Inequality, Redistribution and the Labour Market

Richard Blundell examines inequalities in income, living standards, wealth, health, family circumstances, opportunities and political influence. He considers how weak living-standard growth after the financial crisis sharpened these divisions, and how the COVID-19 pandemic intensified some existing inequalities while exposing new ones.

The lecture asks how to balance taxes and welfare benefits with minimum wages, human-capital investment and competition policy. It argues that the tax and benefit system alone cannot resolve low wages and earnings inequality. Blundell outlines the IFS–Deaton Review of inequality in the twenty-first century and discusses the pandemic’s implications for policy responses.