Stone Center Senior Scholar
Visiting Presidential Professor
The Graduate Center, CUNY
Branko Milanovic is a visiting presidential professor at The Graduate Center, CUNY, and a senior scholar at the Stone Center on Socio-economic Inequality. He obtained his Ph.D. in economics (1987) from the University of Belgrade with a dissertation on income inequality in Yugoslavia. He served as lead economist in the World Bank’s Research Department for almost 20 years, leaving to write his book on global income inequality, Worlds Apart (2005). He was a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington (2003-2005) and has held teaching appointments at the University of Maryland (2007-2013) and at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University (1997- 2007). He was a visiting scholar at All Souls College in Oxford, and Universidad Carlos III in Madrid (2010-11).
Milanovic’s main area of work is income inequality, in individual countries and globally, including in preindustrial societies. He has published articles in Economic Journal, Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Economic Literature, Journal of Development Economics, and Journal of Political Philosophy, among others. His book The Haves and the Have-nots (2011) was selected by The Globalist as the 2011 Book of the Year. Global Inequality (2016) was awarded the Bruno Kreisky Prize for the best political book of 2016 and the Hans Matthöfer Prize in 2018, and was translated into 16 languages. It addresses economic and political effects of globalization and introduces the concept of successive “Kuznets waves” of inequality. In March 2018, Milanovic was awarded (jointly with Mariana Mazzucato) the 2018 Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Knowledge. His new book Capitalism, Alone was published in September 2019.
Areas of Expertise
Global Inequality
Globalization
History of Inequality
Macroeconomy
Featured Work
Established in 2014, Professor Milanovic’s blog globalinequality covers topics from Marxism to capitalism, as well as many other issues affecting global inequality. He posts several times a month and attract visitors globally.
- Milanovic on Income Inequality in Quesnay and SmithIn this lecture, Branko Milanovic presents how the classical writers François Quesnay and Adam Smith discussed inequality and how their discussion may be interpreted in the terms of interpersonal inequality.
- Virtual Workshop 2020: Global Distribution of Income and Its Political MeaningIn this presentation, Branko Milanovic presents an overview of trends in global income inequality, both between and within countries, from the early 1800s to the present.
- Analysis: Literature and InequalityIn his personal blog post, Branko Milanovic examines data from “Pride and Prejudice” and “Anna Karenina” as vignettes to explore income inequality in 19th Century literature.
- Thoughts from the Stone Center on the Pandemic and Its ImpactIn this commentary — Miles Corak, Janet Gornick, Paul Krugman, Leslie McCall, Branko Milanovic and Salvatore Morelli — each with unique expertise in the study of inequality, offer insights on the Covid-19 crisis.
- Analysis: The Real Pandemic Danger Is Social Collapse–As the Global Economy Comes Apart, Societies May, TooIn Foreign Affairs, Branko Milanovic says advanced societies must not allow economics, particularly the fortunes of financial markets, to blind them to the fact that the most important role economic policy can play now is to keep social bonds strong under this extraordinary pressure.
- Inequality, Crisis, and the Possibility of ChangeIn this interview, Branko Milanovic discusses recent political instability, trends in policy on inequality, and a way to break the 1 percent’s “quasi-automatic” increasing share of capital.
- Panel: The Future of Global Capitalism–Branko Milanovic in ConversationIn this video, experts discuss the prospects for a fairer world now that capitalism is the predominant economic system.
- Analysis: The Clash of Capitalisms—The Real Fight for the Global Economy’s FutureIn Foreign Affairs, Branko Milanovic discusses the U.S. and China’s competing brands of capitalism and what it means for future inequality.
- The New Yorker: The Rich Can’t Get Richer Forever, Can They?Branko Milanovic’s global inequality research is featured in this article on the predictability of inequality cycles.
- Branko Milanovic named Centennial Professor at the London School of EconomicsHis three-year honorary appointment will help to strengthen ties between the Stone Center and LSE’s International Inequalities Institute.
- Milanovic on Income Inequality in Quesnay and SmithIn this lecture, Branko Milanovic presents how the classical writers François Quesnay and Adam Smith discussed inequality and how their discussion may be interpreted in the terms of interpersonal inequality.
- Virtual Workshop 2020: Global Distribution of Income and Its Political MeaningIn this presentation, Branko Milanovic presents an overview of trends in global income inequality, both between and within countries, from the early 1800s to the present.
- Panel: The Future of Global Capitalism–Branko Milanovic in ConversationIn this video, experts discuss the prospects for a fairer world now that capitalism is the predominant economic system.
- Recent Trends in Global Income Distribution and the Political ImplicationsIn this IIPP video, Branko Milanovic discusses the current evolution in global income inequality.
- Panel: After PikettyIn this video, Stone Center scholars give context to the current political debate over economic growth and inequality.
- Panel: Globalization and InequalityIs globalization responsible for increased income inequality? Watch three experts and Graduate Center professors explore the complex relationship between these large-scale economic trends.
- The Great Escape—Health, Wealth, and InequalityIn this video, Angus Deaton traces the dramatic increase in human prosperity over the past 250 years as well as the widening gap between the poor and sick, and the rich and well.
- Panel: Income Inequality LIS Book LaunchIn this video, panelists and editors discuss “Income Inequality: Economic Disparities and the Middle Class in Affluent Countries” at its launch.