Proceedings of the Conference on Inequality in Memory of Gary Becker held September 25-26, 2014 at the Hoover Institution.

Chapter one determines the properties of the optimal tax function when there is rent-seeking in the labor market. Rent-seeking in the labor market refers to unproductive effort expended in order to increase compensation. With rent-seeking effort expended by high skill workers, low skill workers face reduced wages because firms, in a competitive market, face a zero profits condition. Firms are able to respond to rent-seeking by increasing the number of high skill workers hired, reducing their productivity and wages. The government's optimal tax function increases marginal and average taxes on high skill workers. While low skill workers face lower marginal and average tax rates. The government, therefore, wishes to redistribute income primarily through post-tax income rather than through manipulating the distribution of pre-tax income. Chapter two looks at the effect of both intensive and extensive margin labor supply on the optimal tax function. The model combines a static search labor market model with a classical labor supply model. By combining these two models, the optimal tax function will balance incentives for working more hours and incentives for searching for work. The tax function provides insight into how the government should balance redistribution and efficiency when workers can potentially be unemployed for long periods of time. The resulting tax function increases the marginal tax rate over the model. This increase is due to the government's ability to decrease the wages of workers which increases the general equilibrium probability of employment for workers. Chapter three investigates the effect of uneven internal migration by skill on the income inequality in local labor markets. Migrant moving within the US are more educated than workers who stay in their local labor market. We would expect to see income inequality to decrease in locations that experience more migration. However, we don't see this effect. Chapter one investigates this phenomenon using data from the American Community Survey (ACS). The ACS records information on income, education, and migration patterns and is a yearly representative sample of the US population. To causally estimate the effect of differing rates of migration by skill, a shift-share instrument is constructed. This instrument creates a predicted amount of migration based on historical migration patterns. The instrument seems to work well and does not appear to correlated with labor demand shocks. The main results are that income inequality increases when there are more college educated workers moving than non-college educated workers.

Drawing from a 2014 Hoover Institution Conference on Inequality in honor of Gary Becker, a group of distinguished contributors explore various measures of inequality in America and address the issue of whether or not it is increasing. In looking at this question and examining policy implications, the authors draw on research on human capital and intergenerational mobility. The authors suggest that the emphasis on inequality and redistribution, while not wrong, is nevertheless misplaced, for it may lead us to adopt policies that will disrupt the progress we have made while doing nothing to promote the kind of growth that is essential to national progress.

This collection of essays honors a remarkable man and his work. Erik Thorbecke has made significant contributions to the microeconomic and the macroeconomic analysis of poverty, inequality and development, ranging from theory to empirics and policy. The essays in this volume display the same range. As a collection they make the fundamental point that deep understanding of these phenomena requires both the micro and the macro perspectives together, utilizing the strengths of each but also the special insights that come when the two are linked together. After an overview section which contains the introductory chapter and a chapter examining the historical roots of Erik Thorbecke's motivations, the essays in this volume are grouped into four parts, each part identifying a major strand of Erik's work—Measurement of Poverty and Inequality, Micro Behavior and Market Failure, SAMs and CGEs, and Institutions and Development. The range of topics covered in the essays, written by leading authorities in their own areas, highlight the extraordinary depth and breadth of Erik Thorbecke's influence in research and policy on poverty, inequality and development. Acknowledgements These papers were presented at a conference in honor of Erik Thorbecke held at Cornell University on October 10-11, 2003. The conference was supported by the funds of the H. E. Babcock Chair in Food, Nutrition and Public Policy, and the T. H. Lee Chair in World Affairs at Cornell University.

This is a collection of essays from leading public intellectuals that identifies major conceptual problems in the analysis of poverty and inequality and advances strategies for reducing poverty and inequality that are consistent with these new conceptual and methodological approaches.

This book offers a collection of original, state-of-the-art essays addressing various aspects of the economic analysis of inequality, deprivation, poverty measurement and social polarization, at both the theoretical and empirical level. Written by leading authorities in the fields of distributional analysis and normative economics, the respective chapters present detailed overviews of cutting-edge literature, as well as stand-alone research. Compiled as a tribute to Satya Ranjan Chakravarty’s lifetime contributions in the fields of normative economics and distributional analysis, it represents an indispensable resource for researchers, policymakers and doctoral students working on issues pertaining to income/wealth distribution, social inclusion and poverty reduction.