We’re Bad at Measuring Inequality—Here’s Why That Matters

HBR IdeaCast

Harvard Business Review

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4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 4 January 2022

⏱️ 23 minutes

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Summary

Stefanie Stantcheva, economist at Harvard University, founded the Social Economics Lab to study inequality, our feelings about it, and how policies influence it. She says when we estimate how much money our colleagues make or how much taxes impact us, we are often very far off from the truth. Her research also shows that our misconceptions are often linked to political beliefs. She argues that we need to be more aware of the realities of inequality if we want to create better economic opportunities.

Transcript

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0:00.0	So you got the job. Now what? Join me, Eleni Mata, on HBR's new original podcast, New
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0:30.0	Welcome to the HBR Idea Cast from Harvard Business Review. I'm Kurt Nickish.
0:43.2	It's pretty natural to compare ourselves to other people, whether it's our co-workers or
0:54.3	our neighbors or celebrities, many of us spend a lot of time judging what people have
1:00.2	or get in relation to ourselves. And while we do this all the time on the fly, we don't
1:06.8	always get a reality check on whether we're seeing things right. Like, are we giving too
1:11.9	much weight to differences, for instance, and overlooking similarities? Are the measurements
1:17.2	and assessments we're making spot on or way off? Today's guest studies the way we view
1:23.4	inequality of all kinds. And our research shows that, well, we're actually pretty bad
1:28.6	at judging it accurately. She says there are all kinds of misperceptions out there, many
1:33.7	influenced by political leanings that end up hobbling us in ways we don't expect.
1:39.6	Because those comparisons we make can have a big impact on the kind of policies we support
1:44.8	in our communities, as well as in our workplaces. Stephanie Stantjava is a professor of economics
1:51.1	at Harvard University and the founder of the Social Economics Lab. Stephanie, thanks so
1:56.0	much for joining us. Thank you for having me. So where did your interest in studying inequality
2:02.1	come from? Well, I myself have lived in many different countries and seen very different
2:09.5	economic and social systems and from early on noted the very different circumstances
2:15.4	in which people live, the very different incomes they have, the different living standards.
2:20.9	And so it's something that has been very salient to me from a pretty young age. Inequality
2:26.1	is rising in many countries across the world along many different dimensions. So witnessing
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