NEW paper w. Max Lobeck & Chloé de Meulenaer: How do people in the United States and Norway argue for redistribution? In the U.S., pro-redistributive arguments mainly appeal to fairness. In Norway, arguments about the societal consequences of inequality are central. Thread ↓

"Our main suggestion is to treat economic inequality itself as an externality, which has wide-ranging implications for classical economic theory." @mortenstostad.bsky.social #EconSky pdf.sciencedirectassets.com/271705/1-s2....

Research by @mortenstostad.bsky.social & Lobeck finds most say rising inequality fuels many social ills — while narrowing it boosts trust, well‑being, democracy, public services, growth & innovation. #EconSky

Could giving $1,000 to the poor and $2,000 to the rich be a progressive policy? Yes. (For legal purposes I do not endorse this policy)

According to the latest BEA data for Q4 2024, profits booked in Ireland by US multinationals have bounced back and reached a new high. The UK and Singapore are now nearly as important for US multinationals' profits as the Netherlands. Profits booked in Mexico and Canada remain relatively small.

In a world where it is increasingly clear that economic inequality is an externality -- as it weakens political systems, increases crime and unrest, and decreases trust -- it is malpractice not to teach students this in ECON101.

Just finished teaching a class on taxation in the Economics and Public Policy master's at @sciencespo.bsky.social. My slides, heavily inspired by courses by Charles Brendon, @gabrielzucman.bsky.social, and Emmanuel Saez, are here: 👉 wouterleenders.eu/KAFP3355/06_... Feedback very welcome!

There is an over-supply of PhDs that want to do research-adjacent activities. There is an under-supply of replication. Solution: Large government-funded replication institutes. These institutes would be strong deterrents for bad research, improving overall research quality.

NEW: A groundbreaking survey on fairness across the world with 65,000 individuals across 60 countries -- from colleagues at @nhhecon.bsky.social. Key findings: * The West is especially meritocratic. * What drives inequality? Globally, people believe luck matters more than merit. bit.ly/41V6zJe

I wish BlueSky added a good algorithm. This is the huge, huge problem with this website. I come on here to see the biggest, most interesting things that are happening online -- but "Discover" is just very bad, approaching current Twitter levels. Not sure if this is everyone's experience?

Twitter's "For you" page has become complete slop. I don't see big posts from accounts I follow, just terrible content and right-wing propaganda. "Following", meanwhile, is like the Facebook feed of whoever posted in the last hour. It's really taken a complete nosedive.

I'm not sure if it's changes in the algorithm or everyone leaving, but Twitter is becoming more unbearable every day. How's everyone doing on BSky?

A point about top taxation I think is overlooked is that both the mechanical effect and behavioral responses reduce inequality. The mechanical effect also collects revenue, which is great. But both reduce inequality.

Come join us at the Berkeley Stone Center Summer School on Inequality! Great opportunity for early-stage PhDs to get a crash course on modern inequality research.

I've been posting both here and on Twitter lately. The engagement on both: (Likes on BSky / Likes on Twitter) 0 - 16 4 - 589 0 - 5 2 - 190 ...where is everyone? Any hints welcome!

A new paper argues that rising inequality contributed to the pre-2007 crisis debt boom. The idea is that people increased their housing expenditure to keep up with their neighbors' increased spending, fueling unsustainable demand.

Both Republicans and Democrats are likely to think inequality worsens democratic institutions. An AI summary of their explanations when asked why: "Economic inequality enables the wealthy to exert disproportionate influence on political processes, [...] undermining democracy."

The feeling that economic inequality leads to social unrest is mounting. Here is a brief overview of the current academic evidence.

Striking example of a point I often make academically -- people may think inequality is a negative externality without thinking that inequality is unfair.

One thing I won't miss from Twitter is my threads in progress being irreparably deleted out of nowhere

"This is a historic decision. Now is the time to turn words into action and launch an inclusive international negotiation, extending beyond G20 countries, on the reform of the taxation of the super-rich." 💬 @gabrielzucman.bsky.social www.g20.org/en/documents...

About half of the people I follow on Twitter are already here. Had no idea the migration was at this stage already.

Network effects are crazy, huh? Hello everyone!