Critical European Thinking - Different perspectives on inequality: education and income distribution

Critical European Thinking is a seminar series whose main purpose is to offer a biting analysis of the European environment. The discussion will focus on the roots and the consequences of the long-lasting economic crisis that has hit Europe. The approach will not be limited to the economic interpretation, but will suggest socio-political insights as well, since this broader perspective is an essential feature to think and understand critically such a complex topic.

The second seminar will host two speeches:

«Is Education the Great Socializer?» by Fabrizio Bernardi

Whether education is the great social equalizer is still a recurrent topic in public debate and a disputed question in academic research. I present the main results of a recent comparative book that analyses 14 countries. Each country chapter addresses 4 research questions: 1) Is there an association between individuals’ social origins and their occupational outcomes? 2) Has this intergenerational association declined over time? 3) Does the intergenerational association vary across levels of schooling?

«Income Distribution, Credit and Fiscal Policies in an Agent-based Keynesian Model» by Andrea Roventini

This work studies the interactions between income distribution and monetary and fiscal policies in terms of ensuing dynamics of macro variables (GDP growth, unemployment, etc.) on the grounds of an agent-based Keynesian model. The direct ancestor of this work is the “Keynes meeting Schumpeter” formalism presented in Dosi et al. (2010).