Re: EOpriv: OWNERSHIP: Aggregates and Ownership

[Karen May <kmay@igc.org>]

John, FYI, Sam Bowles from the Santa Fe Institute co-chairs the
MacArthur/Berkeley group--I think it was originally his proposal.  They
have some great materials.  I also like Brookings and the Center for
Social and Economic Dynamics.  I will be inviting one of their
economists (Nancy Birdsall)--who has done very interesting work on
inequality--to the conference in Washington.  Hope to meet you there...
Karen

John Médaille wrote:
> 
> At 03:40 PM 9/26/2002 -0500, Karen May wrote:
> 
> >Please let me know what you think of these sources--I very much
> >appreciate the spirit of your question.
> 
> The Santa Fe Institute, of which I had not heard, is indeed an interesting
> place, and altogether another good reason for visiting Santa Fe. I'll have
> to investigate the site further, but I think they are working on another
> project, that is, "poverty traps" and cross-generational poverty. The
> question that sticks in my mind is whether this must be treated as purely a
> "social justice" question, or whether there are profound economic 
>consequences.
> 
> I have found a rather interesting source, the University of Texas
> Inequality Project, http://utip.gov.utexas.edu/ headed by James Galbraith.
> this project has a large number of papers which, alas, are in a technical
> language for which my economic education is insufficient. The focus of this
> group, as far as I can tell, is on the social and political consequences of
> inequality rather on the purely economic consequences, and on the technical
> measures of inequality. Nevertheless, they believe that they have debunked
> the "Kuznets" curve, which purported to show that while inequality
> increases in developing countries, it decreases as workers become more
> industrialized. This curve was an implicit defense of the disruptions that
> industrialism causes, its main thesis being, "don't worry about the
> problems today, the market will correct everything tomorrow." Alas, manana
> never comes.
> 
> Another promising source is the "Network on the effects of Inequality on
> Economic Performance" at UC Berkeley
> http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/macarthur/inequality/ This group asks the
> question, "What is the relationship between inequality and the economic
> success of nations, firms, and local communities? " which I think comes
> closer to the heart of the matter. They have a great deal of material, but
> it is highly technical and a slow read for me. Someone really needs to
> translate this work into English.
> 
> John C. Médaille
> 
> "A dead thing can go with the stream...
> but only a living thing can go against it."
>          -G. K. Chesterton
> http://www.medaille.com/distributivism.htm
> john@medaille.com