InequaliTalks

Starting Wednesday, September 14th, InequaliTalks is starting its first spotlight series. To begin, we will be looking at gender inequality and interviewing three scholars whose research looks at the intersection of economics and patterns of gender inequality: Lorenzo Lagos, Xiaoyue Shan and Nina Roussille. Make sure to tune in!

In recent years, decreasing federal minimum wage, low unionization rates and growing outsourcing trends have had some important effects on wage growth in the US low wage sector. As major firms throughout the world come under scrutiny for their failure to compensate their workers fairly, it is becoming increasingly necessary to better understand what motivates companies to mirror other larger firms' wage changes. In this episode, Ellora Derenoncourt explains that when it comes to wage changes, just a few large employers in the labor market can have substantial ripple effects. Using the examples of firms like Amazon, Walmart and Target, she looks at why some companies feel compelled to follow in the footsteps of larger actors. Working Paper: “Spillover effects from voluntary employer minimum wages”, with Clemens Noelke, David Weil & Bledi Taska https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3793677 Recommendation: “On the Clock: What Low Wage Work Did to Me and How It Drives America Insane” (2019), by Emily Guendelsberger https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42779084-on-the-clock

How do beliefs shape and determine our attitudes towards policies? In this episode, Thomas Douenne looks at carbon taxation in the context of the Yellow Vest Movement, and how French people rejected a tax & dividend policy which they assumed would negatively impact their purchasing power. Working Paper: “Yellow Vests, Pessimistic Beliefs and Carbon Tax Aversion”, with Adrien Fabre https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/pol.20200092&&from=f Recommendation: “The Tyranny of Merit: What's Become of the Common Good?” (2020) by Michael J. Sandel https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50364458-the-tyranny-of-merit

What are racial covenants? How do they target specific ethnic and religious minorities? And how do they affect present-day economic outcomes? In this episode, Aradhya Sood tells us about her research on the prevalence of racially-restrictive covenants during the early-to-mid 20th century, and how these contracts continue to impact house prices and promote racial segregation today. Working Paper: Long Shadow of Racial Discrimination: Evidence from Housing Covenants, with William Speagle and Kevin Ehrman-Solberg https://drive.google.com/file/d/1J8KdEYskg4l2WvBTOESTogftChaYr8yo/view Recommendation: Segregation by Design: Local Politics and Inequality in American Cities, Jessica Trounstine (2019) https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/segregation-by-design/9CEF629688C0C684EDC387407F5878F2

In recent decades, firms' decision to rely on contract labor over "in-house" workers has become increasingly prevalent. In this episode, Adrien Bilal tells us about his research on labor outsourcing and inequality in France. He explains that while domestic outsourcing may increase aggregate productivity, it nonetheless leads to oursourced workers suffering important wage losses. Paper: “Outsourcing, Inequality and Aggregate Output”, with H. Lhuillier (2021) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hqW5FFkGqqdolZdHti4QIvTm6fLdqZvB/view Recommendation: Les Misérables, Ladj Ly (2019), with Damien Bonnard, Alexis Manenti and Djebril Zonga https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10199590/

What is affirmative action? How can it increase the representation of under-privileged groups in a given field? And how might it play out in the higher education sector? In this episode, Ana Paula Melo talks to us about her research on the impact of affirmative action policies on the access to college in Brazil. She tells us about the benefits and shortcomings of this policy, and what is still missing in the existing literature on the topic. Working Paper: Affirmative action and demand for schooling: evidence from nation-wide policies, with Ursula Mello Recommendation: "Transcendent Kingdom" (2020) by Yaa Gyasi https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48570454-transcendent-kingdom

Evan K. Rose talks to us about his research on the relationship between human capital, company behavior and discrimination. Looking at the hiring procedures of over a hundred Fortune 500 firms across the US, Rose found that there were significant penalties for applicants belonging to gender and/or racial minorities. In this episode, Rose discusses the policy implications of this phenomenon, and the need for change in both institutional and internal practices. Paper: “Systemic Discrimination among Large U.S. Employers” by Patrick M. Kline, Evan K. Rose and Christopher R. Walters (2021) https://eml.berkeley.edu//~crwalters/papers/randres.pdf Recommendation: “The Anatomy of Racial Inequality” (2003) by Glenn C. Loury https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/330838.TheAnatomyofRacialInequality?fromsearch=true&fromsrp=true&qid=FRGe9JFpvD&rank=1

