Stone Centre at UCL
Welcome to the James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Centre on Wealth Concentration, Inequality, and the Economy at University College London.
Featured education materials
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How do changes in female labour supply explain puzzles in US business cycles? Discover in this new, free Doing Economics project! Authored by Stone PhD Stone Scholar with the pedagogical expertise of CORE Econ.
Latest featured research
This study measures spending power inequality within age cohorts and estimates fiscal progressivity via lifetime net tax rates. We find, first, that inequality in income and especially wealth dramatically overstates inequality in spending power. Second, inequality in current spending power differs from that in lifetime spending power because of credit constraints, in-kind government benefits, and other factors. Third, the US fiscal system is highly progressive once cohorts are old enough to have highly dispersed human wealth. Fourth, households’ rankings based on current income can differ substantially from their rankings based on lifetime resources. Fifth, current-year net tax rates substantially understate fiscal progressivity.
We study optimal capital income and wealth taxation in an economy that reproduces the importance of private businesses for output and inequality. If entrepreneurs are subject to collateral constraints, they face heterogeneous rates of return, which generate a meaningful distinction between capital income and wealth taxation. We find that taxing capital income is preferable to taxing wealth because the efficiency gains from wealth taxation are swamped by the redistributional benefits of taxing the profits of richer entrepreneurs. Consequently, the gains from taxing wealth are modest. This conclusion is robust to the planner's preference for redistribution and allowing for nonlinear taxes.
Featured videos
Methodology in Economic Analysis
At the 2023 IEA World Congress, Co-director Wendy Carlin joined a panel on Methodology in Economic Analysis.
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"Female labour supply and the macroeconomy"
"Female labour supply and the macroeconomy" is an extra, free data-analysis project in CORE Econ's Doing Economics.
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The CEPR-Stone Centre workshop on housing, wealth and taxation
This joint workshop includes a keynote by Joel Slemrod (University of Michigan) on '(How) Should We Tax the Rich More?'
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Watch the 2023 Royal Economic Society Annual Public Lecture
"Capitalism, colonies, and carbon – looking back and looking forward", delivered by Co-director Wendy Carlin.
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Gaurav Khatri presents his Stone Centre Explore Econ prize paper
Gaurav's paper studies the effects of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar on low-skilled wages in the Chittagong Division of Bangladesh.
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Matias Mäkiranta presents his Stone Centre Explore Econ prize paper
Matias' paper studies the effect of greater labour market concentration on wages using data on online vacancies from Germany.
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Stone Public Lecture, by Philippe Aghion
Philippe Aghion delivered the Stone Public Lecture "Rethinking capitalism to make it more innovative and more inclusive".
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Wendy Carlin presents the Stone Centre at UCL
Co-director Wendy Carlin presents the Stone Centre at UCL and its connection with CORE Econ.
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Wendy Carlin's contribution at the Stone Centre launch
Co-director Wendy Carlin highlighted the connection between wealth inequality and risk-taking. Watch her contribution in this video.
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Imran Rasul's opening remarks at the Stone Centre launch
Imran Rasul opened the launch event of the Stone Centre at UCL. You can watch his opening remarks in this video.
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The Stone Centre at UCL launches in Westminster
The Stone Centre at UCL was launched on 26 May 2022 in London. You can now watch the full recording of the event.
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Latest news and blogs
The Stone Centre at UCL organises annual, free public lectures with renown speakers to inform the public about the latest progress of research on wealth concentration and inequality. You can listen to them as a podcast for free.
What can we learn from the evolution of wealth inequality since prehistory, about the processes sustaining extraordinary wealth inequality today, and policies to secure a more just distribution in the future?
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