Changing Inequalities: How Do They Affect Societies?
Opening Conference of the GINI project: Programme (16/3/2010) Friday 19 and Saturday 20 March 2010 at the London School of Economics STICERD Research Laboratory, Lionel Robbins Building, 10 Portugal Street, 4th Floor All meetings in CEP Conference Room (405), except Theme Sessions 1 and 4 on Saturday (see there)
FRIDAY 19th 12:00–13:00 Registration and buffet lunch
Public Plenary 1 Impacts of Inequalities 13:00–13:05 Tim Besley (LSE, Director of STICERD) “Welcome” 13:05–13:15 Wiemer Salverda (General coordinator of GINI, U. of Amsterdam) “Introducing GINI” 13:15–13:40 László Andor (EU Commissioner of Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion “The Poverty Target in Europe 2020” 13:40–13:50 Ronan O’Brien (EU Commission DG Research Scientific Officer for GINI) “EU research: Context and expectations for GINI” 13:50–14:30 Sir Tony Atkinson (Oxford U. and LSE) “Income Inequality in Historical and Comparative Perspective” 14:30–14:50 Break Chair Abigail McKnight (LSE) 14:50–15:20 Robert Andersen (Toronto U.) “Social and Political Attitudes in Cross-National Perspective: The Role of Inequality” 15:20–15:50 Sir Michael Marmot (University College London) “Fair Society – Healthy People” 15:50–16:10 General Discussion 16:10–16:30 Break Chair Ive Marx (Antwerp University) 16:30–17:00 Giuseppe Bertola (Turin U.) “European Integration and Inequality” 17:00–17:30 Michael Förster (OECD) “Policy Relevance of Inequalities” 17:30–18:00 Lane Kenworthy (U. of Arizona) “Policy Analysis of Inequality” 18:00–18:15 General Discussion
19:30 Conference Dinner (Sofra Covent Garden, 36 Tavistock Street) 2
SATURDAY 20th
Project Plenary Organisation and Methods of the GINI Project [9:00–10:30] 9:00– 9:15 Wiemer Salverda “Organising GINI” 9:15– 9:30 Brian Nolan and Ive Marx “Income Inequality Methodology” 9:30– 9:50 Herman van de Werfhorst et al. “Effects of Distributional Position and Distributional Changes” 9:50–10:10 Sarah Voitchovsky “Tackling Two-way Causality” 10:10–10:30 Frank Cowell and Carlo Fiorio “Inequality Decomposition: Towards a Consistent Methodology”
10:30–11:00 Break
Project Theme sessions 1–4 (two by two in parallel) [11:00–12:45 and 13:30–15:15]
1. Measuring and Analysing Inequalities [11:00–12:45] [R505 Michio Morishima Room] 11:00–11:15 Marloes de Graaf-Zijl and Wiemer Salverda “Research Plan Driver Inequalities of Income, Wealth and Education” 11:15–11:30 Daniele Checchi and the rest of the Milan team “Recurrent Cross-country Patterns in Education Inequality” 11:30–11:50 Andrea Brandolini “Wealth versus Income Inequalities” Frank Cowell and Abigail McKnight “Inequality among the Wealthiest” 11:50–12:15 Summary introductions to intended contributions Marco Leonardi (Consumption), Marloes de Graaf-Zijl/Brian Nolan/Wiemer Salverda (Household joblessness), Brian Nolan/Wiemer Salverda/Marco Leonardi (Mechanisms at top and bottom), Gabriele Ballerino (Parental background), Reinhard Pollak (Intergenerational mobility), Virginia Maestri (Immigration) 12:15–12:30 Marco Mira d’Ercole “Comments on the Research Plan and the Associate Contributions” 12:30–12:45 General Discussion
2. Policy Making: Effects on and of Inequalities [11:00–12:45] 11:00–11:15 Ive Marx “Research Plan Policy Impacts” 11:15–11:30 Bea Cantillon “The Social Investment State and Inequality 11:30–11:45 Holly Sutherland “Micro-simulating Redistributive Policies” 11:45–11:55 András Gábos “Successful Policy Mixes to Tackle Child Poverty” 11:55–12:05 Herwig Immervoll “Labour-market Downturns and Income Distribution” 12:05–12:15 Summary introductions to intended contributions” Gerlinde Verbist, Ive Marx 12:15–12:30 John Hills “Comments on the Research Plan and the Associate Contributions” 12:30–12:45 General Discussion
12:45–13:30 Lunch
3. Social Impacts of Inequalities [13:30–15:15] 13:30–13:55 Richard Wilkinson "Inequality and Dysfunctional Societies" 3
13:55–14:10 Abigail McKnight and Brian Nolan “Research Plan Social Impacts” 14:10–14:50 Introductions to intended contributions Johan Fritzell, “Health and Inequality" Claudio Lucifora, "Inequality, Working Conditions and Health" Chris Whelan, "Poverty and Deprivation in Europe" Nessa Winston, "Comparative Analysis of Housing Inequality" 14:50–15:15 General Discussion
4. Cultural and Political Impacts of Growing Inequalities [13:30–15:15] [R505 Michio Morishima Room] 13:30–13:45 Herman van de Werfhorst and István Tóth "Research Plan Cultural and Political Impacts" 13:45–14:00 Carles Boix "Inequality and Opinions on National Welfare" 14:00–14:15 Giacomo Corneo "Income Inequality, Value Systems, and Macroeconomic Performance" 14:15–14:30 Bram Lancee “Social and Cultural Participation in More and Less Equal Societies” 14:30–14:45 Márton Medgyesi “Socio-economic Correlates of Inequality Intolerance in EU Countries” 14:45–15:00 Robert Andersen "Comments on the Research Plan and the Associate Contributions" 15:00–15:15 General discussion
15:15–15:45 Break
Public Plenary 2 Possible Effects of the Crisis on Inequalities [15:45–17:45] Chair Daniele Checchi (University of Milan) 15:45–16:10 John Hills (LSE) “Inequality Trends and the Crisis in the UK” 16:10–16:35 Herwig Immervoll (OECD) “Losers of the Crisis – A Scenario Analysis for Germany” 16:35–17:00 István György Tóth (TÁRKI) “Income Inequality Measured and Perceived: European Comparisons” 17:00–17:30 General Discussion 17:30–17:45 Brian Nolan and Wiemer Salverda “A Quick Summing Up of the Conference”
17:45–19:00 Reception for Participants www.gini-research.org ([email protected]) General coordinator: Wiemer Salverda Contents coordinator Brian Nolan Theme coordinators: Inequality Measurement and Analysis Daniele Checchi & Wiemer Salverda Social Impacts Brian Nolan and Abigail McKnight Cultural and Political Impacts Herman van de Werfhorst and István György Tóth Policy Effects and Impacts Ive Marx 4
About the speakers at the public plenaries Robert Andersen is Professor of Sociology and Political Science at the University of Toronto, Canada. His teaching and research interests are in political sociology (especially the social bases of attitudes and political actions), social stratification, applied statistics, and survey methods. Most recently, he has been exploring the contextual factors associated with national differences in social and political attitudes and civic participation.
