Are New Economic Policy Rules Desirable to Mitigate Rising National Inequalities?

The pursuit of free markets has commanded a consensus among policymakers for over three decades now. Since the 1980s, countries have been increasingly introducing competition in various spheres of economic activity, as illustrated in figure 4.1. At the same time, globalization is also expanding, thanks to the ease of moving funds across borders and the declining role of the state—proxied by the share of government expenditure to GDP.