Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen says wage cap will not solve global inequality

Sen says there is no 'one magic bullet' to fix the problem

Amartya Sen, professor of economics and of philosophy at Harvard University, is an Indian-born Nobel laureate (MANPREET ROMANA/AFP/Getty Images)

One of the world’s top economists has said that a wage cap is not the solution to growing global inequality.

On Radio 4’s Today programme, Nobel Prize-winning expert Amartya Sen said there is no “one magic bullet” to fix the growing divide between the richest and poorest.

He said, “I think what you have to do is conduct a much bigger programme on how to bring about a reduction.”

Mr Sen spoke after the release of Oxfam’s findings that the eight richest men in the world own as much as the poorest 3.6 billion people.

And it comes days after the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, told the same programme that he “would like there to be some kind of high earnings cap”. He refused to be drawn on where such a cap would be set.

He said, “I think the salaries paid to some footballers are simply ridiculous, some salaries to very high earning top executives are utterly ridiculous. Why would someone need to earn more than £50m a year?”

While Mr Sen may not agree, there has been a positive response in opinion polls to Mr Corbyn’s suggestion. Results showed that 57 per cent of the public would support government encouragement of a wage cap.

Oxfam’s findings suggest inequality is growing in the world. The same report last year showed 62 people as owning the same amount of wealth as the top 8 now do.

Max Lawson, Oxfam’s policy advisor, told the Associated Press "we have a situation where billionaires are paying less tax often than their cleaner or their secretary" and urged them to do “what Bill Gates has called on them to do, which is pay their taxes”.