Capitalism, Alone: The Future of the System that Rules the World

The Department of International Relations cordially invites you to the online book talk event “Capitalism, Alone: The Future of the System that Rules the World.” Prof. Branko Milanovic from Graduate Center at CUNY and Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality will join us as the speaker, together with Assoc. Prof. Hasan Tekgüç from Kadir Has University as the discussant in our fourth event in the online series called “Talks on a World in Crisis.” The event will take place online via Zoom on the 6th of May between 18:00 - 19:30.

Please click here for the event registration form. The online Zoom link will be shared half an hour before the event with participants who filled out the registration form via the e-mail addresses they provided on the form.

Abstract

Capitalism, Alone: The Future of the System that Rules the World

The talk based on Milanovic's recent book  "Capitalism, Alone", will discuss and analyze systemic inequalities in liberal capitalist societies with the special emphasis on the phenomenon of homoploutia, that is, of high incomes from both labor and capital received by the same persons. Homoploutia is one of the key defining characteristics of modern capitalism, distinguishing it from its classical version. It is a desirable development because it reduces class-based distinctions, but it also encourages the formation of an elite that is more stable (thanks to its diversification of assets, including skills) and able to transfer these advantages across generations.

Dr. Branko Milanovic

Branko Milanovic is a Presidential Professor at the Graduate Center and a senior fellow at the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality. Professor Milanovic obtained his Ph.D. in economics (1987) from the University of Belgrade with a dissertation on income inequality in Yugoslavia. He served as a lead economist in the World Bank’s Research Department for almost 20 years, leaving to write his book on global income inequality, Worlds Apart (2005). He was a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington (2003-2005) and has held teaching appointments at the University of Maryland (2007-2013) and at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University (1997- 2007). He was a visiting scholar at All Souls College in Oxford, and Universidad Carlos III in Madrid (2010-11). Professor Milanovic’s main area of work is income inequality, in individual countries and globally, including in preindustrial societies.  His book The Haves and the Have-nots (2011) was selected by The Globalist as the 2011 Book of the Year. Global Inequality (2016) was awarded the Bruno Kreisky Prize for the best political book of 2016 and the Hans Matthöfer Prize in 2018 and was translated into 16 languages. In March 2018, Milanovic was awarded (jointly with Mariana Mazzucato) the 2018 Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Knowledge. His new book Capitalism, Alone was published in September 2019.

Dr. Hasan Tekgüç

Assoc. Prof. Tekgüç has obtained his bachelor's degree from Boğaziçi University and his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2010. His main fields of interest are development and labor economics. His studies in the development field are focused on the calculation of alternative poverty measures and the impact evaluation of social assistance on poverty and inequality. In the field of labor economics, his research is focused on the gender wage gap, job transition, minimum wage, and the impact of Syrian migrants on natives' employment in Turkey. Some of his work is published in ILR Review, Mediterranean Politics, IZA Journal of Labor Policy, International Journal of Educational Development, South European Society and Politics, Journal of Labor Research, Review of Economics of the Household, Agribusiness. Currently, he is the primary investigator of a project investigating the incidence of taxes and social spending on inequality and poverty in Turkey. The project is funded by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey.