Morten N. Støstad
Post-doc at the FAIR Institute at NHH. Previously a lecturer at U.C. Berkeley. Studying inequality's consequences. Once upon a time I was an astrophysicist.
- NEW paper w. Max Lobeck & Chloé de Meulenaer: How do people in the United States and Norway argue for redistribution? In the U.S., pro-redistributive arguments mainly appeal to fairness. In Norway, arguments about the societal consequences of inequality are central. Thread ↓
- Our aim in this paper is to compare universes of arguments. We do so across countries, but also across argument types. We focus on pro-redistributive arguments based on (i) fairness, and (ii) inequality's societal consequences ("inequality externalities", e.g. trust, crime...)
- Reposted by Morten N. Støstad[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Morten N. Støstad[Not loaded yet]
- Could giving $1,000 to the poor and $2,000 to the rich be a progressive policy? Yes. (For legal purposes I do not endorse this policy)
- Reposted by Morten N. Støstad[Not loaded yet]
- In a world where it is increasingly clear that economic inequality is an externality -- as it weakens political systems, increases crime and unrest, and decreases trust -- it is malpractice not to teach students this in ECON101.
- Reposted by Morten N. StøstadJust finished teaching a class on taxation in the Economics and Public Policy master's at @sciencespo.bsky.social. My slides, heavily inspired by courses by Charles Brendon, @gabrielzucman.bsky.social, and Emmanuel Saez, are here: 👉 wouterleenders.eu/KAFP3355/06_... Feedback very welcome!
- There is an over-supply of PhDs that want to do research-adjacent activities. There is an under-supply of replication. Solution: Large government-funded replication institutes. These institutes would be strong deterrents for bad research, improving overall research quality.
- NEW: A groundbreaking survey on fairness across the world with 65,000 individuals across 60 countries -- from colleagues at @nhhecon.bsky.social. Key findings: * The West is especially meritocratic. * What drives inequality? Globally, people believe luck matters more than merit. bit.ly/41V6zJe
- I wish BlueSky added a good algorithm. This is the huge, huge problem with this website. I come on here to see the biggest, most interesting things that are happening online -- but "Discover" is just very bad, approaching current Twitter levels. Not sure if this is everyone's experience?
- Twitter's "For you" page has become complete slop. I don't see big posts from accounts I follow, just terrible content and right-wing propaganda. "Following", meanwhile, is like the Facebook feed of whoever posted in the last hour. It's really taken a complete nosedive.
- I'm not sure if it's changes in the algorithm or everyone leaving, but Twitter is becoming more unbearable every day. How's everyone doing on BSky?
- A point about top taxation I think is overlooked is that both the mechanical effect and behavioral responses reduce inequality. The mechanical effect also collects revenue, which is great. But both reduce inequality.
- Come join us at the Berkeley Stone Center Summer School on Inequality! Great opportunity for early-stage PhDs to get a crash course on modern inequality research.
- 🚨Applications are now open for the 2025 Berkeley Stone center Summer School on inequality A unique program geared towards students at the beginning of their PhD, taught by leading scholars in the field, all costs covered! Apply now 👇👇👇 sites.google.com/berkeley.edu...
- I've been posting both here and on Twitter lately. The engagement on both: (Likes on BSky / Likes on Twitter) 0 - 16 4 - 589 0 - 5 2 - 190 ...where is everyone? Any hints welcome!
- A new paper argues that rising inequality contributed to the pre-2007 crisis debt boom. The idea is that people increased their housing expenditure to keep up with their neighbors' increased spending, fueling unsustainable demand.
- The relevant channel is housing status - you want more because I have more and vice versa. This drives up spending and debt. The authors argue that this can explain 15% of the increase in the mortgage-to-income ratio.
- Both Republicans and Democrats are likely to think inequality worsens democratic institutions. An AI summary of their explanations when asked why: "Economic inequality enables the wealthy to exert disproportionate influence on political processes, [...] undermining democracy."
- The feeling that economic inequality leads to social unrest is mounting. Here is a brief overview of the current academic evidence.
- Striking example of a point I often make academically -- people may think inequality is a negative externality without thinking that inequality is unfair.
