14Oct2016

Branko Milanovic's Lecture on Inequality

As a part of the Kapuscinski Development Lectures, Branko Milanovic provided perceptive insights into income distribution at the global level and into the creation of global "middle class". The lecture was supported by the European Commission, United Nations Development Programme  (UNDP), Center for Social Policy (CSP), and Faculty of Economics, Finance, and Administration (FEFA).

According to Milanovic, due to globalization, inequality has become a global issue rather han a problem of an individual country. Therefore, it is important to focus on providing global wquality of opportunity and move forward from methodological nationalism. Milanovic also emphasized the rise in migrations, as a consequence of globalization, reflected into inequality and distribution of assets. Redistribution of assets has been singled out as a proper way to address inequlity issue in the 21st century.

Branko Milanovic presented a series of graphs, including so-called elephant curve. The elephant curve depicts the middle classes sits at the bottom of the elephant’s trunk which suggest that it was the middle class in developed countries who missed out on the global economic growth during the two decades. In other words, the middle classes in developed countries do not make progress as classes in developing countries in last 20 years.