The World Inequality Lab, in partnership with the Centre Asie du Sud-Est, and the CNRS, is organizing a workshop entitled “Inequality and Labour Income Share in Southeast Asia” on June, 12, 2025.

To mark the publication of Arnaud Orain‘s new book, Le Monde Confisqué, Essai sur le Capitalisme de la Finitude (XVIe-XXIe siècle), the World Inequality Lab invites you to an Equality Debate, on Monday 16 June 2025 at 12.30pm, at Paris School of Economics. The event will be in French.

Programme

• 12.30-13.00: Presentation by Arnaud Orain
• 13.00-13.10: Reactions from Thomas Piketty/Lucas Chancel, co-directors of the WIL
• 13.10-13.30: Q&A with the public
• 13.30: Book sale and signing sessions

 

Summary

The neoliberal utopia of continuous global growth in wealth is now behind us. But this does not mean that capitalism is dead. Its current form is neither genuinely new nor totally unfamiliar, as it is typical of all ages in which the anguishing feeling of a “finite”, bounded and limited world that needs to be grabbed in a hurry dominates. This capitalism is characterised by the privatisation and militarisation of the seas, a monopolistic and rentier “trade” that is exercised within territorial empires, and the appropriation of physical and cyber spaces by gigantic private companies with sovereign prerogatives that dictate their own rhythms. In this essay, Arnaud Orain reveals this “capitalism of finitude” and sheds light on its mechanisms in the three periods in which it flourished: XVIᵉ – XVIIIᵉ century, 1880-1945, 2010 to the present day.

Arnaud Orain, an economist and historian, is director of studies at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS, Centre de Recherches Historiques). He is the author of numerous books, including Les savoirs perdus de l’économie. Contribution à l’équilibre du vivant (Gallimard 2023).

 

Practical information

📅 Monday 16 June, 12.30-13.30 (Paris time)

📍 Amphithéâtre Daniel Cohen, Paris School of Economics, 48 Boulevard Jourdan, Paris 14

🎙️ The event will be held in French.

📝 To register, click here.

This event is part of the Equality Debates, a cycle of meetings organised by the World Inequality Lab around a recently published book or work in the social sciences, which allow authors and the public to exchange views. To receive invitations, click here.

 

Bina Agarwal, co-winner of the 2024 Global Inequality Research Award (GiRA), received her prize and gave a lecture at Paris School of Economics on March 19, 2025.

 

The GiRA aims to recognize researchers from all disciplines who have made a significant contribution to the understanding of global inequalities.

30 years after the publication of A Field of One’s Own (CUP 1994), the first GiRA was awarded to Bina Agarwal for her major work on gender inequalities, environmental governance, feminist environmentalism and environmental inequalities.

 

Programme

• 18:00 Introduction by Lucas Chancel
• 18:05 Award presentation by Thomas Piketty
• 18:15 Lecture by Bina Agarwal “Hidden inequalities, Visible outcomes: A Gender Lens”
• 19:00 Q&A
• 19:30 Closing

 

Biography

Bina Agarwal is Professor of Development Economics and Environment at the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester. She was earlier Director and Professor, Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi, where she is still affiliated.

She has been President, International Society for Ecological Economics; President, International Association for Feminist Economics; Vice-President, International Economic Association; and held distinguished visiting positions at Harvard, Princeton, and Cambridge, among other universities.

Agarwal’s books and academic papers cover diverse subjects in agriculture, environmental change, land rights and law, especially from a gender and political economy perspective. Her writings on gender inequality in property and on environmental governance have had global impact. Among her notable books are the award-winning, A Field of One’s Own (CUP 1994); Gender and Green Governance (OUP, 2010); and Gender Challenges (OUP, 2016), a three volume compendium of her selected papers. In 2005 she also led a successful civil society campaign to make the Hindu Inheritance law gender equal.

Agarwal’s many awards include a Padma Shri in 2008, from the President of India; three book prizes; the 2010 Leontief Prize, USA for ‘advancing the frontiers of economic thought’; the 2017 Louis Malassis International Scientist Prize, France, for “a distinguished career in agricultural economics”; the International Balzan Prize 2017 “for challenging established premises in economics and the social sciences by using an innovative gender perspective”; the Kenneth Boulding award in Ecological Economics 2023; and the first Global Inequality Research Award, 2024, France.

