Download This PaperWhy We All Do Care About Inequality (But are Loath to Admit it)
10 Pages Posted: 21 Apr 2004
Abstract
This note is motivated by recent arguments made by Martin Feldstein in which the relevance of inequality is dismissed (if everybody's income goes up, who cares if inequality is up too?), and the argument is made that only poverty alleviation should matter. This note shows that we all do care about inequality, and to hold that we should be concerned with poverty solely and not with inequality is internally inconsistent.
Keywords: inequality, poverty
JEL Classification: D63, D64, D30
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
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