This is how inequality could be hurting the US economy

Mar 16, 2018

A homeless man sleeps on a park bench in Logan Square on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September 23, 2015. Benjamin Franklin Parkway, a stretch of cultural centers and grassy parks where homeless sleep and tote their belongings in plastic bags, is undergoing papal security checks and cleanup that will displace some of the downtrodden that Francis champions. Philadelphia, a city of 1.5 million people, counts about 5,500 people living on the streets or other unsheltered areas, but that number does not include those in some of the city's poorest areas, homeless services group Project HOME said. The parkway, which will host two events attended by Francis, has been designated a top U.S. Secret Service security zone for the visit. Picture taken September 23, 2015. REUTERS/Mark Makela

Inequality in the U.S. could have prolonged the Great Recession. Image: REUTERS/Mark Makela

Pedro Nicolaci da Costa

Editorial Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics

The Big Picture

Explore and monitor how Inequality is affecting economies, industries and global issues

A hand holding a looking glass by a lake

Crowdsource Innovation

Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale

Stay up to date:

Inequality

Have you read?

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

More on Inequality
See all

What is ‘global debt’ - and how high is it now?

Victoria Masterson and Madeleine North

October 2, 2023

3 key actions to help bridge the inequality gap

Amitabh Behar

September 12, 2023

What’s in a name? For the ‘Global South,’ it depends on who you ask

John Letzing

July 31, 2023

47:28

Growth Summit 2023 - What Next for Inequality? - English

Who spends the longest time in retirement?

Andrea Willige and Ian Shine

March 29, 2023

Why we can’t meet the SDGs without ending the digital divide

Christopher Worman

March 22, 2023