Edward Lazear On How To Reduce Income Inequality

Published: February 20, 2019

Tax policy and redistribution do not solve the underlying structural problem of income inequality. Redistribution and tax policy are only temporary fixes. For a permanent solution, we need to focus on reducing the skills gap by increasing the skills of individuals at the bottom of the income distribution.

This video’s audio is excerpted from Edward Lazear’s 2017 Hoover Institution Summer Policy Boot Camp lecture. 

The Hoover Institution’s Summer Policy Boot Camp is an intensive, one-week residential immersion program in the essentials of today’s national and international United States policy for upperclassmen and recent graduates. To learn more, click here.

Additional Resources

• Read “America’s Economy Isn’t Overheating” by Edward Lazear, available here.
• Read “Helping the U.S. Economy Keep Up,” by Edward Lazear, available here.
• Read “Introduction: Firms and the Distribution of Income: The Roles of Productivity and Luck” by Edward Lazear and Kathryn Shaw. Available here.