This week we are discussing income inequality among citizens in the world. We are reading: Milanovic, Branko. 2010. The Haves and the Have-Nots: A brief and idiosyncratic history of global inequality [Chapter 3 AND Vignettes 3.1 – 3.9]
Watch the first lecture in the Institute for New Economic Thinking’s “Inequality 101” series, where Arjun Jayadev explains the vital importance of understanding inequality in today’s world.
Lecture Posts Questions:
On the comments section below, address the following questions (answers should be at least 100 words in length and posted by Sunday – This is how participation points are assessed. Please save your comments in a safe document before attempting to post it.
From my PowerPoint presentation, what isn’t clear? Any thoughts or comments you would like to share?
From the reading what is not clear?
Given Arjun Jayadev’s lecture, what are the main takeaways? What didn’t you understand?
Lecture Post Week 5 – Income Inequality Between Countries
This week we are discussing Income Inequality Within a Country. The reading for the week is:
Milanovic, Branko. 2010. The Haves and the Have-Nots: A brief and idiosyncratic history of global inequality [Chapter 2 AND Vignettes 2.1 – 2.7]
Carefully listen to my PowerPoint Presentation, where I clarify important aspects and concepts in the reading.
Where are you in the US and Global Income distribution? You can find out HERE
You can reproduce the chart on Global versus National Income distribution for any country you like using this interactive chart at the end of the post on this site
Watch this 3min video on Karl Marx
Watch Branko Milanovic’s Lecture, where he discusses inequality between countries
Lecture Posts Questions:
On the comments section below, address the following questions (answers should be at least 100 words in length and posted by Sunday – This is how participation points are assessed. Please save your comments in a safe document before attempting to post it.
From my PowerPoint presentation, what isn’t clear?
From the reading what is not clear?
Given Milanovic’s lecture, what are the main takeaways? What didn’t you understand?
Lecture Post Week 4 – Income Inequality Within a Country
This week we are discussing Income Inequality Within a Country. The reading for the week is:
Milanovic, Branko. 2010. The Haves and the Have-Nots: A brief and idiosyncratic history of global inequality [Chapter 1: Essay I – Unequal People AND Vignettes 1.1 – 1.10]
Carefully listen to my PowerPoint Presentation, where I clarify important aspects and concepts in the reading.
Watch this 3min video on the Industrial Revolution
Watch this video that explains John Rawls’ Theory of Justice
This week there are various learning outcomes for you to check. Be sure you understood:
Why the Gini measured from disposable and gross income is different from each other
Why the Gini measured from income and consumption data is different from each other
Why researchers were so concerned about the functional distribution of income
What is the Kuznets Curve
What is the Social Welfare Function and the issue in comparing individual welfare (utility) functions
What is diminishing marginal utility
What is John Rawls’ veil of ignorance
Lecture Posts Questions:
On the comments section below, address the following questions (answers should be at least 100 words in length and posted by Sunday – This is how participation points are assessed. Please save your comments in a safe document before attempting to post it.
From my PowerPoint presentation, what isn’t clear?
From the reading what is not clear?
Given the video on the Industrial Revolution, describe the main characteristics of society before and after the Industrial Revolution
Given the video on John Rawls, what is the veil of ignorance?
Write down the country or describe the society you would like to be born in if you had no information regarding your family background or ascriptive characteristics (race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability, etc). Why?
This week we are discussing How to measure Inequality and Why Measurement Matters. The two readings for the week are:
1) Ravallion, Martin. The Debate on Globalization, Poverty and Inequality – Why Measurement Matters
2) Milanovic, Branko. 2016. Global Inequality – A New Approach for the Age of Globalization. [Introduction and Chapter 1 – pp. 1 – 45]
Before starting the readings, I recommend you careful study my PowerPoint presentation with voiceover (to see the presentation properly – listen to my explanations and see the annotations – you have to go to Slide Show mode).
After you’ve seen my Presentation, watch the video below. They nicely describe the Pen Parade using Total Household Income data from the 2012 Current Population Survey (CPS).
In the PowerPoint presentation I introduced you to the concept of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). Unlike simply considering the exchange rate for different currencies, PPP allows us to compare countries with very different income levels, taking into account the fact that with same dollar amount you can by more of certain goods in one country than the other. The Big Mac Index is a very simplified version of what the PPP does. Have a look at the video below. (On a side note, the Wikipedia Page (Wikipedia: Unusual Articles) they mention in the video is really pretty cool – the day I discovered this I spent weeks reading various random articles from there)
In our second reading for this week by Branko Milanovic, you are finally being introduced to the famous “Elephant Curve”. Be sure to watch the video carefully, it quickly and very nicely summarizes the main takeaways from this Graph.
This week there are various learning outcomes for you to check. Be sure you understood what is:
Purchasing Power Parity (PPP)
The difference between absolute and relative poverty measures
The difference between absolute and relative inequality measures
Pen Parade
Quantile Curve
Lorenz Curve
Gini Coefficient
Lecture Posts Questions:
On the comments section below, address the following questions (answers should be at least 100 words in length and posted by Sunday – This is how participation points are assessed. Please save your comments in a safe document before attempting to post it.
From my PowerPoint presentation, what isn’t clear?
Given the Information in the first video, what are the main aspects of the US Pen Parade in 2012?
After Watching the video on the elephant Curve and reading Milanovic’s Magazine article published this week, answer what are the largest changes in World Income growth given the new elephant curve?
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