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Anthony B. Atkinson was a Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford, and Centennial Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Tony Atkinson, in many ways the father of modern inequality
research, has [written] a terrific new book.
*New York Times*
[Atkinson] does not mind speaking uncomfortable truths. Among them:
that the comfort and opportunity provided by wealth matter just as
much as the consumption that wealth affords; that holding down a
job may not be enough to provide most workers with a standard of
living that keeps up with economic growth; and that economic power
helps protect itself in subtle and pervasive ways which might well
demand an interventionist government response. Sir Anthony’s answer
might not be the right one. But if his book reminds the reader how
far out of fashion the policies of the post-war decades have
fallen, it also conveys how skewed the economy of today might look
to an observer from the not so distant past—or, perhaps, from the
not so distant future.
*The Economist*
Like it or loathe it, this is ambitious stuff.
*Financial Times*
Atkinson’s book is magisterial. It is the definitive analysis of
inequality in Britain and how to reduce it, as viewed through the
standard professional economics prism of Utilitarianism. While
grounded in sophisticated theory and state-of-the-art quantitative
evidence, the book carries through to specific policy
recommendations on standard matters such as tax rates, benefits and
tax reliefs.
*Times Literary Supplement*
Provides us with the broad outlines of a new radical reformism…
[Atkinson] sets forth a list of concrete, innovative, and
persuasive proposals meant to show that alternatives still exist,
that the battle for social progress and equality must reclaim its
legitimacy, here and now… Witty, elegant, profound, this book
should be read: it brings us the finest blend of what political
economy and British progressivism have to offer… This is a book
written by an optimist and a citizen of the United Kingdom, Europe,
and the world: the broad sense it conveys of a more just economy is
one of its many appealing qualities. It will stand as a model
whatever the outcome of one election or another.
*New York Review of Books*
Atkinson is a first-rate economist who long ago mastered the
orthodoxy, and so is well-placed to take it to bits. Patiently, he
explains why excessive profits may not be competed away, and why
laissez-faire cannot be relied on to get the most out of every
resource… Atkinson also has a keen sense of history. He explains
how anti-trust laws in the U.S., nowadays narrowly justified in
efficiency terms, were originally born out of concerns about
fairness. He highlights, too, how the course of industrial
technology has often been set by the planners’ guiding hand. All
this helps him break out of the frighteningly narrow terrain that
economists concede to public policy.
*The Guardian*
Though it has not attracted the celebrity attention, in many
respects Atkinson’s [Inequality] is more important than Thomas
Piketty’s pathbreaking Capital in the Twenty-First Century, and is
the perfect sequel. Where Piketty explained the tendency of wealth
and income to concentrate, Atkinson digs deeper into what drove
this shift and why conventional remedies will not reverse the
trends. He has a far surer grasp than Piketty of the political
dynamics that made possible the anomalous egalitarian era of the 30
glorious years after World War II.
*American Prospect*
Atkinson knows his stuff. He understands arguments used by free
marketeers (largely successfully) to marginalize inequality as a
front-and-center issue… This is why Atkinson devotes much space in
Inequality to rebutting these arguments and asserting that tackling
the rich–poor divide should, and can, be a priority… By presenting
a strategic combination of new and established ideas, Atkinson
shows why addressing the growing pervasiveness of inequality in the
twenty-first century requires a sustained attack on many fronts. It
also requires seeing economics not just as a debate about numbers
but as a debate about people… Atkinson shows what might be possible
if we stretch our collective imagination and focus on innovative
ways to address what is emerging as the defining issue of our
time.
*Australian Book Review*
One of the world’s leading economists, mentor of Piketty and
associate of Stiglitz, has written this accessible overview of why
inequality matters, and why we need a series of urgent policies to
tackle it. You don’t need to be an economist to appreciate this
impressive synthesis of his life’s thinking and work.
*Big Issue*
Inequality is a real accomplishment. It represents the first
comprehensive, realistic, and detailed proposal for countering
growing economic inequality—and it’s done not by some energetic
graduate student but by a seasoned economist who’s been working on
these issues for more than forty years.
*Commonweal*
Atkinson has done a very good job by making suggestions that are
actually being professed, albeit hesitantly, by governments. By
taking head-on the basic apprehensions of doing so, he shows that
if we do not employ these solutions, we are probably making excuses
and do not want to shake the present equilibrium due to vested
interests. For one who agrees with Piketty, this book will get a
big nod, and for those who are not sure, it should probably remove
some doubt.
*Financial Express*
[An] important contribution… Those who desire a thought-provoking
guide to policy options [to address inequality] in advanced
countries should grapple with Atkinson’s work.
*Financial Times*
The best of the new crop of books [on income inequality] is Anthony
B. Atkinson’s Inequality: What Is to Be Done? Not unrelatedly, it
is also the most solutions-oriented.
*Globe and Mail*
Atkinson is a pioneer of the study of the economics of poverty and
inequality. His latest work, Inequality: What Can Be Done?, is an
uncomfortable affront to our reigning triumphalists. His premise is
straightforward: inequality is not unavoidable, a fact of life like
the weather, but the product of conscious human behavior.
