Beyond income: Gunnar Myrdal's pioneering economic approach to social inequalities
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1590/1980-53575215ccasKeywords:
Social inequality, Income inequality, Gunnar Myrdal, Structural reforms, Economic developmentAbstract
Studies on inequality constitute a broad and consolidated field in Economic Science and are mostly oriented towards economic inequalities. In the first two decades of the 21st century, different countries’ social movements have retrieved the debate in such a way that notable economists began incorporating social issues into their analysis of economic inequalities. This paper aims to demonstrate that this multidisciplinary way of analyzing inequalities was first used by Gunnar Myrdal during the 1960s, when inequality studies were broadly related to income and wealth measurement. We argued that the wide range of social inequalities is not always a result of the unequal income distribution. Also, we highlight that social inequality has a long-term impact on economic development. As a result, the paper suggests that the debate regarding reducing inequality must incorporate broader actions such as those outlined by Myrdal. It concludes that reducing inequalities is a process based on the implementation of deep social reforms.
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