01-03-2017, 02:09 PM
Sir Anthony Barnes Atkinson,[1] CBE, FBA (4 September 1944 – 1 January 2017) was a British economist, Senior Research Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford and Centennial Professor at the London School of Economics.[2]
A student of James Meade, Atkinson virtually single-handedly established the modern British field of inequality and poverty studies. He worked on inequality and poverty for over four decades.[3][4]
Atkinson's work was predominantly on income distributions. There is an inequality measure named after him: the Atkinson index.[10] In a joint article with Joseph Stiglitz, he laid one of the cornerstones for the theory of optimal taxation.[11]
In his 2015 publication Inequality: What Can Be Done?, he "called for robust taxation of the rich whom he reckons have got off easily over the last generation."[3][12][13]
He recommended government intervention in markets such as employment guarantees and wage controls to influence the redistribution of economic rewards.[3] He traced the history of inequality, coining the phrase the "inequality turn" to describe the period when household inequality began to rise around 1980. From the 1980s onwards, men and women "tended to marry those who earned like themselves", with rich women marrying rich men. As more women joined the workforce inequality increased.[3]
Atkinson examined how the wealthy disproportionately influence public policy and influence governments to implement policies that protect wealth.[3] He presented a set of policies regarding technology, employment, social security, the sharing of capital, and taxation that could shift the inequality in income distribution in developed countries.[14] He also advocated the introduction of a basic income.[15]
Atkinson, who worked on inequality and poverty for more than four decades, was a mentor to Thomas Piketty (author of Capital in the Twenty-First Century); they worked together on building an historical database on top incomes.[3] Piketty described him as "the godfather of historical studies of income and wealth."[16]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Atkinson
A student of James Meade, Atkinson virtually single-handedly established the modern British field of inequality and poverty studies. He worked on inequality and poverty for over four decades.[3][4]
Atkinson's work was predominantly on income distributions. There is an inequality measure named after him: the Atkinson index.[10] In a joint article with Joseph Stiglitz, he laid one of the cornerstones for the theory of optimal taxation.[11]
In his 2015 publication Inequality: What Can Be Done?, he "called for robust taxation of the rich whom he reckons have got off easily over the last generation."[3][12][13]
He recommended government intervention in markets such as employment guarantees and wage controls to influence the redistribution of economic rewards.[3] He traced the history of inequality, coining the phrase the "inequality turn" to describe the period when household inequality began to rise around 1980. From the 1980s onwards, men and women "tended to marry those who earned like themselves", with rich women marrying rich men. As more women joined the workforce inequality increased.[3]
Atkinson examined how the wealthy disproportionately influence public policy and influence governments to implement policies that protect wealth.[3] He presented a set of policies regarding technology, employment, social security, the sharing of capital, and taxation that could shift the inequality in income distribution in developed countries.[14] He also advocated the introduction of a basic income.[15]
Atkinson, who worked on inequality and poverty for more than four decades, was a mentor to Thomas Piketty (author of Capital in the Twenty-First Century); they worked together on building an historical database on top incomes.[3] Piketty described him as "the godfather of historical studies of income and wealth."[16]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Atkinson
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.