Fighting Poverty in the US and Europe: A World of Difference (Check Info and Delete This Occurrence: ºC the Rodolfo De Benedetti Lecture Series) - Hardcover

Alesina, Alberto; Glaeser, Edward L.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0199267669 ISBN 13: 9780199267668

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2004

Synopsis

In this this timely study of the different approaches of America and Europe to the problems of domestic inequality and poverty, the authors describe just how different the two continents are in the level of State engagement in the redistribution of income. They discuss various possible economic explanations for the difference, including different levels of pre-tax income, openness, and social mobility; they survey politico-historical differences such as the varying physical size of nations, their electoral and legal systems, and the character of their political parties, as well as their experiences of war; and they examine sociological explanations which include different attitudes to the poor and notions of social responsibility, as well as, most importantly, attitudes to race.

About this title

About the Author:

Alberto Alesina is Nathaniel Ropes Professor of Political Economy and currently Chairman of the Department of Economics at Harvard University, and has been Visiting Professor at IGIER-Bocconi and MIT. He is a Research Associate for the National Bureau of Economic Research and for the Center
for Economic Policy Research. He is coeditor of the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and in addition to his many books and scientific papers he has published columns in the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal Europe, Le Monde, Il Sole 24 Ore, Corriere della Sera, La Stampa, Frankfurter Zeitung,
Handelsblatt, and many other newspapers world wide. Edward Glaeser is a Professor of Economics at Harvard University, where he has taught since 1992. He teaches urban and social economics and microeconomic theory, and has published dozens of papers on cities, economic growth, and law and economics.
He is a Research Associate for the National Bureau of Economic Research, and has also been a consultant for numerous international institutions.

Review:

"An important contribution to this enduring debate"--Region Focus

"In what ways, and why, are the United States and Europe so far apart in social policy? Alesina and Glaeser give us as definitive an answer to this fundamental question as we shall ever see."-George A. Akerlof, Nobel Prize Laureate

"This probing of the forces behind 'American exceptionalism', as measured by a much smaller welfare state than in Europe, is immensely important. The authors take a multi-discipline approach and consider many factors, including narrowly economic variables, political institutions, racial and ethnic diversity, the effects of wars, attitudes toward the poor, and still others. Their findings are sometimes surprising and frequently provocative. This monograph will quickly become the foundation of further literature on a subject of enormous significance."--Gary S. Becker, Nobel Prize Laureate

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0199267669
• ISBN 13: 9780199267668
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 264