Why has wage inequality increased in the past 40 years in the United States? Why has corporate valuation skyrocketed? In this episode, Anna Stansbury presents her work with Larry Summers on how declining worker power better explains these recent trends in the American economy and what that means for inequality. Paper: “The Declining Worker Power Hypothesis” by Anna Stansbury and Lawrence Summers https://www.brookings.edu/bpea-articles/declining-worker-power-and-american-economic-performance/ Recommendation: “Working” by Studs Terkel https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59649.Working

Books shape how children learn about society and the world. Analyzing over 1,100 award-winning children's books, Anjali Adukia talks about what artificial intelligence (AI) tools can tell us about how race and gender are depicted to children. Paper: “What We Teach About Race and Gender: Representation in Images and Text of Children's Books” (by A. Adukia, A. Eble, E. Harrison, H.B. Runesha, T. Szasz) https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w29123/w29123.pdf Recommendation: "Salt" by Nayyirah Waheed https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18585282-salt

Governments in the world's poorest countries face important revenue constraints. The ability to collect taxes directly affects the quality of public services and infrastructures, and is thought to undermine economic growth. Augustin Bergeron walks us through 3 experiments he conducted in D.R. Congo to investigate how the architecture of tax collection affects a state's fiscal capacity: who collects taxes, how much you can collect, and how you collect them. Papers: - "Local Elites as State Capacity: How City Chiefs Use Local Information to Increase Tax Compliance in the D.R. Congo" by Pablo Balan, Augustin Bergeron, Gabriel Tourek, and Jonathan Weigel https://www.dropbox.com/s/b7dv4jpgv08noa9/centralvlocalpaper20210810.pdf?dl=0 - "The State Capacity Ceiling on Tax Rates: Evidence from Randomized Tax Abatements in the DRC" by Augustin Bergeron, Gabriel Tourek, and Jonathan Weigel https://www.dropbox.com/s/ftvzzpbby6yiaft/statecapacityceilingtaxrates20210701.pdf?dl=0 -"Optimal Assignment of Bureaucrats: Evidence from Randomly Assigned Tax Collectors in the DRC" by Augustin Bergeron, Pedro Bessone, John Kabeya Kabeya, Gabriel Tourek, and Jonathan Weigel https://www.dropbox.com/s/0lf50fcw68sru0s/optimalassignmentbureaucrats_20210630.pdf?dl=0 Recommendations: - "Rebellion, Rascals, and Revenue: Tax Follies and Wisdom through the Ages" by Michael Keen and Joel Slemrod https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691199542/rebellion-rascals-and-revenue - "King Leopold's Ghost" by Adam Hochschild https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40961621-king-leopold-s-ghost

Can obesity signal wealth? In this episode, Elisa talks about the experiment she conducted in Uganda, in which she demonstrates that obese people are perceived as rich and that being obese facilitates access to credit. Paper: "Worth your weight? Experimental evidence on the benefits of obesity in low-income countries" by Elisa Macchi https://elisamacchi.github.io/publication/job-market-paper/ Recommendation: "The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone" by Olivia Laing https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25667449-the-lonely-city

Does inequality affect our perception of necessity and luxury? Does it change our preferences for certain goods? And if yes, what are the impact in terms of malnutruition? Eve Colson-Sihra talks about the research she conducted with Clément Bellet on the impact of exposure to inequality on the perceived needs of the poor in India. Paper: "Does Inequality Affect the Perception of Needs?" by Clément Bellet and Eve Colson-Sihra https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XfOvB3_k2IZHt1NowTFcKFwe4meqb6gg/view Recommendations: - "The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures" by Jean Baudrillard https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37328.TheConsumerSociety - "The Theory of the Leisure Class" by Thorstein Veblen https://www.routledge.com/The-Theory-of-the-Leisure-Class/Veblen/p/book/9781560005629

Higher asthma rates are one of the more obvious ways that health inequalities between African American and other children are manifested beginning in early childhood. Diane Alexander talks about the research she conducted with Janet Currie on the impact of children's neighborhoods on the racial gap in respiratory diseases such as asthma. Paper: "Is it who you are or where you live? Residential segregation and racial gaps in childhood asthma" by Diane Alexander and Janet Currie https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167629616303897 Recommendation: - Habitat for Humanity https://habitat.ca/ - Parasite (2019) by Bong Joon Ho https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6751668/

Does immigration import inequality? Felix Koenig talks about his recent research on the contribution of migrants to the rise in UK top incomes, showing that immigrants make up a much larger proportion of the top of the income range than of the bottom. Paper: “Importing Inequality: Immigration and the Top 1%” by Arun Advani, Felix Koenig, Lorenzo Pessina, Andrew Summers. http://ftp.iza.org/dp13731.pdf Recommendations: - "A Star is Born" by Bradley Cooper https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1517451/ - "Ottolenghi Simple: A Cookbook" by Yotam Ottolenghi https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39797678-ottolenghi-simple

