Branko Milanovic, one of the leading global specialists on income inequality will hold lecture Globalization, migration, and the future of the middle classes on October 13, 2016 at the Faculty for Economics, Finance and Administration in Belgrade. This lecture is a part of the global Kapuscinski Development Lectures format and is jointly organized by European Commission, United Nations Development Program, Center for Social Policy and the Faculty for Economics, Finance and Administration from Belgrade. The talk will discuss empirically recent changes in the global income distribution, the creation of a "global middle class", and stagnation of median incomes in the West and propose Kuznets cycles as a useful tool for the understanding of these changes and of their future evolution.

Inequalities are a growing concern, both globally and in Europe. In developed countries, these concerns are highlighted inter alia in the works of Piketty, Stiglitz, and Milanovic. With increasing globalization, global economic exchange, migration and different political processes, such as the Sustainable Development Goals and the European integration process, inequality grows in importance as an indicator. The OECD study on social cohesion states that rising inequality is "a warning bell to policy makers that social cohesion is at risk". A lasting state of high inequality "exhausts" a society and cancels all positive effects of economic development. Lasting inequality creates a heightened level of distrust as stressed by Wilkinson and Pickett, and also less sense of belonging and less social capital.

Web streaming available at the KDL web site, October 13, 2016 (18.00-20.00)