Mihályi and Szelényi provide a timely contribution to contemporary debates about inequality of incomes and wealth, offering a careful examination of various sources of rent in contemporary societies, and considering several policy options to reduce inequality in order to preserve the meritocratic nature of liberal democracies.

While Rent-Seekers, Profits, Wages and Inequality acknowledges the rapid and disturbing increase of incomes and wealth in the top 1 or 0.1%, it focuses on the increasing rent component of incomes and wealth in the top 20% as even more consequential. The attention to cutting-edge issues on inequality in macroeconomics, political science and sociology will appeal to social scientists interested in income distribution and wealth accumulation.

Focuses on the top earning 20% of society, rather than the top 1 or 0.1% Addresses the role of rent in issues such as class reproduction, wealth, sources of social instability and inequality Provides a post-classical narrative of political economy

Autorentext
Péter Mihályi is Professor in the Department of Macroeconomics, Corvinus University of Budapest, and Visiting Professor at the Central European University, Hungary. Iván Szelényi is William Graham Sumner Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Political Science, Yale University, and Max Weber Emeritus Professor of Social Sciences, New York University, Abu Dhabi.

Inhalt

Chapter 1 Introduction.- Chapter 2: Rent in Classical Economic, Social and Political Theory.- Chapter 3: Thirteen Types of Rent in the Globalized World.- Chapter 4: Class Reproduction of the Upper Middle Class (Top 20%).- Chapter 5: Stages of Rent-Seeking Under Post-Communism.- Chapter 6: Rent-Securing by the Nation-States and Rent Destruction by Globalization.- Chapter 7: Theoretical and Policy Conclusions.