Anthony Atkinson e l’aritmetica politica del XXI secolo (Anthony Atkinson and Political Arithmetic in the XXI Century)

Authors

  • Marco Ranaldi Sapienza University of Rome

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13133/2037-3651_70.278_3

Keywords:

Obituary, Anthony Atkinson, Inequality, History of Economic Thought

Abstract

Anthony Atkinson è spesso considerato il padre della moderna ricerca sulla disuguaglianza. Ha dedicato la sua carriera accademica allo sviluppo di strumenti metodologici e proposte politiche con l'obiettivo di aumentare il benessere delle persone. In questo necrologio si sostiene che il suo contributo alla disciplina economica si basa su tre temi principali e collegati fra loro: misurazione, distribuzione e benessere. Prendendo atto del contributo innovativo di Atkinson sul campo, viene tracciato un parallelo con William Petty, il fondatore dell'aritmetica politica.

 

Anthony Atkinson is often considered the father of modern inequality research. He devoted his academic career to developing methodological tools and policies proposals with the aim of increasing people’s wellbeing. In this obituary it is argued that his contribution to the discipline of economics rests on three major and interrelated themes: measurement, distribution and welfare. Taking note of Atkinson’s innovative contribution to the field, a parallel with William Petty, the founder of political arithmetic, is drawn. 

JEL Classifications: B32, D63, H10

References

Alvaredo F., Atkinson A.B., Piketty T., Saez E. (2013), “The Top 1 Percent in International and Historical Perspective”, NBER Working Papers, Cambridge (MA): National Bureau of Economic Research.

Alvaredo F., Atkinson A.B., Morelli S. (2016), “The Challenge of Measuring UK Wealth Inequality in the 2000s”, Fiscal Studies, vol. 37 n. 1, pp. 13-33.

Atkinson A.B. (1969), Poverty in Britain and the Reform of Social Security, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Atkinson A.B. (1969), “The Timescale of Economic Models: How Long Is the Long Run?”, The Review of Economic Studies, vol. 36, pp. 137-152.

Atkinson A.B. (1970), “On the Measurement of Inequality”, Journal of Economic Theory, vol. 2, pp. 244-263.

Atkinson A.B. (1987), “On the Measurement of Poverty”, Econometrica, vol. 55, pp. 749-764.

Atkinson A.B. (1997), “Bringing Income Distribution in from the Cold”, The Economic Journal, vol. 107, pp. 297-321.

Atkinson A.B. (2005), The Atkinson Review: Final Report, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Atkinson A.B. (2009), “Economics as a Moral Science”, Economica, vol. 76, pp. 791-804.

Atkinson A.B. (2009), “Factor Shares: The Principal Problem of Political Economy?”, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, vol. 25, pp. 3-16.

Atkinson A.B. (2014), Public Economics and the Age of Austerity, London: Routledge.

Atkinson A.B. (2015), Disuguaglianze: che cosa si può fare?, Milano: Raffaello Cortina Editore.

Atkinson A.B., Stiglitz J. E. ([1980] 2015), Lectures on Public Economics, New York: McGraw-Hill.

Atkinson A.B. (2016), Monitoring Global Poverty, Washington (DC): World Bank.

Atkinson A.B., Harrison J. (1975), “Mortality Multipliers and the Estate Duty Method”, Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, vol. 37 n. 1, pp. 13-28.

Atkinson A.B., Harrison A.J. (1978), Distribution of Personal Wealth in Britain, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Atkinson A.B., Stern N.H. (1974), “Pigou, Taxation and Public Goods”, Review of Economics Studies, vol. 41, pp. 119-128.

Atkinson A.B., Stern N.H. (1980), “On the Switch from Direct to Indirect Taxation”, Journal of Public Economics, vol. 14, pp. 1-8.

Atkinson A.B., Stiglitz J.E. (1972), “The Structure of Indirect Taxation and Economic Efficiency”, Journal of Public Economics, vol. 1, pp. 97-119.

Atkinson A.B., Stiglitz J.E. (1976), “The Design of Tax Structure: Direct versus Indirect Taxation”, Journal of Public Economics, vol. 6, pp. 55-75.

Brandolini A. (2017a), “Inequality and Economics: Tony Atkinson’s Enduring Lessons”, VoxEU, 27 febbraio, disponibile alla URL http://voxeu.org/article /inequality-and-economics-tony-atkinson-s-enduring-lessons

Brandolini A. (2017b), “Tony Atkinson, una vita contro la disuguaglianza”, LaVoce.info, 10 gennaio, disponibile alla URL http://www.lavoce.info/archives/44557/ tony-atkinson-una-vita-contro-la-disuguaglianza/

Cherrier B. (2017), “Remembering Tony Atkinson as the Architect of Modern Public Economics”, The Undercover Historian, 2 gennaio, disponibile alla URL https://beatricecherrier.wordpress.com/2017/01/02/remembering-tony-atkinson-as-the-architect-of-modern-public-economics/

Córdoba J.C., Verdier G. (2007), “Lucas vs. Lucas: On Inequality and Growth”, IMF Working Papers, n. 07/17, Washington (DC): Fondo Monetario Internazionale.

Daton H. (1920), “The Measurement of the Inequality of Incomes”, Economic Journal, vol. 30, pp. 348-361.

Lambert P.J. (2008), “Tony Atkinson’s 1973 Manuscript: More on the Measurement of Inequality”, Journal of Economic Inequality, vol. 6, pp. 275-276.

Higgs E. (2010), “William Petty and the Ambitions of Political Arithmetic – By Ted McCormick”, The Economic History Review, vol. 63 n. 4, pp. 1169-1170.

Lucas R. (2004), “The Industrial Revolution: Past and Future”, Annual Report, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, pp. 5-20.

Milanovic B. (2016), Global Inequality, New York: Harvard University Press.

Morelli S. (2017), “Putting People First: in ricordo di Tony Atkinson”, Menabò di Etica ed Economia, 16 gennaio, disponibile alla URL https://www.eticaeconomia.it/ putting-people-first-in-ricordo-di-tony-atkinson/

Piketty T. (2014), Capital in the XXI century, New York: Harvard University Press.

Piketty T. (2017), “Passing of Tony Atkinson”, Le blog de Thomas Piketty, 3 gennaio, disponibile alla URL http://piketty.blog.lemonde.fr/2017/01/03/passing-of-anthony-b-atkinson/

Ricardo D. (1817), On the Principle of Political Economy and Taxation, London: John Murray.

Roncaglia A. (2005), The Wealth of Ideas: A History of Economic Thought, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Sandomo A. (2017), “Tony Atkinson 1944-2017: A Lifetime Commitment to the Study of Inequality”, The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, vol. 24, pp. 612-623.

Published

2017-07-18

Issue

Section

Articoli