 

Contact

Alice Fauvel, Communications Manager: alice.fauvel[at]psemail.eu

The Taxing Billionaires conference will take place on Tuesday April 8th and Wednesday April 9th at Paris School of Economics. It will bring together leading researchers, including Thomas Piketty and Gabriel Zucman, and policymakers to advance the discussion on the effective taxation of the super-rich. Over two days, participants will explore methodologies, share research insights, and discuss coordinated policy solutions. This event aims to address the issue of effective tax rates for the super-rich, with a focus on fostering collaboration and actionable insights across the academic, legal and policy communities.

The conference is organized by the PSE Stone Center in collaboration with the EU Tax Observatory, the World Inequality Lab, and the Institut des Politiques Publiques.

Programme

The programme will be published in February here. It will be divided in 2 parts:

• Day 1: Strengthening Research Collaboration
• Day 2: Policy & Legal Perspectives

 

Practical information

📍 Amphitheatre Daniel Cohen, Paris School of Economics, 48 Boulevard Jourdan, Paris 14e (in person, no livestream).

🎙 The conference will be held in English.

🖊️ To register, click here.

On Thursday 30 January 2025,  the World Inequality Lab invited George Monbiot to present and discuss his latest book The Invisible Doctrine: The SeEqualitcret History of Neoliberalism (& How it Came to Control Your Life), with Thomas Piketty, at Paris School of Economics.

 

BOOK SUMMARY

Neoliberalism. Do you know what it is? We live under an ideology that preys on every aspect of our lives: our education and our jobs; our healthcare and our leisure; our relationships and our mental wellbeing; the planet we inhabit – the very air we breathe. So pervasive has it become that, for most people, it has no name. It seems unavoidable, like a natural law.
But trace it back to its roots, and we discover that it is neither inevitable nor immutable. It was conceived, propagated, and then concealed by the powerful few. Our task is to bring it into the light—and to build a new system that is worth fighting for.

George Monbiot a British journalist, author, and environmental and political activist.

Peter Hutchison is a critically acclaimed filmmaker, NY Times bestselling author, educator and activist.

 

 

 

 

This event was part of the Equality Debates series organized by the World Inequality Lab. Equality Debates feature the presentation of new research around the theme of equality and inequality, followed by a discussion with the audience.

 

CONTACT

Alice Fauvel, Communications Manager: alice.fauvel[at]psemail.eu

The World Inequality Database provides open access to the most extensive available database on the historical evolution of the world distribution of income and wealth, both within countries and between countries. Updated annually by the WIL team and a global network of researchers, it represents the most current and coordinated effort to measure and track inequality worldwide.

On Tuesday, November 19, we hosted a webinar where our team presented the latest data and insights from the World Inequality Database.

 

WEBINAR PROGRAM

16:30-16:50 – Presentation of global trends, Co-directors Lucas Chancel, Rowaida Moshrif, and Thomas Piketty
16:50-17:20 – Zoom on regional inequalities, WIL coordinators
17:20-18:00 – Q&A Session

 

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

📅Date: Tuesday, November 19, 16:30 – 18:00pm CET

📍Location: Zoom.

🎙Language: The webinar will be held in English.

 

CONTACT

Alice Fauvel, Communications Manager, World Inequality Lab : alice.fauvel[at]psemail.eu

 

On the occasion of the release of Benjamin Lemoine’s new book, Chasseurs d’États, Les fonds vautours et la loi de New York à l’assaut de la souveraineté, the World Inequality Lab organized an online event as part of the “Equality Debates” series, on Thursday, December 5, 2024, at 12:30 p.m. The event was held in French.

