Inequality in America: what role for human capital policies?

Academics have a bias toward believing that cognitive skills are of fundamental importance to success in life (pg.171)This book presents two extended papers presented at the third Alvin Hansen Symposium on Public Policy, held in Harvard in 2002, followed by a an interesting discussion by five leading labour economists, and a rejoinder from the authors.As the title anticipates, the two contributions focus on how public policies can counteract the increasing earning inequality recorded by the US economy in the last two decades.However they endorse different perspectives.In his contribution on "Inequality, too much of a good thing", Alan Krueger documents the increased income dispersion at both ends of the…