Unlocking the potential of income and wealth caps in post-growth transformation: A framework for improving policy design

Martin François, Sybille Mertens de Wilmars and Kevin Maréchal

Ecological Economics, 2023, vol. 208, issue C

Abstract: Preventing the increase of economic inequality in a non-growing economy is a major challenge. In post-growth research, scholars agree that reducing the income and assets of the wealthy must be part of any strategy for reducing inequality. Nevertheless, caps on wealth and income remain surprisingly under-researched. After discussing the role of these caps in post-growth transformation, this paper aims to fill this gap by exploring the main parameters that policymakers need to consider when designing caps on income or assets. We performed a qualitative content analysis of 14 policy proposals, including four historical cases. We then built an analytical framework with seven key parameters. This framework reveals a broad set of public policies that policymakers and researchers can consider, including new options for wealth caps. We furthermore discuss how such policies should be designed to increase public support, and we highlight recurring patterns about the context in which they were proposed. We also show how these radical solutions reduced economic inequality in the 20th century in western countries and how policymakers can draw on those examples to design post-growth policies that decrease inequality and are also popular.

Keywords: Eco-social policy; Economic inequality; Income caps; Limits; Post-growth; Wealth caps (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800923000514
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:208:y:2023:i:c:s0921800923000514

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2023.107788

Access Statistics for this article

Ecological Economics is currently edited by C. J. Cleveland

More articles in Ecological Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().