Why Gaps Are Growing
In recent years, particularly after the beginning of the Great Recession in 2007, inequality —especially economic inequality — has attracted increasing attention from the social sciences. At the same time, it has become a key topic for public debate. These developments are undoubtedly linked to the fact that the Great Recession itself has heightened the perception of inequality as a major problem for society as a whole.
The Many Dimensions of Inequality
Inequality is a complex phenomenon that can, and should, be examined from different perspectives. Scholars explore its many dimensions: social and economic inequality but also, for example, inequality in education, health and gender. All these dimensions are currently the subject of investigations conducted at the Dondena Center, which serves as a hub for researchers at Bocconi engaged in the study of inequality.
The Burden of History and Persistent Inequality
It is important to highlight a key point: today inequalities are historically determined, that is, they are the outcome of processes which developed over the long — and sometimes the very long — run. This historical entrenchment has important consequences: first, it tends to make inequalities persistent and, consequently, regrettably resistant to policies aimed at addressing them. Secondly, it requires us to incorporate the historical dimension in our analyses, including those that appear more directly related to current concerns and policymaking. In the case of economic inequality, this is widely recognized by the most recent literature: scholars such as Thomas Piketty or Branko Milanovic, authors of highly successful books with huge impacts on both academic and public debates, have explicitly adopted a long-run perspective.
Between Long-Term Trends and Opportunities for Change
As an example, when considering interpersonal inequality (that is, inequality between individuals or households within a given society), it is unavoidable to note that the historically very high levels of income and wealth inequality that characterize contemporary Western societies are the result of a process of rising inequality that began in between the late 1970s and the early 1980s. If we consider an even longer time period (as I do in my own research), we find that over the last seven centuries or so — that is, since the point at which we begin to have information that can be used to estimate wealth inequality with some precision — the tendency has generally been toward increasing economic disparities, with two exceptions: the period immediately following the 14th-century Black Death, and the first part of the 20th century, so profoundly marked by the World Wars. We could be tempted, then, to conclude that a tendency towards ever-higher inequality is an intrinsic feature of human societies, and that we have to accept it because the cure (catastrophes and the resulting mass mortality) is worse than the illness — but the historical experience of the 20th century suggests a somewhat more optimistic interpretation. Indeed, it was in the decades immediately following the end of World War II, with the development of the welfare state funded through very progressive taxation, that inequality reached the lowest levels ever recorded in the modern age. And it is this historical finding that offers important insights into the factors that potentially led to the increase in inequalities observed in the most recent period: changes in fiscal systems, for example regarding the erosion of the principle of tax progressivity and the spread of preferences adverse to inheritance taxation; the weakening of the bargaining power of trade unions; the spread of incentives for top managers in large corporations to negotiate aggressively for higher bonuses and salaries; and so on.
The Need for an Interdisciplinary Perspective
The historical origins and entrenchment of inequalities are, of course, also relevant to the analysis of dimensions beyond the economic one. Consider for example gender inequality, which is strictly tied to the persistence of traditional family, social and cultural arrangements, or inequalities in health and survival that, during the Covid-19 pandemic, prompted investigations into why certain geographic areas — including, possibly, Lombardy — have long appeared particularly vulnerable to epidemiological threats, dating back at least to the era of the plague. What is more relevant here, however, is to highlight that the study of inequalities, — if it is to be conducted in the most fruitful way — must adopt an interdisciplinary perspective and encourage collaboration among scholars with apparently very different expertise and approaches. From this, we can infer the importance of nurturing institutions that are capable of fostering precisely this kind of collaboration.
