LIST OF PANELS

In late 1980s the world started to witness a rapid growth of inequality in most countries, which has been greatly fueled by deepening globalization, widening liberalization and widespread transitions in former socialist countries. The rapid rising level of inequality has become a major concern of governments, as it has exerted adverse economic and social effects on societies and led to instability. Therefore, understanding inequality, its moving pattern, growing trajectory and functioning mechanism is essential not only for scholars, but also for policymakers.  Due to the uneven consequences of the recent global financial crisis, inequality has once again aroused considerable interests in both intellectual circle and policymaking arena.  The panel welcomes review and research articles to address theoretical, methodological, and empirical issues arising from inequality studies at global level, regional level and national level. In particular, we welcome papers with a special focus on analyzing the inequality pattern during the financial crisis. The need for a better understanding of relations between the policies implemented and changes in inequalities, together with tools allowing policy makers to see the impact of their decisions is urgent. By focusing on different aspects of relations between policies, inequality, financial instability, labor markets, this panel is complementary in providing resources for more adequate policy response to the changing pattern of inequality in different social and political contexts. 

In late 1980s the world started to witness a rapid growth of inequality in most countries, which has been greatly fueled by deepening globalization, widening liberalization and widespread transitions in former socialist countries. The rapid rising level of inequality has become a major concern of governments, as it has exerted adverse economic and social effects on societies and led to instability. Therefore, understanding inequality, its moving pattern, growing trajectory and functioning mechanism is essential not only for scholars, but also for policymakers.  Due to the uneven consequences of the recent global financial crisis, inequality has once again aroused considerable interests in both intellectual circle and policymaking arena.  Bringing together economists, sociologists, and policy scientists from different institutions, co-chaired by Professor Luigi Pasinetti (Università Cattolica Milano) and Professor James Galbraith (University of Texas), this panel mainly aims at offering a new insight into the measurement of economic inequality on a world scale and analyzing the impacts of inequality pattern on policymaking process in different societies, including European Union, eastern European countries, China and South Korea. Examining the evolution of inequality trends over a long time period with a special focus on pre-and-post crisis, the panel seeks to bring a novel perspective to the complex relationships between economic inequality and financial instability.    In this regard, we plan to invite scholars with varied backgrounds to examine the dimensions, complexity, and dynamics of economic inequality from multiple perspectives.  One of potential papers is Dr. Wenjie Zhang’s work on China’s pay inequality during economic reform. By decomposing it into its between-province and between-sector components, from 1987 to 2012. Based on this information, Dr. Zhang’s paper examines the place of China in the Kuznets curve, which posits a U-shaped relation between industrialization and inequality. In the context of a new industrialization plan announced by the new administration in response to increasing inequality, this study aims at offering insight about the possible outcomes of such a move.  Another potential paper is to focus on economic shifts in Poland from 1989 to 2012, which highlight Poland's entrance into the European Union. Additionally, the paper would discuss inequality trends in several countries in Eastern Europe including Czech Republic, Hungary, Ukraine, Russia, and Poland as measured by Gini Income coefficients and compared to EHII measures. The need for a better understanding of relations between the policies implemented and changes in inequalities, together with tools allowing policy makers to see the impact of their decisions is urgent. By focusing on different aspects of relations between policies, inequality, financial instability, labor markets, this panel is complementary in providing resources for more adequate policy response to the changing pattern of inequality in different social and political contexts.