infused not only with a deep understanding of economic theory but also with psychological nuance, reconstructing each thinker’s outlook given what was knowable to them within their historical contexts and methodologies.

Branko Milanović is Senior Scholar at the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality at the City University of New York and Visiting Professor at the International Inequalities Institute at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Formerly Lead Economist in the World Bank’s research department, he is the author of Capitalism, Alone; and The Haves and the Have-Nots.

Robert Misik, Author and Journalist