Local governments are essential providers of public goods and services utilized by Americans every day. Extreme weather events can threaten the stability of local revenue sources and the ability of municipalities to provide essential goods and services. Rhiannon Jerch talks about her research with Matthew E. Kahn & Gary Lin in which they study what happens to local public finances in the aftermath of hurricanes in the United States. Paper: "Local Public Finance Dynamics and Hurricane Shocks" by Rhiannon Jerch, Matthew E. Kahn & Gary C. Lin https://rhiannonjerch.files.wordpress.com/2020/10/jerchkahnlinabstract27oct.pdf Recommendation: "Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History" (2000) by Erik Larson https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/239186.IsaacsStorm

People of color are drastically overrepresented in Massachusetts state prisons. What happens at different stages of the criminal system, from charging and bail to adjudication and sentencing? Felix Owusu presents the work he conducted with The Criminal Justice Policy Program at Harvard Law School to explore the factors that lead to persistent racial disparities in the Massachusetts criminal system. Paper: "Racial Disparities in the Massachusetts Criminal System" by Elizabeth Tsai Bishop, Brook Hopkins, Chijindu Obiofuma & Felix Owusu https://hls.harvard.edu/content/uploads/2020/11/Massachusetts-Racial-Disparity-Report-FINAL.pdf Recommendation: "A Pound of Flesh: Monetary Sanctions as Punishment for the Poor" by Alexes Harris https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28255222-a-pound-of-flesh

Progressive wealth taxes may be difficult to enforce if wealthy individuals underreport their wealth, but disclosure incentives and greater enforcement can improve tax collection. Juliana Londoño-Vélez presents her work with Javier Avila-Mahecha which uses rich administrative data from Colombia and leverages a government-designed program for voluntary disclosures of hidden wealth, as well as the threat of detection triggered by the Panama Papers leak. Paper: "Enforcing Wealth Taxes in the Developing World: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Colombia" by Juliana Londoño-Vélez & Javier Ávila-Mahecha https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aeri.20200319&from=f Recommendation - "Good Economics for Hard Times: Better Answers to Our Biggest Problems" (2019) by Abhijit V. Banerjee, Esther Duflo https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51014619-good-economics-for-hard-times - "Markets, Minds, and Money: Why America Leads the World in University Research" (2020) by Miguel Urquiola https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674244238

An (almost) unedited conversation with Thomas Piketty about his last book "Capital and Ideology" (2019). We talked about private property, slavery, colonialism, Haiti and arts. Book: "Capital and Ideology" by Thomas Piketty https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674980822 Recommendation: - "La voluntad y la fortuna" (2008) by Carlos Fuentes https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50254105-voluntad-y-la-fortuna-by-fuentes - "Snowpiercer" (2013) by Bong Joon Ho https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1706620/

The earnings difference between white and Black workers fell dramatically in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Claire Montialoux, in a paper with Ellora Derenoncourt, shows that the expansion of the minimum wage played a critical role in this decline. Recommendation: "The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America" by Richard Rothstein https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32191706-the-color-of-law Paper: "Minimum Wages and Racial Inequality" by Ellora Derenoncourt and Claire Montialoux https://academic.oup.com/qje/advance-article/doi/10.1093/qje/qjaa031/5905427?searchresult=1

Does a person's gender influence the way we interpret information about his or her ability? Heather Sarsons tests this hypothesis in a unique setting using Medicare data on referrals from physicians to surgical specialists. She finds that the referring physicians view their patients' surgical outcomes differently depending on whether the surgeon is a man or a woman. Recommendations: - "Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul's School" by Shamus Rahman Khan https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8178541-privilege - "The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students" by Anthony Abraham Jack https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674976894 Paper: "Interpreting Signals in the Labor Market: Evidence from Medical Referrals" by Heather Sarsons https://drive.google.com/file/d/12LI5b4Xg7DlNWt-ml2qw-PaMHlihdl0V/view

Housing is the main asset in most individual portfolios. The recent rise in private wealth with respect to national income has been mainly driven by capital gains on housing. How do house price cycles affect wealth inequality? Clara Martínez-Toledano explores the dynamics of wealth accumulation over forty years in Spain. Recommendations: - "The Hidden Wealth of Nations" by Gabriel Zucman http://gabriel-zucman.eu/hidden-wealth/ Paper: - "House Price Cycles, Wealth Inequality and Portfolio Reshuffling" by Clara Martínez-Toledano https://www.dropbox.com/s/2l1xe9mf95jmaiq/mtt_wealthinequalityspain.pdf?dl=0

