{"title":"CAPITAL AND INEQUALITY","authors":"James A. Mirrlees","doi":"10.1111/coep.12181","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Wealth inequality comes about mainly as a result of lifetime accumulation of capital and risky investment. Evidence from the Forbes Rich Lists show that in recent years volatility of the wealth of the richest has been very great. Randomness of returns to capital can explain a substantial part of global wealth inequality. As a consequence, inequality can best be reduced by a tax on returns to capital in excess of a normal rate of return, in addition to tax on labor earnings. (<i>JEL</i> D31)</p>\n </div>","PeriodicalId":47364,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Economic Policy","volume":"34 3","pages":"399-402"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9000,"publicationDate":"2016-05-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/coep.12181","citationCount":"4","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Contemporary Economic Policy","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/coep.12181","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 4
Abstract
Wealth inequality comes about mainly as a result of lifetime accumulation of capital and risky investment. Evidence from the Forbes Rich Lists show that in recent years volatility of the wealth of the richest has been very great. Randomness of returns to capital can explain a substantial part of global wealth inequality. As a consequence, inequality can best be reduced by a tax on returns to capital in excess of a normal rate of return, in addition to tax on labor earnings. (JEL D31)
期刊介绍:
Contemporary Economic Policy publishes scholarly economic research and analysis on issues of vital concern to business, government, and other decision makers. Leading western scholars, including three Nobel laureates, are among CEP"s authors. The objectives are to communicate results of high quality economic analysis to policymakers, focus high quality research and analysis on current policy issues of widespread concern, increase knowledge among economists of features of the economy key to understanding the impact of policy, and to advance methods of policy analysis.