Rent-Seekers, Profits, Wages and Inequality: The Top 20%

Description

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. Front Matter ....Pages i-vii Introduction (Péter Mihályi, Iván Szelényi)....Pages 1-23 Rent in Classical Economic, Social, and Political Theory (Péter Mihályi, Iván Szelényi)....Pages 25-51 Thirteen Types of Rent in the Globalized World (Péter Mihályi, Iván Szelényi)....Pages 53-72 Class Reproduction of the Upper Middle Class (Top 20%) (Péter Mihályi, Iván Szelényi)....Pages 73-85 Stages of Rent-Seeking Under Post-communism (Péter Mihályi, Iván Szelényi)....Pages 87-101 Rent-Securing by the Nation-States and Rent Destruction by Globalization (Péter Mihályi, Iván Szelényi)....Pages 103-124 Theoretical and Policy Conclusions (Péter Mihályi, Iván Szelényi)....Pages 125-137 Back Matter ....Pages 139-156