Academic Directors
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 Mogens Kamp Justesen Professor (mso) |
The Inequality Platform addresses the causes and consequences of inequality. In a globalised world, this requires that inequality is treated as a phenomenon occurring at different, related levels. The Platform therefore addresses inequality from a Danish, European, and global level. Inequality also has multiple and closely linked dimensions, relating to firms (e.g., wages, working conditions, and employment), economics (e.g., labour markets, health care systems, and migration), and politics (e.g. EU regulations and redistributive politics).
Tackling these issues is not only an ambitious endeavour, it also requires an interdisciplinary perspective on inequality. The Inequality Platform therefore brings together researchers from four CBS departments – DBP, ECON, INT, and MSC. The Platform contributes to the academic environment and the wider world in terms of research, education, and outreach, and involves a variety of stakeholders from the worlds of business, government, and international organisations.
The Platform builds on a number of Research Clusters; a new cohort of PhD students addressing inequality and it launces new, innovative teaching initiatives including a Minor on inequality. It reaches out to stakeholders, international academic networks, and the wider (international) public in order to place CBS at the forefront of the global map of research on inequality.
This set-up promises high-level research output, multifaceted outreach and dissemination activities, and developments of new innovative teaching portfolios.
The platform programme runs from 2018-2023.
There is little doubt that inequality is related to negative health outcomes and lower well-being (Pickett and Wilkinson 2015). Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity (WHO 1946). To investigate inequality in health, this research cluster focuses on two major topics.
Cluster Coordinators: Lucia Reisch and Herdis Steingrimsdottir
This cluster focuses on causes and consequences of inequality in employment, income, and working conditions within and across countries – with a particular focus on comparisons of different European labour market models.
Cluster Coordinators: Janine Leschke and Birthe Larsen
The recent rise in economic inequality in a number of Western countries is to a large extent driven by differences between firms in terms of their redistributive functions, such as bonuses and other remuneration schemes on top of relatively high wages (Piketty, 2014; Alvaredo et al. 2013). This cluster addresses this issue from the firm level, focusing in particular on the case of Denmark.
The recent rise in economic inequality in a number of Western countries is to a large extent driven by differences between firms in terms of their redistributive functions, such as bonuses and other remuneration schemes on top of relatively high wages (Piketty, 2014; Alvaredo et al. 2013). This cluster addresses this issue from the firm level, focusing in particular on the case of Denmark.
Cluster Coordinators: Thomas Poulsen and Lasse Folke Henriksen
Debates on economic inequality often centre on gaps in people’s (labour market) incomes. However, to get a more complete account of inequality we need to simultaneously consider inequality in the accumulation of wealth and capital. In this cluster, our objective is to understand the causes and consequences of wealth and capital inequality in Denmark and the global political economy.
Cluster Coordinators: Battista Severgnini and Brooke Harrington
Government policy is an important driver of – and response to – developments in inequality within and across countries. Indeed, redistributive politics is intimately related to debates on equality – not least because taxation and redistribution are the most commonly proposed solutions to problems of poverty and rising inequality (Atkinson 2015; Piketty 2014). While a common argument holds that globalisation has caused states to lose control over redistributive policies (Sassen 2015), others emphasise that states continue to have the power and capacity to forcefully intervene in the domestic and international economy (Campbell and Hall 2015). In this cluster, we address how and why governments respond to the challenges of inequality at both the micro and macro level. In doing so, we address three issues.
Cluster Coordinators: Manuele Citi and Mauricio Prado
Recent accounts have attributed growing economic inequality to the liberalization of global markets and the intensification of international competition. They suggest that these processes and the commitment of governments to neoliberal principles, the competition state and (after 2010) the imposition of ‘austerity’ created ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ (Streek 2017). This has weakened social cohesion, intensified the consequences of economic crises, bred resentment, eroded trust, intensified partisanship and left the working-class beleaguered (Pickett and Wilkinson 2009; McCarty et al. 2006). These developments in turn laid the basis for political shifts. Inequality has reduced the scope for the crafting of cross-partisan policies. Centre-left parties have lost a significant proportion of their former voters. Above all else, growing inequality has fuelled the rise of contemporary right-wing populism. Formerly fringe parties that had attracted small numbers of votes gained traction. Despite forecasts, Brexit proved victorious and Donald Trump won the US presidency.
Cluster Coordinators: Eddie Ashbee and Ole Helmersen