Dimensions of Inequality: The IFS Deaton Review

Published on 17 July 2024

When people worry about the state of the world, or the state of the UK, they often mention the word ‘inequality’.

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Read in full on the Oxford Open Economics website 

When people worry about the state of the world, or the state of the UK, they often mention the word ‘inequality’. So, it seemed like a good idea for the IFS Deaton Review of Inequalities to think about why people view inequality as a problem. But it became clear very quickly that different people not only worry about inequality differently, but also even mean different things by inequality itself. Economists immediately think about inequality in income and wealth; philosophers think about inequality in relationships or about inequality of opportunity; sociologists think about inequality in status; historians think about inequality and power, or about capital versus labour, and document whether gaps are widening or narrowing; political scientists analyse differences in voting or in influence; and health researchers worry about differences in mortality and morbidity between groups. Everyone is concerned about differences between men and women, and about differences between racial and ethnic groups. Much the same is true for education.

Some kinds of inequality are widely detested—no one argues for slavery, or for the exploitation of the weak by the strong—but others are less concerning, at least to some. Few people argue that income inequality is good in and of itself, though there is a good deal of argument about the instrumental effects of inequality, some arguably positive, e.g. in providing incentives, and some negative, as in corrupting politics, poisoning social relations, or compromising health. Some argue that inequality is less serious than poverty, and it sometimes seems that the two are confused as when people denounce inequality because there is poverty.

An important idea is that it matters how inequality comes about. Inequality through theft is different from inequality through work or business success. Fairness is important—what is sometimes called procedural inequality. Such ideas lead us to worry about children, whose futures are not in their own hands, or about the unequal chances brought by parental wealth and privilege. Even if one generation has equality of opportunity, those who succeed can create inequality among the next generation. There is also great concern about spatial and geographical inequalities in the UK today, where the place that you are born often seems to exert an undue and unfair influence on how well you do. The economic and social consequences of deindustrialization and globalization are far from equally distributed across the UK. Economists have also become more concerned about unfair practices in the economy, about monopoly and monopsony and about corporate influence on politics. In the face of accelerating technical change—e.g. in artificial intelligence—they worry about just how the new technologies will be applied, who decides and to whose benefit. They have done much work on wealth inequality as well as on income inequality, and they have done good work on documenting how inequalities come about.

From the beginning, we knew that we did not have the knowledge to provide anything like authoritative answers by ourselves, even after we had assembled a distinguished multidisciplinary panel. So, we asked others to tell us what they thought, and to tell us what others in their fields have thought and argued about. These articles and commentaries are the result; they provide a remarkable range of evidence and of arguments, and we regard them as the most important output of the Review.

Rather than summarize the contributions here, we note that each section groups together contributions by a broad theme and is prefaced by a brief introduction by a member of the panel, which we recommend as an aid to browsing.

Read on the Oxford Open Economics website here. 

    Authors

    Angus Deaton
    Angus Deaton

    Research Associate Princeton University

    Angus is the Dwight D Eisenhower Professor of Economics and International Affairs, Emeritus and Senior Scholar at Princeton University.

    Robert Joyce

    Robert Joyce

    Debra Satz
    Debra Satz

    Research Associate Stanford University

    Debra is a Research Associate of the IFS and a Professor and the Dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University.

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    Stuart White

    Eric Posner

    University of Chicago

    Philippe Van Parijs

    University of Louvain

    Robert Sugden

    University of East Anglia

    Paul Johnson
    Paul Johnson

    Director

    Paul has been the Director of the IFS since 2011. He is also currently visiting professor in the Department of Economics at University College London.

    Orazio Attanasio

    Yale

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    Rebecca Benson

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    Bobby Duffy

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    Rachel Hesketh

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    Kirstie Hewlett

    Ingvild Almås
    Ingvild Almås

    Research Associate Stockholm University

    Ingvild, a Research Fellow, is a Professor of Economics at the Stockholm University and Principal Investigator at the Centre of Excellence FAIR.

