{{Short description|Serbian-American economist}} {{Infobox economist | honorific_prefix = | name = Branko Milanović | image = Branko Milanović - Festival Economia 2018.jpg | caption = Milanović in 2018 | native_name = Бранко Милановић | native_name_lang = Serbian | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1953|10|24}} | birth_place = [[Belgrade]], [[PR Serbia]], [[SFR Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]] | website = {{URL|glineq.blogspot.com/}} | institution = [[City University of New York]]<br>[[Luxembourg Income Study]] | field = [[Economic inequality]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://glineq.blogspot.com/|title=globalinequality blog|author=Milanović, Branko|access-date=23 April 2019}}</ref><br>[[Economic growth]] | alma_mater = [[University of Belgrade]] | awards = Hans-Matthöfer-Preis für Wirtschaftspublizistik (2018); Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Knowledge (2018) }} '''Branko Milanović''' ({{lang-sr-Cyrl|Бранко Милановић}}, {{IPA|sr|brǎːŋko mǐlanoʋitɕ; milǎːn-|IPA}})<ref>[http://hjp.znanje.hr/index.php?show=search_by_id&id=f19hWhg%3D "brániti"] and {{cite web|url=http://hjp.znanje.hr/index.php?show=search_by_id&id=e1lmXRI%3D|title=mȉo|work=Hrvatski jezični portal|language=hr|access-date=April 14, 2019}}</ref> is a [[Serbian-American]] economist and university professor. He is most known for his work on [[income distribution]] and [[income inequality|inequality]].

Since January 2014, he has been a research professor at the [[Graduate Center, CUNY|Graduate Center]] of the [[City University of New York]] and an affiliated senior scholar at the [[Luxembourg Income Study]] (LIS).<ref>{{cite web | url = https://stonecenter.gc.cuny.edu/people/milanovic-branko/ | title = Stone Center: Branko Milanovic | access-date = 17 January 2024 }}</ref><ref name="lisbio">{{cite web |url=http://www.lisdatacenter.org/about-lis/team/scholars |title=Affiliated Senior Scholars | publisher=Luxembourg Income Study |access-date=17 January 2024}}</ref> He also teaches at the [[London School of Economics]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.lse.ac.uk/News/Latest-news-from-LSE/2019/g-July-2019/Branko-Milanovic-joins-LSE-as-Centennial-Professor.aspx|title=Branko Milanovic joins LSE as Centennial Professor|website=London School of Economics and Political Science|date=9 July 2019 |language=en-gb|access-date=2019-08-12}}</ref> and the [[Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals|Barcelona Institute for International Studies]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ibei.org/en/branko-milanovic_73129 |title=Branco Milanović|website=Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals|language=en-gb|access-date=2019-10-20}}</ref> In 2019, he has been appointed the honorary Maddison Chair at the [[University of Groningen]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rug.nl/feb/news/2019/191114-branko-milanovic-groningen-madisson-chair|title=Leading professor of inequality Branko Milanovic appointed to Groningen Maddison Chair|date=2019-11-14|website=University of Groningen|language=en|access-date=2019-11-15}}</ref>

Milanović formerly was a lead economist in the [[World Bank]]'s research department,<ref>{{cite web | url = http://in.reuters.com/article/column-milanovic-freeland-idINDEE7B00ME20111201?type=economicNews | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160305161616/http://in.reuters.com/article/column-milanovic-freeland-idINDEE7B00ME20111201?type=economicNews | url-status = dead | archive-date = March 5, 2016 | title = Workers of the Western world | first = Chrystia | last = Freeland | date = 2 December 2011 | access-date = 9 November 2012 | publisher = Reuters}}</ref> visiting professor at [[University of Maryland]] and [[Johns Hopkins University]].<ref name="NYT">{{cite news | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/books/review/Rampell-t.html | title = Thy Neighbor's Wealth | first = Catherine | last = Rampell | work = New York Times | date = 28 January 2011 | access-date = 9 November 2012}}</ref><ref name="Bio">{{cite web | url = http://econ.worldbank.org/external/default/main?authorMDK=91636&theSitePK=469372&pagePK=64214821&menuPK=64214916&piPK=64214942 | title = Branko Milanovic | publisher = World Bank | access-date = 9 November 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120726224350/http://econ.worldbank.org/external/default/main?authorMDK=91636&theSitePK=469372&menuPK=64214916&pagePK=64214821&piPK=64214942 | archive-date = 2012-07-26 | url-status = dead }}</ref> Between 2003 and 2005 he was senior associate at [[Carnegie Endowment for International Peace]] in Washington.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Miu |first=Kimberly |title=Branko Milanovic |url=https://stonecenter.gc.cuny.edu/people/milanovic-branko/ |access-date=2023-05-11 |website=Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality |language=en-US}}</ref> He remained an adjunct scholar with the Endowment until early 2010.<ref>{{cite web | title = Branko Milanovic | publisher = [[Carnegie Endowment for International Peace]] | url = http://www.carnegieendowment.org/experts/?fa=expert_view&expert_id=208 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100409080144/http://www.carnegieendowment.org/experts/?fa=expert_view&expert_id=208 | url-status = dead | archive-date = April 9, 2010 | access-date = 2012-12-09}}</ref> He did his [[Doctor of Philosophy|Ph.D.]] at the [[University of Belgrade]] in 1987 on economic inequality in [[Yugoslavia]], using for the first time micro data from Yugoslav household surveys. He published it as a book in 1990.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.korisnaknjiga.com/ekonomska-nejednakost-u-jugoslaviji-polovna-knjiga-74490 | title= Ekonomska nejednakost u Jugoslaviji | date = 27 December 2015 | access-date = 27 December 2015}}</ref>

