Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is one of the hottest men on the planet (Photo: Joe Redl/Getty Images)
piece that billionaires Global household wealth holders grew by a record during the COVID-19 pandemic and millionaires also exited the pandemic prematurely, a study showed on Tuesday.
Created by a network of social scientists, world inequality report Billionaires are estimated to collectively account for 3.5% of global household wealth this year, up from the 2% seen at the start of the 2020 pandemic.
“The Covid crisis exacerbates inequalities between the very wealthy and the rest of the population,” said lead author Lucas Chancel, noting that wealthier economies have used massive fiscal support to reduce the sharp increase in poverty seen elsewhere. has done.
The report was based on a variety of expert research and public domain data, and its foreword was authored by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, US-based economists and two members of the trio, who received the Nobel Prize in 2019 for their work on poverty.
“As money is a major source of future economic benefits and, increasingly, of power and influence, it bodes well for a further increase in inequality,” he wrote, adding that he “put economic power in the hands of a very small minority.” excessive concentration”. of the super-rich”.
The findings support several existing studies, “rich lists” and other evidence pointing to increases in health, social, gender and race inequalities during the pandemic.