STEM classes, especially computer science and engineering, are increasingly popular on college campuses, often because they are seen as offering better employment prospects and higher earnings. What happens to this early STEM pay premium in the long run? Kadeem Noray from Harvard talks about his research with David J. Deming on how changing job skills affect the career dynamics of people majoring in STEM. Recommendations: - Breaking Bad https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0903747/ - The Secret of our Success by Joseph Heinrich https://secretofoursuccess.fas.harvard.edu/ Paper: - "Earnings Dynamics, Changing Job Skills, and STEM Careers" by David J. Deming & Kadeem Noray The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 135, Issue 4, November 2020, Pages 1965–2005, https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjaa021 - Kadeem's blog https://kadeemnoray.com/blog/

Despite significant process of industrialization in developping countries across the world, agricultural land is still a vital resource for three out of four of the poorest billion individuals in the world. How does land ownership inequality vary across countries and regions of the world? How different is the picture if we account for land area and value, or for the landless population? Yajna Govind gives a full picture of global land inequality. Recommendations: - Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/393199.DownandOutinParisandLondon Paper: - "Global Land Inequality" by Luis Bauluz, Yajna Govind & Filip Novokmet https://www.google.com/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwid.world%2Fdocument%2Fglobal-land-inequality-world-inequality-lab-wp-2020-10%2F&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNG8jp7GKmLqJKk8RABVzzunAi63Yw

Do politicians know enough about voters to adequately represent them? Are they responsive to new information about their constituency? How does it affect the representation of marginalized groups? Asad Liaqat presents the results of large experiment he conducted on politicians in Pakistan, and reveals large information asymmetries in politics. Recommendations: - "Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity" by Katherine Boo https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11869272-behind-the-beautiful-forevers Paper: - "No Representation without Information: Politician Responsiveness to Citizen Preferences" by Asad Liaqat https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/asadliaqat/files/jmp.pdf

Lydia Assouad revisits the "Arab Inequality puzzle" : survey estimates suggest that inequality in the Middle East is not particularly high. In reality, the Middle East is the most unequal region in the world, with both enormous inequality between countries and large inequality within countries. Recommendations: - Comics "Palestine" by Joe Sacco https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/769712.Palestine - Movie "Capernaum" by Nadine Labaki https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8267604/ Paper: - "Rethinking the Lebanese economic miracle: The extreme concentration of income and wealth in Lebanon 2005-2014" by Lydia Assouad https://wid.world/document/rethinking-lebanese-economic-miracle-extreme-concentration-income-wealth-lebanon-2005-2014-wid-world-working-paper-201713/

What would have been the economic impact of COVID-19 in a less integrated world? Is trade openness a good or a bad thing to mitigate the shock of a pandemic? How can we quantify the welfare effect of such a large disruption in production? Alessandro Sforza explains why the economic effects of a pandemic crucially depend on the extend to which countries are connected in global production networks. Recommendations: - "The Reach of Rome: A Journey Through the Lands of the Ancient Empire, Following a Coin" by Alberto Angela https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/227125/the-reach-of-rome-by-alberto-angela-with-translation-by-gregory-conti/9780847841288 Paper: - "Globalization in the time of COVID-19" by Alessandro Sforza and Marina Steininger https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SeHWV20aIWdqpdwZSiVfm57BJrUqKy6Q/view

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the U.S economy at an incredibly rapid pace. Michael Stepner presents his most recent work with Opportunity Insights. Combining anonymized data from private companies, the Opportunity Insights Economic Tracker provides a real-time picture of how the economy is performing. How and where do people spend their money? Who are the most vulnerable workers? Where are located the most affected businesses? What is the impact of state-ordered reopenings, small business loans and stimulus checks on consumption? Recommendations: - Podcast Threshold Season 1 https://www.thresholdpodcast.org/season01 - "The Slaughter of the Bison and Reversal of Fortunes on the Great Plains", by Donna Feir, Rob Gillezeau & Maggie E.C. Jones https://www.minneapolisfed.org/~/media/files/community/indiancountry/resources-education/working-papers/cicd-wp-2019-01.pdf Paper: - "How Did COVID-19 and Stabilization Policies Affect Spending and Employment? A New Real-Time Economic Tracker Based on Private Sector Data", by Raj Chetty, John N. Friedman, Nathaniel Hendren, Michael Stepner, and the Opportunity Insights Team https://opportunityinsights.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/tracker_paper.pdf - Opportunity Insights https://opportunityinsights.org

Inequality is one of the most pressing issues in the public conversation. Economic research can help us find the tools to address it. Here is a quick taste of what's to come every second Wednesday. By Clémentine Van Effenterre