The Evolution of Inequality
Title | The Evolution of Inequality PDF eBook |
Author | Manus I. Midlarsky |
Publisher | Stanford University Press |
Pages | 372 |
Release | 1999 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN | 9780804741705 |
This book studies the structural inequalities between states as they evolve and influence the political process, analyzing various forms of political violence, the dissolution of states, and the sources of cooperation between states. The ultimate genesis of democracy is shown to be a consequence of the processes detailed in the book.
Improving the Measurement of Consumer Expenditures
Title | Improving the Measurement of Consumer Expenditures PDF eBook |
Author | Christopher D. Carroll |
Publisher | University of Chicago Press |
Pages | 517 |
Release | 2015-06-16 |
Genre | Business & Economics |
ISBN | 022612665X |
Robust and reliable measures of consumer expenditures are essential for analyzing aggregate economic activity and for measuring differences in household circumstances. Many countries, including the United States, are embarking on ambitious projects to redesign surveys of consumer expenditures, with the goal of better capturing economic heterogeneity. This is an appropriate time to examine the way consumer expenditures are currently measured, and the challenges and opportunities that alternative approaches might present. Improving the Measurement of Consumer Expenditures begins with a comprehensive review of current methodologies for collecting consumer expenditure data. Subsequent chapters highlight the range of different objectives that expenditure surveys may satisfy, compare the data available from consumer expenditure surveys with that available from other sources, and describe how the United States’s current survey practices compare with those in other nations.
Foragers, Farmers, and Fossil Fuels
Title | Foragers, Farmers, and Fossil Fuels PDF eBook |
Author | Ian Morris |
Publisher | Princeton University Press |
Pages | 394 |
Release | 2017-05-30 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0691175896 |
The best-selling author of Why the West Rules—for Now examines the evolution and future of human values Most people in the world today think democracy and gender equality are good, and that violence and wealth inequality are bad. But most people who lived during the 10,000 years before the nineteenth century thought just the opposite. Drawing on archaeology, anthropology, biology, and history, Ian Morris explains why. Fundamental long-term changes in values, Morris argues, are driven by the most basic force of all: energy. Humans have found three main ways to get the energy they need—from foraging, farming, and fossil fuels. Each energy source sets strict limits on what kinds of societies can succeed, and each kind of society rewards specific values. But if our fossil-fuel world favors democratic, open societies, the ongoing revolution in energy capture means that our most cherished values are very likely to turn out not to be useful any more. Foragers, Farmers, and Fossil Fuels offers a compelling new argument about the evolution of human values, one that has far-reaching implications for how we understand the past—and for what might happen next. Originating as the Tanner Lectures delivered at Princeton University, the book includes challenging responses by classicist Richard Seaford, historian of China Jonathan Spence, philosopher Christine Korsgaard, and novelist Margaret Atwood.
The Creation of Inequality
Title | The Creation of Inequality PDF eBook |
Author | Kent Flannery |
Publisher | Harvard University Press |
Pages | 646 |
Release | 2012-05-15 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0674064976 |
Flannery and Marcus demonstrate that the rise of inequality was not simply the result of population increase, food surplus, or the accumulation of valuables but resulted from conscious manipulation of the unique social logic that lies at the core of every human group. Reversing the social logic can reverse inequality, they argue, without violence.
The Great Leveler
Title | The Great Leveler PDF eBook |
Author | Walter Scheidel |
Publisher | Princeton University Press |
Pages | 525 |
Release | 2018-09-18 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0691184313 |
How only violence and catastrophes have consistently reduced inequality throughout world history Are mass violence and catastrophes the only forces that can seriously decrease economic inequality? To judge by thousands of years of history, the answer is yes. Tracing the global history of inequality from the Stone Age to today, Walter Scheidel shows that inequality never dies peacefully. Inequality declines when carnage and disaster strike and increases when peace and stability return. The Great Leveler is the first book to chart the crucial role of violent shocks in reducing inequality over the full sweep of human history around the world. Ever since humans began to farm, herd livestock, and pass on their assets to future generations, economic inequality has been a defining feature of civilization. Over thousands of years, only violent events have significantly lessened inequality. The "Four Horsemen" of leveling—mass-mobilization warfare, transformative revolutions, state collapse, and catastrophic plagues—have repeatedly destroyed the fortunes of the rich. Scheidel identifies and examines these processes, from the crises of the earliest civilizations to the cataclysmic world wars and communist revolutions of the twentieth century. Today, the violence that reduced inequality in the past seems to have diminished, and that is a good thing. But it casts serious doubt on the prospects for a more equal future. An essential contribution to the debate about inequality, The Great Leveler provides important new insights about why inequality is so persistent—and why it is unlikely to decline anytime soon.
Inequality and Development Challenges
Title | Inequality and Development Challenges PDF eBook |
Author | Maria Clara Couto Soares |
Publisher | Taylor & Francis |
Pages | 238 |
Release | 2018-10-24 |
Genre | Business & Economics |
ISBN | 1317560175 |
This series of books brings together results of an extensive research programme on aspects of the national systems of innovation (NSI) in the five BRICS countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. It provides a comprehensive and comparative examination of the challenges and opportunities faced by these dynamic and emerging economies. In discussing the impact of innovation with respect to economic, geopolitical, socio-cultural, institutional, and technological systems, it reveals the possibilities of new development paradigms for equitable and sustainable growth. This volume analyses the co-evolution of inequality and NSI across the BRICS economies. It reveals the multi-dimensional character of inequality, in going beyond its income aspect to include assets, access to basic services, infrastructure, knowledge, race, gender, ethnicity and geographic location. In advancing valuable policy recommendations, the book argues that inequalities must be factored in development strategies given that benefits of innovation are not automatically distributed equally. Original and detailed data, together with expert analyses on wide-ranging issues, make this book an invaluable resource for researchers and scholars in economics, development studies and political science, in addition to policy-makers and development practitioners interested in the BRICS countries.
Ten Thousand Years of Inequality
Title | Ten Thousand Years of Inequality PDF eBook |
Author | Timothy A. Kohler |
Publisher | University of Arizona Press |
Pages | 353 |
Release | 2018-04-17 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0816537747 |
"Field-defining research that will set the standard for understanding inequality in archaeological contexts"--Provided by publisher.