How much do people care about inequality?

Rory Cellan-Jones and leading experts Charlotte Cavaillé, Ailbhe McNabola and Jack Shaw discuss the causes of income and regional inequality, why policymakers should care, and what policy interventions work best to reduce them.

Guests discuss recent trends in income and regional inequality, and evaluate the effectiveness of different policy approaches. They debate the opportunities and challenges of (de)centralisation, what works best to revive ‘left behind’ places, and whether the assumptions built into the Levelling Up White Paper will deliver to reduce inequalities. 

This episode is hosted by Rory Cellan-Jones (former technology correspondent for the BBC), and features guest experts Professor Charlotte Cavaillé (Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan and IAST), Ailbhe McNabola (Bennett Institute for Public Policy and Power to Change) and Jack Shaw (Bennett Institute for Public Policy). 

Season 2 Episode 3 transcript

For more information about the podcast and the work of the institutes, visit our websites at https://www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/ and https://www.iast.fr/.

Tweet us with your thoughts at @BennettInst and @IASToulouse.
Audio production by Steve Hankey.
Associate production by Stella Erker. 
Visuals by Thomas Devaud. 

Relevant links and publications

• Shaw, J., Garling, O. and Kenny, M. (2022). Townscapes: Pride in Place. The Bennett Institute, https://www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/publications/pride-in-place/ 
• Charlotte Cavaillé (forthcoming). Fair Enough? Support for Redistribution in the Age of Inequality, https://charlottecavaille.wordpress.com/book-project/ 

More information about our guests:

Professor Charlotte Cavaillé is a visiting Research Fellow at the IAST and an Assistant Professor at the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. Her research examines the dynamics of popular attitudes towards redistributive social policies at a time of rising inequality, high fiscal stress and high levels of immigration. In her forthcoming book, Fair Enough? Support for Redistribution in the Age of Inequality, Charlotte proposes a new framework to explain why, in countries where inequality has increased the most, voters are not asking for more income redistribution.

Ailbhe McNabola is an Affiliated Researcher at the Bennett Institute for Public Policy and Director of Policy and Communications at Power to Change, a charitable trust that supports communities to run businesses that reinvest profits into their local area. She is also Co-Chair of the Social Research Association, a membership organisation that promotes excellence in social research, and a CAPE Policy Fellow. Her career has encompassed management consultancy in the financial services and public sectors, and the commissioning and production of research, evaluation and policy analysis reports for a range of UK government bodies.

Jack Shaw is an Affiliated Researcher at the Bennett Institute for Public Policy and recently co-authored a report on pride in place with Professor Michael Kenny and Owen Garling, also at the Bennett Institute. His background is in local government and economic development and currently works at the Institute for Public Policy and Research.

Rory Cellan-Jones is a former technology correspondent for the BBC. His 40 years in journalism saw him take a particular interest in the impact of the internet and digital technology on society and business