OeNB HFCS Freitagsseminar with Martyna Linartas

The Role of the Inheritance Tax and Narratives for Extreme Levels of Wealth Inequality

OeNB HFCS Freitagsseminar with Martyna Linartas, PhD Researcher at Freie Universität Berlin, Cluster of Excellence "Contestations of the Liberal Script" (SCRIPTS) and founder of ungleichheit.info

With extreme and rising levels of wealth inequality we deal with one of the most pressing problems of liberal democracies. Recent research reveals that the main cause for the decline of wealth inequality in most OECD states lies in the history of the twentieth century and redistributive tax policies in meritocratic democracies in the postwar years. Decades later and at present, Thomas Piketty speaks of the return to inheritance societies, defined as “a society characterized by both a very high concentration of wealth and a significant persistence of large fortunes from generation to generation” (Piketty 2014, 351). However, although OECD states observe a high and growing cumulated stock of inherited wealth as fraction of private wealth, the debate about inheritance taxes remains insignificant. This is puzzling, as inheritances play a pivotal role in the ongoing creation of extreme wealth inequality over time and are completely at odds with the guiding principle of liberal democracies: the claim and aspiration to be a meritocracy. I assume narratives about taxes in general, changes in paradigms and ideologies, and especially the economic elite´s strong belief in a meritocratic system to be the reasons for the present poor performance of the inheritance tax.

Date:
Friday, April 21, 2023, 11:00–12:30 CEST

Venue:
Oesterreichische Nationalbank
Otto-Wagner-Platz 3
1090 Vienna
and online via Webex

Please register by 19 April 2023, at the latest.