*The Guardian*
Inequality: What Can Be Done?, is an effort to keep the issue of
inequality on the agenda of politicians, economists, and citizens
alike… [It] is explicitly solutions-oriented… The book offers a
number of original policy suggestions… [Atkinson’s] mastery of
detail and comfort with costings mean that his proposals seem not
only imaginative but also practically feasible… Inequality is now
an issue that political parties, on all parts of the ideological
spectrum, cannot dismiss. And that is partly because of the work of
academics such as Thomas Piketty and Anthony Atkinson… The books by
Piketty and Atkinson have prompted renewed attention to matters of
economic distribution, and have strengthened a public movement that
has put pressure on governments to tackle inequality… Atkinson’s
Inequality: What Can Be Done? deserves credit for contributing
considerable intellectual resources to that important struggle.
*New Statesman*
Atkinson thinks that the division between inequality of outcome and
inequality of opportunity is largely false. He believes that
tackling inequality of outcome is a very good way to tackle
inequality of opportunity. (If you help a grownup get a job, her
kids will have a better chance of climbing out of poverty, too.)
Above all, he disagrees with the widespread assumption that
technological progress and globalization are responsible for
growing inequality. That assumption, he argues, is wrong and also
dangerous, because it encourages the belief that growing inequality
is inevitable.
*New Yorker*
There have been countless books on inequality in the recent
past—some arguing that it is a pressing problem and others arguing
that it is not—but Atkinson’s stands above the crowded field. By
pairing quantitative economic analysis with a clear moral argument,
he provides lay readers with a bracing and accessible guide to the
current inequality debates… Atkinson’s book represents the best
case an economist can make on these issues… The fact that we even
understand inequality as a real problem with nuanced constraints is
something we owe to Atkinson, who helped make it the serious focus
of inquiry it is today. This book is a forceful summary of that
body of work, and stands as the best introduction to the concerns
that will hang over all of our discussions of the economy in the
21st century.
*Pacific Standard*
Inequality has replaced house prices as a fashionable topic for
discussion. But anyone looking for a serious treatment of the
problem, rather than just a dinner party conversation, should turn
to [this] book by [an] eminent economist who [has] made the study
of inequality [his] life’s work… [Inequality] sets out a range of
policies for bringing about a significant reduction in
inequality.
*Prospect*
When he publishes a book, one should pay attention: Atkinson is the
best expert on the topic of inequality, mastering the theory and
the empirics as well as the relevant politics… This is a book that
all concerned with growing inequalities and interested in policy
ideas should read. Its general philosophy is that it is not easy to
delineate the contours of a ‘just society’ and perhaps illusory to
set out to achieve it, but that it is definitely possible to
determine a direction of improvement and to find levers that can
realistically move us in the right direction. It aims at
stimulating and enriching the policy debate, and there is no doubt
that it will.
*Science*
When a giant among UK economists such as Sir Tony Atkinson
publishes a book in which he gives prescriptions based on the work
of a lifetime, it deserves to be taken very seriously indeed… The
work is rich in ideas and practical proposals.
*Standpoint*
Atkinson takes a position that is in some ways more radical than
Piketty… It will surely influence debate as the presidential
campaign heats up… Atkinson has researched inequality and poverty
for nearly 40 years, using rigorous quantitative analysis to assess
the impact of tax rates and other 6policy measures on inequality
and growth. [Inequality] focuses on the United Kingdom, but it’s
easy to extrapolate his ideas to the U.S.… His book will embolden
those who are tired of nibbling at the edges of the problem and
skeptical of the argument that rising inequality is the inevitable
result of globalization and technical advance. It should stimulate
creative and bold thinking as the presidential candidates put their
proposals before the public.
*U.S. News & World Report*
Atkinson, a long-time expert on [economic inequality], seeks to lay
bare the underlying issues in a manner accessible to
non-economists. After covering the landscape of inequality
measurement and theories of economic inequality, of both outcomes
and opportunity, the author outlines a set of 15 fairly radical
proposals to curb runaway inequality (assuming inequality needs
curbing). These proposals include a minimum inheritance for all, a
global tax on wealth, and a governmental role in influencing the
direction of technological progress away from the kind that
exacerbates inequality. They are bold and fresh proposals, but they
have little chance of ever being adopted—at least not in today’s
U.S. But that is beside the point. Inequality has long been
believed to be an inevitable outcome of capitalism; the author
rightly begs to differ.
*Choice*
Tony Atkinson is the godfather of modern research on the
distribution of income and wealth. Combining the statistical rigor
of Simon Kuznets and the radical reformism of William Beveridge, he
has been a role model for entire generations of scholars.
*Thomas Piketty, Paris School of Economics*
Tony Atkinson has done more than anyone else in helping us to
understand the meaning of inequality, why it is important, how it
has changed over time, and how it can be influenced. He is one of
the great scholars of our time.
*Nicholas Stern, London School of Economics and Political Science*
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