Social Sciences (Faculty & Staff)

In this Berkeley Talks episode, economist Gabriel Zucman discusses how wealth inequality and billionaire wealth has soared in recent decades, prompting the need for a global minimum tax of 2% on billionaires.

“The key benefit of a global minimum tax on billionaires is not only that it would generate substantial revenue for governments worldwide — about $250 billion a year — but also, and maybe most importantly, that it would restore a sense of fairness,” says Zucman, a...

Open-access publishing was supposed to make knowledge available to everyone. But a new UC Berkeley study suggests that some of the scholars whose research could most benefit public conversations about race, gender and inequality are less likely to share their work through open-access channels.

The new study, which was published in Gender & Society, is titled “Sharing Knowledge Openly: Author Gender, Race/Ethnicity,...

Sociology Professor G. Cristina Mora and African American Studies Professor Tianna Paschel were featured in a KQED article titled, "California Has Extreme Income Inequality. Why Do We Treat It As Normal?"

California is one of the most unequal states in the country with extreme disparities between people living in poverty and those at the top of the income spectrum. Given the visibility of the problem, with homeless encampments and multimillion dollar houses populating our landscape while the middle class shrinks, UC Berkeley professors Cristina Mora and Tianna Paschel set...

As Californians prepare to vote on Proposition 40 this November — which proposes a one-time 5% wealth tax on residents worth over $1 billion — the debate over wealth inequality is becoming more than just a policy discussion. For many voters, it is about fairness, public trust and whether the wealthiest people should contribute more when inequality continues to shape everyday life.

At this year’s annual Stone Lecture, hosted by the James M. and Cathleen D....