László Andor is the EU Commissioner of Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion. In 2005 he became a Member of the Board of Directors of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in London. He has been politically active since 2002, when he became a member of the Budapest Municipality’s Committee for European Integration and Foreign Affairs. Between 2002 and 2007 he was a Member of the Board of József Attila Foundation, a social democratic think tank (2002-2007) and since 2005 he has been a member of the Board of the Economic Section of the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) and editor of its economic journal “Standpoints". László Andor is also Associate professor at the Economics Department at the Corvinus University of Budapest (currently on unpaid leave) and at the King Sigismund College (currently on unpaid leave).
Sir Tony Atkinson (Oxford U. and LSE) is Senior Research Fellow, and formerly Warden, of Nuffield College and Research Professor at the Economics Department of Oxford University. He has been a distinguished challenger to the economics profession to study inequality. He has been bestowed with many honours from Academies, Universities, Associations and Governments.
Giuseppe Bertola is Professor of Political Economics at the University of Turin. He was on leave as Full-time professor at the European University Institute (1997-2003) and in 1989-93 was Assistant Professor and Assistant Director of the International Finance Section, Princeton University. He is a Managing Editor of Economic Policy and Condirettore of Giornale degli Economisti e Annali di Economia, and has performed scientific advisory work for the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and other organizations.
Michael Förster is Senior Policy Analyst at the OECD Social Policy Division. He has been working in different departments at the OECD Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs since 1986 and, particularly, has been involved in successive OECD work on income distribution and poverty. Recently, he has co-authored a major OECD study, “Growing Unequal? Income Distribution and Poverty Trends in the OECD Area”.
John Hills is Professor of Social Policy and Director of the ESRC Research Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE) at the London School of Economics. His research interests include income distribution and the welfare state, social security, housing and taxation. He was a member of the Pensions Commission between 2003 and 2006. He was Co-Director of the LSE's Welfare State Programme (1988-1997), and Senior Adviser to the Commission of Inquiry into Taxation, Zimbabwe (1984-86). He worked at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (1982-84), for the House of Commons Select Committee on the Treasury (1980-82), and at the Department of the Environment (1979-80).
Herwig Immervoll is Senior Economist and Head of Employment-oriented Social Policies, at the OECD. Before joining the OECD, Immervoll has been a Research Associate at the University of Cambridge, where he had a major role in developing EUROMOD, the EU-wide tax-benefit model. He holds a PhD in economics from the Vienna University of Economics. Immervoll’s work has a strong comparative focus.
Lane Kenworthy is Professor of Sociology and Political Science at the University of Arizona. He studies the causes and consequences of poverty, inequality, mobility, employment, economic growth, and social policy in the United States and other affluent countries. Previously he was Associate Professor of Sociology at Emory University, and Assistant Professor at East Carolina University and the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Sir Michael Marmot is Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London and director of the International Institute for Society and Health. He has led a research group on health inequalities for the past 30 years. He is Principal Investigator of the Whitehall Studies of British civil servants, investigating explanations for the striking inverse social gradient in morbidity and mortality. He leads the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) and is engaged in several international research efforts on the social determinants of health. He chairs the Department of Health Scientific Reference Group on tackling health inequalities. He was a member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution for six years and is an honorary fellow of the British Academy.
Ronan O’Brien is the EU Commission DG Research Scientific Officer for GINI. He is an economist, with a multidisciplinary background, has been involved in the socio-economic research area of the EU Framework Programme for several years, and is currently dealing with the fields of the financial and economic crisis and combining economic and social objectives.
István György Tóth is Director of TÁRKI Social Research Institute, and Docent, Department of Sociology, Corvinus University, Budapest. He holds a PhD in Sociology. He served as project director of the Hungarian Household Panel Study and several other projects on income distribution and social policies. He has been a consultant to various international organisations such as the OECD and the World Bank, and he served as a Steering Committee Member of the “Taking forward social inclusion” project organised by the Luxembourg presidency of the EU. In addition, he has been asked to comment on European survey projects, e.g. Eurobarometer and EU-SILC.