    Alexander W. Cappelen

    Norwegian School of Economics (NHH)

    Erik Øiolf Sørensen

    Norwegian School of Economics (NHH)

    Bertil Tungodden

    NHH Norwegian School of Economics

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    Stefanie Stantcheva

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    Pascale Bourquin

    Tom Wernham
    Tom Wernham

    Senior Research Economist

    Tom's main research areas are living standards and poverty, the benefits system, and its interactions with the labour market.

    Mike Brewer

    Mike Brewer

    Janet Gornick

    Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY)

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    Stephen P. Jenkins

    Paul Lambert

    University of Stirling

    Tim Besley
    Tim Besley

    Research Associate London School of Economics

    Timothy is a Research Associate at the IFS and a Professor of Economics and Political Science at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

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    Bob Allen

    Walter Scheidel

    Stanford University

    Simon Szreter

    University of Cambridge

    Ben Ansell

    University of Oxford

    Jane Gingrich

    University of Oxford

    Pablo Beramendi

    Duke University

    Margaret Levi

    Stanford University

    Julia Cage

    SciencePo

    Lucinda Platt
    Lucinda Platt

    Research Fellow London School of Economics

    Lucinda Platt is a Research Fellow of the IFS and Professor of Social Policy and Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

    Alison Andrew
    Alison Andrew

    Research Fellow

    Alison is a Senior Research Economist of our Institute with research interests in the economics of gender, marriage and education.

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    Oriana Bandiera

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    Monica Hernandez

    Camille Landais
    Camille Landais

    Research Fellow London School of Economics and Political Science

    Camille is a Research Fellow at IFS, a Director of the CEPR Public Economics Program and a Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics.

    Claudia Goldin

    Harvard University

    Sari Pekkala Kerr

    Wellesley College & National Bureau of Economic Research

    Claudia Olivetti

    Dartmouth College & National Bureau of Economic Research

    Lucinda Platt
    Lucinda Platt

    Research Fellow London School of Economics

    Lucinda Platt is a Research Fellow of the IFS and Professor of Social Policy and Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

    Alita Nandi

    University of Essex

    Lynn Prince Cooke

    University of Bath

    Ross Warwick
    Ross Warwick

    International Research Associate

    Ross joined the IFS in 2016 and works in the Centre for Tax Analysis in Developing Countries.

    Heidi Safia Mirza

    UCL Institute of Education and Goldsmith’s College, University of London

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    Christian Dustmann

    Yannis Kastis

    University College London

    Ian Preston
    Ian Preston

    Research Fellow University College London

    Ian is a Research Fellow of the IFS and a Professor of Economics at UCL. He joined UCL in 1991 and has been attached to the IFS since 1990.

    Claudia Diehl
    Claudia Diehl

    Professor of Microsociology University of Konstanz

    Research interests include integration processes among new immigrants in Europe and on xenophobia and ethnic discrimination.

    Dominik Hangartner

    ETH Zurich

    Judith Spirig

    University College London

    Frank van Tubergen

    Utrecht University

    James Banks
    James Banks

    CPP Co-Director

    James is Senior Research Fellow and Professor of Economics at Manchester, working on broad issues in the economics of retirement, savings and health.

    Lisa Berkman
    Lisa Berkman

    Research Associate Harvard University

    Lisa is a Research Associate at our Institute and the Director of Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies

    Anne Case

    Anne Case

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    Lucy Kraftman

    Heidi Karjalainen
    Heidi Karjalainen

    Senior Research Economist

    Heidi is a Senior Research Economist in the Retirement, Saving & Ageing sector. Her current research is on pensions and saving for retirement.

    Tom Waters
    Tom Waters

    Associate Director

    Tom is an Associate Director at the IFS and Head of the Income, Work and Welfare sector.

