Is Inequality the Problem?

This special installment of the Stone Inequality Book Talk series inaugurates the first Stone Inequality Debate, in which Lane Kenworthy, author of the newly released book Is Inequality the Problem?, debates the question in the book's title with Stone Visiting Scholar Lisa M. Lynch. For more information, click here.

About the book: Increasing economic inequality is now one of the most studied subjects in the social sciences. The general view is that while its increase represents a bad social outcome in and of itself, its negative impact extends into numerous other realms of social life: declines in living standards for those in the lower deciles of the income ladder, worse health outcomes, reductions in happiness, and less opportunity for most. In Is Inequality the Problem?, Lane Kenworthy draws from a vast trove of research on the rich democracies to argue that while inequality is normatively a problem and we should therefore work to reduce it, the evidence from wealthier countries does not show that income inequality has contributed much at all to the other social ills it is associated with, like poor health outcomes. The effects vary from society to society, but typically the key contributors to negative trends like this one are factors other than inequality. Instead of trying to improve living standards, democracy, opportunity, health, and happiness indirectly via reduction in income inequality or wealth inequality, policy makers are more likely to make progress by pursuing these goals directly. This contrarian yet balanced account of one of the main social problems of our era will reshape our understanding of how rising economic inequality has affected societies in the industrialized world. 

Lane Kenworthy is Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Yankelovich Chair in Social Thought at the University of California-San Diego. He studies the causes and consequences of living standards, capabilities, poverty, inequality, mobility, employment, economic growth, social policy, taxes, public opinion, politics, and more in the United States and other rich longstanding-democratic countries. His books include The Good Society (thegoodsociety.net), Is Inequality the Problem? (2025), Would Democratic Socialism Be Better? (2022), Social Democratic Capitalism (2020), How Big Should Our Government Be? (2016), Social Democratic America (2014), Progress for the Poor (2011), Jobs with Equality (2008), Egalitarian Capitalism (2004), and In Search of National Economic Success (1995).

Lisa M. Lynch is the 2025-26 Stone Visiting Scholar/Visiting Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Maurice B. Hexter Professor of Social and Economic Policy at Brandeis University. Before her appointment at Harvard, she was the director of the Institute for Economic and Racial Equity at Brandeis and co-director of the Retirement and Disability Research Center at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. At Brandeis, she served as Provost (2014-15 and 2016-2020), Interim President (2015-2016), and Dean of the Heller School for Social Policy and Management (2008-2014). A past president of the Labor and Employment Relations Association, Lynch is currently an elected member of the executive committee of the American Economic Association. Lynch has extensive public policy experience, having served as the chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor (1995-1997); director (2004-2009), and chair (2007-2009) of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston; and chair of the Conference of Chairmen of the Federal Reserve Sysytem (2009). She has published extensively on the impact of technological change, organizational innovation (especially training), and unionization on productivity and wages, as well as the determinants of youth unemployment and race and gender differences in labor market outcomes. She has also been a faculty member at Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, MIT's Sloan School of Management, the Ohio State University, and the University of Bristol. She received her BA in economics and political science from Wellesley College, and her M.Sc. and Ph.D. in economics from the London School of Economics.