New Press
Top Heavy: The Increasing Inequality of Wealth in America and What Can Be Done about It
Key Metrics
- Edward N Wolff
- New Press
- Paperback
- 9781565846654
- 8.32 X 5.5 X 0.36 inches
- 0.34 pounds
- Political Science > American Government - General
- English
Secure TransactionBook Description
A work that sparked widespread controversy when it was first published, Top Heavy is acclaimed economist Edward N. Wolff's eloquent presentation of the facts of wealth inequality in the United States. In a completely revised and updated edition of the book the Boston Review hailed as the leading contemporary study of the distribution of wealth, Wolff reveals the unprecedented rise in recent years of wealth inequality and shows how it is one of the major forces challenging democracy and economic opportunity in America.
Wolff vividly illustrates how the gap between the haves and the have-nots in terms of wealth is greater now than at any time since 1929, immediately preceding the Great Depression. As the nation considers trillion-dollar tax cuts and the abolishment of the estate tax, Top Heavy takes a sobering look at how the wealth of the top 1 percent of households continues its heart stopping expansion while the current distribution of wealth in America invites the surprisingly apt comparison with the class-dominated societies of nineteenth-century Europe.
Top Heavy will continue to be an essential reference point in any discussion of what an economically healthy America might look like.
Author Bio
Edward N. Wolff is a professor of economics at New York University and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He works within the Levy Institute’s distribution of income and wealth program, and was involved in the development of the Levy Institute Measure of Economic Well-Being.
His principal research areas are the distribution of income and wealth, and productivity growth. Wolff is the author of numerous books, including:
Inheriting Wealth in America: Future Boom or Bust? (Oxford University Press, 2015);
Productivity Convergence: Theory and Evidence, Cambridge Surveys of Economic Literature Series (Cambridge University Press, 2014);
Productivity Growth: Industries, Spillovers and Economic Performance (with T. ten Raa; Edward Elgar Publishers, 2012);
The Transformation of the American Pension System: Was It Beneficial for Workers? (W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, 2011);
Does Education Really Help? Skill, Work, and Inequality (Oxford University Press, 2006);
Retirement Income: The Crucial Role of Social Security (with C. Weller; Economic Policy Institute, 2005);
Downsizing in America: Reality, Causes, and Consequences (with W. J. Baumol and A. S. Blinder; Russell Sage Foundation, 2003);
Retirement Insecurity: The Income Shortfalls Awaiting the Soon-to-Retire (Economic Policy Institute, 2002);
Top Heavy: A Study of the Increasing Inequality of Wealth in America (Twentieth Century Fund Press, 1995);
Competitiveness, Convergence, and International Specialization (with D. Dollar; The MIT Press, 1993);
Productivity and American Leadership: The Long View (with W. J. Baumol and S. B. Blackman; The MIT Press, 1989); and
Growth, Accumulation, and Unproductive Activity: An Analysis of the Postwar US Economy (Cambridge University Press, 1987).
He is a past managing editor of the Review of Income and Wealth.
Research Interests
Distribution of Income and Wealth
Education
- Ph.D. 1974, Yale University, Economics
- M.Phil 1972, Yale University, Economics
- B.A. 1968, Harvard University, Economics
Source: New York University Arts & Science
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