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    Janet Currie

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    Daisy Fancourt

    Carol Propper
    Carol Propper

    Research Fellow Imperial College London

    Carol is a Research Fellow at the IFS and a Professor of Economics in the Department of Management and Imperial College Business School, London.

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    Overman, H

    Henry Overman

    London School of Economics

    Ash Amin

    University of Cambridge

    Philip McCann

    University of Manchester

    Enrico Moretti

    UC Berkeley

    Maarten van Ham

    Delft University of Technology

    David Manley

    University of Bristol

    Tiit Tammaru

    University of Tartu

    Kathleen Kiernan
    Kathleen Kiernan

    Research Associate University of York

    Kathleen is a Research Associate of the IFS through Deaton Review and Emeritus Professor of Social Policy and Demography at the University of York.

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    Angus Phimister

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    Sam Crossman

    Cezar Santos

    Banco de Portugal and FGV EPGE

    Michèle Tertilt

    University of Mannheim

    Laura van der Erve

    Laura van der Erve

    Sonya Krutikova
    Sonya Krutikova

    Deputy Research Director

    Sonya Krutikova is a Professor of Economics at Manchester University and IFS Deputy Research Director.

    David Sturrock
    David Sturrock

    Associate Director

    David’s research covers household wealth, intergenerational transfers, social mobility, pensions taxation, and health and work at older ages.

    Lindsey Macmillan
    Lindsey Macmillan

    Research Fellow University College London

    Lindsey, an IFS Research Fellow, is a Professor of Economics and the Centre Head of Quantitative Social Science at UCL Institute of Education.

    Sarah Cattan
    Sarah Cattan

    Research Fellow

    Sarah is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

    Emla Fitzsimons
    Emla Fitzsimons

    Research Fellow University College London

    Emla Fitzsimons is a Professor of Economics at the University College London Institute of Education and a Research Fellow at the IFS.

    Alissa Goodman
    Alissa Goodman

    Research Fellow University College London

    Alissa is an IFS Research Fellow and a Professor of Economics and Director of the Centre for Longitudinal Studies at the UCL Institute of Education.

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    Angus Phimister

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    George Ploubidis

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    Jasmin Wertz

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    Fabrizio Zilibotti

    Fabrizio is Chair of Macroeconomics, Institute for International Economic Studies and an International Fellow of IFS.

    Matthias Doepke

    Northwestern University

    Essi Viding

    University College London

    Eamon McCrory

    University College London

    Sophie von Stumm

    University of York

    Chrsitine Farquharson
    Christine Farquharson

    Associate Director

    Christine's research examines inequalities in children's education and health, especially in the early education and childcare sector.

    Imran Tahir
    Imran Tahir

    Senior Research Economist

    Imran joined the IFS in 2019 and works in the Education and Skills sector.

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    Sandra McNally

    Richard Breen

    University of Oxford

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    Simon Field

    Richard Blundell
    Richard Blundell

    CPP Co-Director

    Richard is Co-Director of the Centre for the Microeconomic Analysis of Public Policy (CPP) and Senior Research Fellow at IFS.

    Rachel Cassidy
    Rachel Griffith

    CPP Co-Director

    Rachel is Research Director and Professor at the University of Manchester. She was made a Dame for services to economic policy and education in 2021.

    Giulia Giupponi
    Giulia Giupponi

    Research Fellow Bocconi University

    Giulia, an Assistant Professor of Economics at Bocconi University, studies the employment and welfare effects of social insurance and minimum wages.

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    Stephen Machin

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    Daron Acemoglu

    Pascual Restrepo

    Boston University

    Orley Ashenfelter

    Princeton University

    Pierre Cahuc
    Pierre Cahuc

    Research Fellow Sciences Po

    Pierre is a Professor of Economics, Sciences Po and a Research Fellow at the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

    Jean Tirole
    Jean Tirole

    Research Fellow Toulouse School of Economics

    Jean Tirole is a Research Fellow of the IFS and a honorary chairman of the Foundation JJ Laffont-Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).

