Global inequality: a new approach for the age of globalization. By Branko Milanovic

Abstract

Inequality represents one of the greatest policy challenges of our time—something that could permanently undermine the viability of the current socio-economic model. Global inequality by Branko Milanovic, a senior scholar at the Luxembourg Income Study Center in New York, is essential reading for those wishing to gain an understanding of the deepest roots of the unequal wealth and income distribution in a historical and global context. The book begins with a simple, if stark, observation. Income inequality is rising within nations but it is declining globally. In the emerging world, the rapid process of economic convergence with the West has produced a burgeoning middle class, contributing to partly close the gap with the advanced world. At the same time, globalization and skill-biased technological change have benefited a small elite of highly qualified professionals in Europe and North America, whose remuneration has increased exponentially over the last few decades. This is the top 1 per cent that controls almost 50 per cent of global wealth.