October 2010: An exploratory meeting on Top-End income concentration

In 2007, the wealthiest 1% of families controlled more than 23% of income in the U.S. for the first time since 1928. To explore the implications of such dramatic concentration at the top of the income distribution, the Tobin Project convened a workshop in the fall that focused on questions raised at our 2010 conference. Academics from several disciplines, including political science, economics, and sociology, discussed the potential political consequences of top-end inequality and examined whether inequality may affect corporate decisionmaking and firms. The group examined how top-end inequality might also impact the behavior of consumers, policymakers, and voters, and how these effects might be tested.

Meeting participants included:

Carola Frydman (Boston University, Economics)

Jacob Hacker (Yale University, Political Science)

Christopher "Sandy" Jencks (Harvard Kennedy School)

Alex Keyssar (Harvard Kennedy School)

Rakesh Khurana (Harvard Business School)

David Moss (Harvard Business School)

Paul Pierson (University of California-Berkeley, Political Science)