Edward N. Wolff

The Increasing Inequality of Wealth in America and What Can Be Done About It

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A vast new literature on the sources of economic growth has now accumulated. This book critically reviews the most significant works in this field and summarizes what is known today about the sources of economic growth. The first part discusses the most important theoretical models that have been used in modern growth theory as well as methodological issues in productivity measurement. The second part examines the long-term record on productivity among Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, considers the sources of growth among them with particular attention to the role of education, investigates convergence at the industry level among them, and examines the productivity slowdown of the 1970s. The third part looks at the sources of growth among non-OECD countries. Each chapter emphasizes the factors that appear to be most important in explaining growth performance.

Theory and Evidence

Productivity Convergence

This text serves as a self-contained course on income distribution and poverty, with additional emphasis on issues of discrimination. Sections of the book revisit microeconomics and basic statistics. Also includes considerable detail on the role of labor markets as a source of income differences among individuals. The role of public policy on income/wealth inequality and poverty is also fully explored.

Economics of Poverty Inequality and Discrimination

Editor Wolff is a leading authority on income, wealth, and inequality in the US, and contributing authors are well-respected experts in their field. Overall, the research is high quality, and most papers include a substantial list of references. A plethora of data is considered, and much statistical evidence is presented. . . . A useful contribution to the literature on income distribution and wealth inequality. Recommended. E. Kacapyr, Choice The contributors to this comprehensive book compile and analyse the latest data available on household wealth using, as case studies, the United States, Canada, Germany, Italy, Sweden, and Finland during the 1990s and into the twenty-first century. The authors show that in the US, trends are highlighted in terms of wealth holdings, among the low-income population, along with changes in wealth polarization, racial differences in wealth holdings, and the dynamics of portfolio choices. The consensus between the authors is that wealth inequality has generally risen among these OECD countries since the early 1980s, although Germany stands out as an exception. In the case of the US, it is also noted that wealth holdings have generally failed to improve among low-income families and that the racial wealth gap widened during the late 1980s. International Perspectives on Household Wealth also contains new results on a number of topics, including measures and changes of wealth polarization in the US, measurement and changes of portfolio span in the US, asset holdings of low-income households in the US, and the effects of parental resources on asset holdings in Chile. Academic, government, and public policy economists in OECD countries, as well as those in so-called middle-income countries around the world, will find much to engage them within this book. It will also appeal to academics and researchers of international and welfare economics and other social scientists interested in the issue of inequality.

International Perspectives on Household Wealth

Richard R. Nelson

William J. Baumol

This comprehensive study is a collection of original articles that view the current state of knowledge of the convergence hypothesis. The hypothesis asserts that at least since the Second World War, and perhaps for a considerable period before that, the group of industrial countries was growing increasingly homogeneous in terms of levels of productivity, technology and per capita incomes. In addition, there was general catch up toward the leader, with gradual erosion of the gap between the leader country, the U.S., throughout most of the pertinent period, and that of the countries lagging most closely behind it. The book examines patterns displayed by individual industries within countries as well as the aggregate economies, various influences that underlie the process of convergence that seems to have occurred, and the role that convergence has played and promises to play in the future of the newly industrialized nations and the less developed countries. Much of the analysis is set in a historical perspective, with particular attention paid to the record following World War II. The prestigious editors conclude that increasing productivity is the key to rising living standards in a globalized marketplace. Contributors include: Moses Abramovitz, Alice M. Amsden, Magnus Blomstrom, David Dollar, Takashi Hikino, Gregory Ingram, William Lazonick, Frank Lichtenberg, Robert E. Lipsey, Angus Maddison, Gavin Wright, and Mario Zejan.

Cross-national Studies and Historical Evidence

Convergence of Productivity

David Dollar

Edward N.. Wolff

Professor of Economics Edward N Wolff

David Dollar and Edward Wolff look at claims that a deindustrialized United States ison the road to secondrate status in the global marketplace and find them to be both unfounded andsimplistic. Their systematic and empirical investigation of the mechanisms through which countrieslike Japan and Germany have caught up with the United States in terms of productivity and standardof living will inform public debate about which government policies are likely to improve a nation'scompetitiveness.Looking at productivity convergence from the industry and subindustry level, Dollarand Wolff also examine questions of the relationship of productivity growth in individual industriesto convergence of overall productivity in developed countries, the identification of industriescrucial for aggregate productivity growth, the sources of productivity growth within industries, therelationship between international trade and productivity convergence, and whether the samemechanics of convergence are at work in developing countries.The authors' findings reveal, amongother things, that the slowness of U.S. productivity growth relative to other nations is largely dueto forces pushing for convergence of aggregate productivity levels. Although other countries havebeen catching up with the U.S., there is no evidence that they will surpass the US. or that the U.S.has deindustrialized.Perhaps most important, Dollar and Wolff find that countries catch up byraising their productivity levels in all manufacturing industries, not by large shifts of theiremployment and output from low- to high-value-added sectors. The growing similarity of advancedeconomies in terms of overall productivity masks a continued high degree of specialization inparticular industries. Today different countries are the productivity leaders in differentindustries. Accordingly, the authors recommend that public policy focus on institutions and policiesto promote innovation in general, rather than in key industries, and on free trade rather thanprotectionism.David Dollar is Senior Economist at the World Bank. Edward N. Wolff is Professor ofEconomics at New York University.

Edward N. Wolff

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