Economic Inequality After the Pandemic

This panel discussion is a public online event with Wolfgang Schmidt, State Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance of Germany, Angella MacEwan, Senior Economist, Canadian Union of Public Employees, and Branko Milanovic, Professor and Senior Scholar, the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality, the Graduate Center, CUNY.

The panel will address the inequalities revealed and exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, the public policy tools available to ameliorate those inequalities, and the likely paths economies will take in the recovery from the pandemic. How have governments responded to this economic crisis, and what will be the consequences?

This event is moderated by John Torpey, Director, European Union Studies Center, and organized by the European Union Studies Center at the CUNY Graduate Center with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Washington office. For the most updated information, please visit their event page.

The panel is co-sponsored by the American Council on Germany, Colorado European Union Center of Excellence, University of Florida Center for European Studies, and Stone Center on Inequality at the Graduate Center, CUNY.

Speakers

Angella MacEwen

Senior Economist, Canadian Union of Public Employees
Angella MacEwen is the Senior Economist at the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), and a Policy Fellow with the Broadbent Institute. Her primary research focus is understanding the Canadian labor market, broader economic trends and the impacts of social policy on workers. Ms. MacEwen regularly represents the CUPE at parliamentary committees and in the national media. She has been a Research Associate with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives since 2006, and contributes to the annual Alternative Federal Budget. She is on the steering committee of the Progressive Economics Forum, as well as the Trade Justice Network. Ms. MacEwen holds an MA in Economics (Dalhousie University) and a BA in International Development Studies (Saint Mary’s University).

Branko Milanovic

Senior Scholar, Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality
Branko Milanovic is a senior scholar at the Stone Center on Socio-economic Inequality. He served as lead economist in the World Bank’s Research Department for almost 20 years, leaving to write his book on global income inequality, Worlds Apart (2005). Prof. Milanovic was a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington (2003-2005) and has held teaching appointments at the University of Maryland (2007-2013) and at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University (1997- 2007). He was a visiting scholar at All Souls College in Oxford, and Universidad Carlos III in Madrid (2010-11).

Wolfgang Schmidt

State Secretary, German Federal Ministry of Finance
Wolfgang Schmidt was appointed State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry of Finance in March 2018. Prior to that, he served as State Secretary of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg for seven years, and he was a member of the European Committee of Regions (2015 to 2018). During his career, Wolfgang Schmidt also served as Director of the Office of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Germany. From 2007 to 2009, he was Chief of Staff of the German Federal Minister for Labour and Social Affairs and Head of the Policy and Planning Unit. Wolfgang Schmidt has been a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) since 1989 and also served as Chief of Staff to the SPD’s Secretary-General. He studied Law in Hamburg and Bilbao/Spain.