経済格差の問題は、この30年の間に経済学の片隅から抜け出し、政治的言説の中心を占めるようになりました。所得格差を示す多くの指標も近年急上昇しています。しかしながら、不平等について政治家やメディアが論じるとき、多くの人は依然としてこの状況を飲み込めずにいます。経済的不平等とは一体何を意味しているのでしょう。それはどのように測り、どうすれば是正することができるのでしょうか。果たして、不平等とは資本主義についてまわる必然なのでしょうか。
本書は現代の政治経済にとって大きな課題であるこれらの疑問を、不平等論に詳しい経済学者のジェイムズ・Ｋ・ガルブレイスが取り上げ解説します。最新の研究を基に、不平等の哲学的・理論的起源、広く使われているさまざまな概念、実証的手法とその長所と短所、不平等拡大の原因と影響に関するさまざまな理論、政策手段などを、包括的に、誰もが理解できるように説明しています。この問題に対して必要十分な情報を得た上で、自身の意見を形成するのに必要なことが、この一冊でわかります。
    

• Provides a wide-ranging and lucid guide to one of the most urgent questions of our time, based in part on a massive and original investigation into the growth of inequality around the world
• Introduces readers to the important issue of economic inequality---a hot-button topic in the 2016 presidential elections
• Explains the results of original, noteworthy, and comprehensive economic data analysis in a way that is easily understood by anyone, even those with no background in economics

    
Over the past thirty years, the issue of economic inequality has emerged from the backwaters of economics to claim center stage in the political discourse of America and beyond---a change prompted by a troubling fact: numerous measures of income inequality, especially in the United States in the last quarter of the twentieth century, have risen sharply in recent years. Even so, many people remain confused about what, exactly, politicians and media persons mean when they discuss inequality. What does "economic inequality" mean? How is it measured? Why should we care? Why did inequality rise in the United States? Is rising inequality an inevitable feature of capitalism? What should we do about it? 
   
Inequality: What Everyone Needs to Know takes up these questions and more in plain and clear language, bringing to life one of the great economic and political debates of our age. Inequality expert James K. Galbraith has compiled the latest economic research on inequality and explains his findings in a way that everyone can understand. He offers a comprehensive introduction to the study of economic inequality, including its philosophical and theoretical origins, the variety of concepts in wide use, empirical measures and their advantages and disadvantages, competing modern theories of the causes and effects of rising inequality in the United States and worldwide, and a range of policy measures.
   
The topic of economic inequality is going to become only more important as we approach the 2016 presidential elections. This latest addition to the popular What Everyone Needs to Know series from Oxford University Press will tell you everything you need to know to make informed opinions on this significant issue.