Concentration of Wealth and Economic Capture

Program

In his January 2014 paper Working for the Few, Ricardo Fuentes-Nieva noted that a few dozen individuals (80 total) held as much wealth combined as the entire bottom half of the world's population. Economic resources and power are highly concentrated, and in many countries this concentration is increasing.

This inequality skews the political process as well as the economic system in favor of the few. In this talk, Fuentes-Nieva will consider what is driving this concentration of economic power and what needs to be done to redress the balance so that ordinary people, and particularly the poor and marginalized groups, fairly benefit from economic growth and have just influence over economic policy decisions.

Speaker

Ricardo Fuentes-Nieva is chief executive officer of Oxfam Mexico. He was previously head of research for Oxfam GB and, prior to that, a senior economic advisor to the United Nations Development Program.

Fuentes-Nieva has an M.Sc. in economics from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra and a B.S. in economics from the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas, A.C.

Learn More

In Santa Monica, please join us in the Rice Classroom, room 1474. If you are based elsewhere, you can connect via webmeeting and phone: Login to https://webmeetingext.rand.org/idssmeeting and dial in 1-800-747-5150 (passcode: 3269008#).

If you would like to schedule a meeting with Mr. Fuentes-Nieva, contact Crystal Huang, chuang1@prgs.edu.

To learn more about IDSS visit us online. IDSS is sponsored by Pardee RAND Graduate School and several RAND research units: RAND Labor and Population, RAND International, RAND Health, and RAND Education.