The overwhelming majority of economic analysis in recent years points to a widening gap between the very rich and everyone else. Organised in conjunction with Oxfam, this panel discussion will look at some of the underlying causes of widening economic inequality and the effects may bring for businesses, the economy and society as a whole. The discussion will also consider the policy implications of attempting to tackle this seemingly unrelenting economic force.
Speakers include Prof Ozlem Onaran, University of Greenwich, Max Lawson, Oxfam and Emran Mian, Director of Social Market Foundation.
Özlem has worked at several universities in the past including the University of Westminster, the University of Applied Sciences-Berlin, Vienna University of Economics and Business, and Istanbul Technical University, before joining the University of Greenwich in 2012. Özlem’s research has been in the fields of globalization, crisis, income distribution, wage-led growth, employment, investment, development, and gender. Özlem has more than sixty articles in books and journals such as Cambridge Journal of Economics, Environment and Planning A, World Development, Public Choice, Economic Inquiry and the European Journal of Industrial Relations.
She has recently directed a research project for the International Labour Organisation, and is currently working on a project funded by the Institute for New Economic Thinking and the Foundation of European Progressive Studies.
Max is Head of Global Policy & Campaigns, Oxfam GB. His work is centred around on humanitarian and conflict issues, financing for development, climate change and private sector and development. Previously Max was Head of Development Finance and Public Service, leading Oxfam International’s policy work on development finance and on education and health. He studied at the University of Sussex in the UK, and lived and worked for three years in South Africa and then in Malawi.
In his work for campaigns and advocacy, he has specialised in the World Bank and IMF (International Monetary Fund), and also on the G8 and G20. Max was heavily involved in the Make Poverty History campaign in 2005 and is currently playing a key role in the campaign for a Financial Transaction Tax, or so called ‘Robin Hood Tax’.
Emran Mian is the Director of Social Market Foundation. He is the author of two books, Send In The Idiots (Bloomsbury) and The Banker’s Daughter (Harvill Secker).
Until September 2013, he was a civil servant. His previous roles include policy responsibility for constitutional reform; Secretary to the Browne Review of Higher Education Funding and Student Finance; Director of Strategy at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and, most recently, Director responsible for the Cabinet Office and Number 10 Business Partnerships team and working with Government Non-Executives.