Programme

• 12h30-13h00 : Présentation de Benjamin Lemoine
• 13h00-13h10 : Réactions de Thomas Piketty et Lucas Chancel, co-directeurs du WIL
• 13h10-13h30 : Questions-Réponses avec le public

 

Résumé

Chasseurs d’Etats est le fruit d’une enquête exceptionnelle sur les professionnels de la poursuite de la souveraineté – juges, avocats, enquêteurs et chasseurs d’actifs, mais aussi hauts fonctionnaires –, dont le foyer d’action est situé dans les tribunaux de New York. L’auteur raconte comment il est devenu possible d’engager des procès contre les États qui, émancipés du joug colonial, nationalisaient leur appareil productif et expropriaient les investisseurs états-uniens. La diplomatie économique des États-Unis, main dans la main avec les marchés de capitaux, a veillé à défaire les alternatives promues par les pays du Sud global et à construire le droit de New York comme l’étalon mondial des deals et litiges financiers.

Benjamin Lemoine est sociologue, chercheur au CNRS et au centre Maurice Halbwachs (École normale supérieure de Paris). Sa thèse a été primée par l’Association française de science politique. Il a obtenu en 2018 la médaille de bronze du CNRS. Il a publié L’ordre de la dette (2016, 2022) et La démocratie disciplinée par la dette (2022) aux éditions La Découverte.

 

Informations pratiques

📅 Jeudi 5 décembre 2023, 12h30-13h30 (heure de Paris)

📍 >>> Zoom, pour vous inscrire, cliquez ici <<<

🎙️L’événement se tiendra en ligne et en français.

Cet événement fait partie des Débats de l’Egalité, un cycle de rencontres organisées par le World Inequality Lab autour d’un livre récemment publié ou de travaux en sciences sociales, qui permettent aux auteur.e.s et au public d’échanger. Pour recevoir les invitations, cliquez ici.

 

Contact

Alice Fauvel, responsable de la communication, World Inequality Lab : alice.fauvel[at]psemail.eu

 

On Tuesday 17 September 2024, Mordecai Kurz will give a lecture at Paris School of Economics on the relationship between inequality and technological change. This event is co-hosted by the Stone Center, the World Inequality Lab, and the EU Tax Observatory.

PROGRAMME

• 14:00 Welcome by Gabriel Zucman, Director of PSE Stone Center and EU Tax Observatory
• 14:00-14:40 – Lecture by Mordecai Kurz
• 14:40-14:50 – Comment by Thomas Piketty, Co-director of World Inequality Lab
• 14:50-15:00 – Q&A with the audience

 

OVERVIEW

The lecture will be based on Mordecai Kurz’s latest book The Market Power of Technology: Understanding the Second Gilded Age (Columbia University Press, 2023), where he argues that since the 1980s, the United States has regressed to levels of economic inequality not seen since the Gilded Age of the late nineteenth century. Kurz provides a pioneering analysis that quantifies technological market power and its impacts on inequality, innovation, and economic growth. The book also offers detailed proposals to address these inequalities, including restricting corporate mergers and acquisitions, reforming patent law, balancing power in the labor market, increasing taxation, promoting upward mobility, and stabilizing the middle class.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mordecai Kurz is Professor Emeritus of Economics at Stanford University. His previous books include Public Investment, the Rate of Return, and Optimal Fiscal Policy (with Kenneth J. Arrow, 1970) and Endogenous Economic Fluctuations: Studies in the Theory of Rational Beliefs (1997), and he has published widely across many fields of economic theory.

 

READ MORE

• “How Capitalism Became a Threat to Democracy”, Project Syndicate, March 15, 2024
• “Market Power Is Permanent, and Technological Competition Does Not Remove It”, Project Syndicate, December 1, 2023

 

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

📅 Tuesday 17 September 2024, 14:00 – 15:00 (doors open 13:40)

📍 R2-21 (2^nd floor), Paris School of Economics, 48 Boulevard Jourdan, Paris 14e (in person, no livestream)

🎙 The conference will be held in English

🖊️ To register, click here

 

CONTACT

Alice Fauvel, WIL Communications Manager: alice.fauvel@psemail.eu

On Tuesday 11 June 2024, the World Inequality Lab hosted a discussion at Paris School of Economics on the relation between inequality reduction and constitutional changes with:

• Timothy K. Kuhner

Associate Professor, Law Department, University of Auckland

Author of Tyranny of Greed, Capitalism v. Democracy, La Charte des Oligarques.

