Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Limited to Master of Applied Economics students. Investigation of rise of earning inequality (with emphasis on U.S.), focusing on learning how to use models and data to quantify impact of range of forces on inequality. Overview of broad empirical trends, with emphasis on understanding how to document these facts ourselves. Consideration of three classes of potential explanations for these patterns: international connections (e.g., trade and immigration), institutional change (e.g., minimum wage and unionization), and technical change (e.g., computerization and spread of robots). Focus on quantifying these forces ourselves. Study of top income inequality: why have extremely rich become much richer than very rich? Focus on CEO compensation. Letter grading.

Units: 4.0