    David R. Howell

    The New School

    Arne L. Kalleberg

    The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

    lan Manning

    London School of Economics

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    Barbara Petrongolo

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    Jan De Loecker

    Tim Obermeier
    Tim Obermeier

    Research Associate University of Leicester

    Tim is a Research Associate of the IFS and Lecturer in Economics at the University of Leicester.

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    John Van Reenen

    Philippe Aghion
    Philippe Aghion

    Research Fellow London School of Economics

    Philippe is an IFS Research Fellow, a Professor of Economics at LSE, at the College de France and at INSEAD, and a Fellow at the Econometric Society.

    Rachel Cassidy
    Rachel Griffith

    CPP Co-Director

    Rachel is Research Director and Professor at the University of Manchester. She was made a Dame for services to economic policy and education in 2021.

    Jan Eeckhout
    Jan Eeckhout

    Research Associate Pompeu Fabra University and Barcelona Graduate School of Economics

    Jan is an IFS Research Associate, a Research Professor at the Barcelona School of Economics and an ICREA Research Professor at the UPF Barcelona.

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    Colin P Mayer

    Pinelopi Goldberg
    Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg

    Research Fellow Yale University

    Pinelopi is a Research Fellow and the Elihu Professor of Economics and an Affiliate of the Economic Growth Center at Yale University.

    Mariana Mazzucato

    University College London

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    David Dorn

    Peter Levell
    Peter Levell

    Deputy Research Director

    Peter joined in 2009. He has published several papers on the microeconomics of household spending and labour supply decisions over the life-cycle.

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    Dani Rodrik

    David Atkin

    Massachusetts Institute of Technology

    Isaac Delestre
    Isaac Delestre

    Senior Research Economist

    Isaac is a Senior Research Economist in the Taxation sector, focusing on the taxation of high-income individuals and closely-held corporate entities.

    Kate Smith
    Kate Smith

    Research Fellow London School of Economics

    Kate is an IFS Research Fellow and an Assistant Professor at LSE, interested in public finance, industrial organisation and applied microeconomics.

    Helen Miller
    Helen Miller

    Deputy Director

    Helen is Deputy Director of the IFS and Head of the Tax sector.

    Arun Advani
    Arun Advani

    Research Fellow University of Warwick

    Arun is a Research Fellow at IFS, an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick and a Commissioner at the Wealth Tax Commission.

    Andy Summers
    Andy Summers

    Research Fellow London School of Economics

    Andy Summers is an Associate Professor of Law at the London School of Economics and an Associate of the International Inequalities Institute at LSE.

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    Emmanuel Saez

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    Gabriel Zucman

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    Owen Zidar

    Hilary Hoynes
    Hilary Hoynes

    Research Fellow University of California, Berkeley

    Hilary is a Research Fellow of the IFS and a Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the University of California, Berkeley.

    Tom Waters
    Tom Waters

    Associate Director

    Tom is an Associate Director at the IFS and Head of the Income, Work and Welfare sector.

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    Nicholas Crafts

    Jan Brülle

    Goethe University

    Markus Gangl

    Goethe University

    Robert Moffitt

    Brown University

    Kate Ogden
    Kate Ogden

    Senior Research Economist

    Kate joined the IFS in 2020 and works on local government finance and higher education.

    David Phillips
    David Phillips

    Associate Director

    David is Head of Devolved and Local Government Finance. He also works on tax in developing countries as part of our TaxDev centre.

    Nick Timmins
    Nicholas Timmins

    Trustee

    Nicholas Timmins is a senior fellow at the Institute for Government and the King’s Fund.

    Ruth Patrick

    University of York

    Report details

    Publisher
    Oxford Open Economics

    Suggested citation

    Acemoglu, D et al. (2024). Dimensions of Inequality: The IFS Deaton Review. London: Oxford Open Economics. Available at: https://ifs.org.uk/publications/dimensions-inequality-ifs-deaton-review (accessed: 29 April 2025).

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