The journal Intereconomics, published bi-monthly by CEPS and the Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (ZBW), features articles dealing with economic and social policy issues affecting Europe. Each issue contains a Forum section offering an in-depth exploration of a selected topic. All contributions to the Forum section in each issue, as well as the Editorial, are available for free downloading from the CEPS website at the links below (for full content, see www.intereconomics.eu).The May-June 2016 issue develops on wealth and income inequality in Europe.
Abstarct: While it has long been apparent that global levels of wealth and income inequality have been steadily increasing since the 1970s, the issue received scant attention in Europe until the recent financial crisis and the resulting Great Recession illuminated for the general public just how great the chasm between the very rich and everybody else had grown. This realisation was coupled with an increased focus on inequality among economists and other academics, leading to a fresh drive for policy ideas to remedy the alarming trend. This Forum comprises a diverse range of viewpoints on the recent history and dynamics of inequality within Europe, each striving to define the root causes in the various countries being examined. The definition of these causes, of course, can inform the direction of policies aimed at alleviating the growing inequality in many European countries and thereby curtail one of the major political and social issues of our time.
Authors: Michael Emerson, Maurizio Franzini, Mario Pianta, James K. Galbraith, Francesco Bogliacino, Virginia Maestri, Michele Raitano, Gerhard Bosch, Thorsten Kalina and Robert Doar
Editorial: The Economics of a Brexit
By Michael Emerson
Forum: The Engines of Inequality
By Maurizio Franzini and Mario Pianta
Forum: Causes of Changing Inequality in the World
By James K. Galbraith
Forum: Wealth Inequality and the Great Recession
By Francesco Bogliacino and Virginia Maestri
Forum: Income Inequality in Europe Since the Crisis
By Michele Raitano
Forum: The Erosion of the German Middle Class
By Gerhard Bosch and Thorsten Kalina
Letter from America: A Bipartisan Plan to Reduce Poverty in the U.S.
By Robert Doar
