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date: 28 February 2020

Abstract and Keywords

This article focuses on the concept of inequality, beginning with its main causes. It reviews the second half of the causal chain between inequality and politics, namely the impact of inequality on government. The review also examines the special question of ‘American exceptionalism’, which refers to the question of why there is less redistribution and more inequality in the USA than in Europe.

Keywords: inequality, main causes, causal chain, politics, impact, government, American exceptionalism, redistribution

Edward L. Glaeser

Prof Edward Glaeser is Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA

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