Branko Milanovic is one of the leading experts on income inequality and poverty. Formerly a lead economist at the research department of the World Bank, he now teaches at the City University of New York and London School of Economics, amongst others. He is perhaps most well known for publishing the ‘hottest’ chart in economics, the famous elephant curve, which describes how globalization has affected the global income distribution over the last 30 years. The basic message is that whilst between-country inequality has decreased, within-country inequality has increased. This research had a big impact on our understanding of inequality and it remains crucial to answering the pressing questions of how we can reduce inequality and what trends we can expect in the coming years.

He has written multiple books on globalization and its consequences. In his most recent book ‘Capitalism, alone’, he argues that capitalism is the only mode of production existent in the world right now and explores the different types of capitalism, as well as the relationship between capitalism and democracy. What type of capitalism is most beneficial for humans? Are these two modes of capitalism at war with each other, or are they going to be? And what does this all mean for the future of democracy? These are some of the biggest questions one could ask and with Mr. Milanovic, we’ll try at the very least to get a better idea of how we could begin to answer them.