Thesis supervisor: Gergely Tóth
Location of studies (in Hungarian): MATE - Kaposvári Campus Abbreviation of location of studies: MATE
Description of the research topic:
Total equality (theoretical communism) does not motivate individual economic performance. Extreme inequality (‘wild’ capitalism) produces an infinite list of social disturbances and economic backlash. Where is the optimal level of inequality, which on the one hand is considered fair, on the other hand enhances sustainable economic development and the public good? This is a most difficult question to address.
Sustainability economics need much research still to define the just level of inequality. We are at the beginning of this work, but already very important contributions have been published from mainstream academia (Atkinson et al. 2017; Piketty 2017; Wilkinson and Pickett 2010), from the NGO, social justice advocacy world (High Pay Centre: Kalinina & Shand, 2018; Oxfam: Revollo, 2020), and surprisingly, top financial institutions (Credit Suisse: Shorrocks et al., 2019).
In this research we first employ systematic literature review to search for any empirical study with concrete limits of “good and bad” ratios of inequality. Based on that we try to define “inertia systems” (top and bottom company salaries, differences of country and regional GDP-s, etc.). Then we look at secondary macroeconomic data, finally search national and company policies, as contemporary best practices.
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