• Julia Cagé

Professor, Economic Department, Sciences Po Paris

Co-director, Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Evaluation of Public Policies (LIEPP)’s “Evaluation of Democracy” research group

Research Fellow, Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR)

• Thomas Piketty

Professor of Economics at EHESS and at the Paris School of Economics

Co-director of the World Inequality Lab

 

 

RELATED PUBLICATIONS BY TIMOTHY KUHNER

1. “The Abolition of Class Government,” book chapter in The Constitution of Social Democracy (Alan Bogg, Jacob Rowbottom, and Alison Young, eds., Hart Publishing, 2020)
2. “The Democracy to which We Are Entitled: Human Rights and the Problem of Money in Politics,” 26 Harvard Human Rights Journal 39 (2013)
3. “The Oligarchs’ Charter,” Public Books (Columbia University), October 2020; La charte des oligarques, Le Vie des Idées (Collège de France), October 2020
4. “Corruption, Inequality, and Climate Change: Rethinking Election Law in the Twenty-First Century,” book chapter in Comparative Election Law (James Gardner, ed., Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022)
5. Capitalism v. Democracy: Money in Politics and the Free Market Constitution (Stanford University Press, 2014)
6. Tyranny of Greed: Trump, Corruption, and the Revolution to Come (Stanford University Press, 2020)

Free copies available on https://timkuhner.com/articles/

 

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

📅 Tuesday 11 June, 18:30 – 20:00

📍 Amphitheatre Daniel Cohen, Paris School of Economics, 48 Boulevard Jourdan, Paris 14e (in person, no livestream).

 

This event is part of the Equality Debates series organized by the World Inequality Lab. Equality Debates feature the presentation of new research around the theme of equality and inequality, followed by a discussion with the audience.

 

CONTACT

Alice Fauvel, Communications Manager: alice.fauvel@psemail.eu

 

 

On Tuesday 21 May 2024, the World Inequality Lab invited BRANKO MILANOVIC to present and discuss his latest book Visions of Inequality: from the French Revolution to the end of the Cold War, at Paris School of Economics.

PROGRAMME

17:30 – 18:00 – Presentation by Branko Milanovic

18:00 – 18:30 – Discussion with:

• MARIE-RENEE ANDREESCU, PhD Candidate in Economics at Paris School of Economics and EHESS, Eastern Europe and Russia coordinator at World Inequality Lab
• ULYSSE LOJKINE, lecturer in economics in the Université Paris-Nanterre, member of Economix and Sophiapol in Nanterre and of the Economics & Philosophy Project at the Paris School of Economics
• THOMAS PIKETTY, Professor at EHESS and at the Paris School of Economics, Co-director of the World Inequality Lab

18:30-19:00 – Q&A with the audience

 

 

BOOK SUMMARY

“How do you see income distribution in your time, and how and why do you expect it to change?” That is the question Branko Milanovic imagines posing to six of history’s most influential economists: François Quesnay, Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Karl Marx, Vilfredo Pareto, and Simon Kuznets. Probing their works in the context of their lives, he charts the evolution of thinking about inequality, showing just how much views have varied among ages and societies. Indeed, Milanovic argues, we cannot speak of “inequality” as a general concept: any analysis of it is inextricably linked to a particular time and place.

Branko Milanovic is a Research Professor at the Graduate Center at City University of New York (CUNY), Senior Scholar at the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality at CUNY, and Visiting Professor at the International Inequalities Institute at LSE. Milanovic’s main area of work is income inequality, in individual countries and globally, including in pre-industrial societies.

 

 

Practical information

📅 Tuesday 21 May, 17:30 – 19:00 (doors open 17:00)

📍 Amphitheatre Daniel Cohen, Paris School of Economics, 48 Boulevard Jourdan, Paris 14e (in person, NO livestream).

🎙 The conference will be held in English

🖊️ To register, click here.

This event is part of the Equality Debates series organized by the World Inequality Lab. Equality Debates feature the presentation of a new social science book, followed by a discussion with the audience.

 

CONTACT

Alice Fauvel, Communications Manager: alice.fauvel@psemail.eu