He has been a visiting scholar at [[All Souls College, Oxford|All Souls College]] in Oxford.<ref name=":0" />

==Early life== Branko Milanović was born in 1953 in [[Yugoslavia]]. His father was a government official. Later in life, he recalled watching the [[1968 student demonstrations in Yugoslavia|protests of 1968]], when students, "sporting red [[Karl Marx]] badges," occupied the [[University of Belgrade]] campus with banners proclaiming “Down with the Red [[bourgeoisie]]!” and wondering whether he and his family belonged in that group. He said that "the social and political aspects of the protests became clearer later" to him.<ref name=imf>{{cite web |url=https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/fandd/issues/2019/03/profile-of-branko-milanovic-on-inequality-wellisz|first=Chris|last= Wellisz|title=Chris Wellisz profiles Branko Milanovic, a leading scholar of inequality|publisher=[[International Monetary Fund]] |date=March 2019 |access-date=21 June 2023}}</ref>

==Scholarly work on inequality== He has published a large number of papers, including forty for the [[World Bank]],<ref name=Bio/> mainly on world [[International inequality|inequality]] and [[poverty]]. His 2005 book, ''Worlds Apart'' covered global income disparity between countries as well as between individuals in the world. His joint work with Jeffrey Williamson and Peter Lindert ("Economic Journal", March 2011), was considered by ''[[The Economist]]'' to "contain the germ of an important advance in thinking about inequality".<ref>{{cite news| url = https://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2007/12/the_frontiers_of_inequality | title= The Frontiers of Inequality|newspaper=The Economist | date = 6 December 2007 | access-date = 9 December 2011}}</ref>

Milanovic is the author of 2011's ''The Haves and the Have-Nots'', a collection of essays on income distribution,<ref name="NYT" /> selected by ''[[The Globalist]]'' ''The Haves and the Have-Nots'' as the number one book on its "top books of 2011" list.<ref>{{cite web | title = The Globalist's Top Books of 2011 | date = 22 December 2011 | access-date = 9 November 2012 | url = http://www.theglobalist.com/StoryId.aspx?StoryId=9491}}</ref><ref name="Words">{{cite web | url = http://www.economonitor.com/blog/2009/06/words-apart/ | title = Words Apart | first = Jaime | last = Pozuelo-Monfort | date = 8 June 2009 | access-date= 9 November 2012 | publisher = [[Roubini Global Economics]]}}</ref>

Milanovic serves on the advisory board for [[Academics Stand Against Poverty]] (ASAP). In August 2013, he was included by ''[[Foreign Policy]]'' among the top 100 "[[twitter]]ati" to follow.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/08/13/the_fp_twitterati_100_2013 | title= The FP Twitterati 2013|website=[[Foreign Policy]]| date = 13 August 2013 | access-date = 24 January 2014}}</ref> In November 2014, he became an external fellow of the [[Center for Global Development]] in Washington, DC.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.cgdev.org/expert/branko-milanovic |publisher=[[Center for Global Development]]| title= Non-resident fellow | access-date = 5 December 2014}}</ref>

He has written the [[blog]] ''globalinequality'' since May 2014.<ref name="blog">{{cite web |url=http://glineq.blogspot.com/ |title=globalinequality |access-date=15 November 2014}}</ref> and from 2021 Substack "Global inequality and More 3.0" <ref name="Substack" >{{cite web |url=https://branko2f7.substack.com/ |access-date=15 November 2014}}</ref>

His book ''Global inequality: A New Approach for the Age of Globalization'' was published in April 2016.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674737136 | title= Global inequality | access-date = 15 December 2015}}</ref> The book, in its German translation (''Die ungleiche Welt. Migration, das Eine Prozent, und die Zukunft der Mittelschicht'', "The Unequal World. Immigration, the one percent, and the future of the middle class"), received the [[Bruno Kreisky]] Prize for the best political book of 2016,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.kreisky-forum.org/category/event/?anmeldung=4106&lang=de#item-4106|language=German|trans-title= Bruno Kreisky Prize for political book 2016| title=Bruno-Kreisky-Preis Für Das Politische Buch 2016| date=22 March 2017|publisher=[[Bruno Kreisky]] Forum| access-date = 21 June 2023}}</ref> the 2018 Hans Matthöfer Prize for the best book in economics awarded by the [[Friedrich Ebert Foundation]],<ref>{{cite web |publisher=[[Friedrich Ebert Foundation]]| url = https://www.fes.de/e/hans-matthoefer-preis-fuer-wirtschaftspublizistik-verleihung-an-branko-milanovic/| title=Hans-Matthöfer-Preis für Wirtschaftspublizistik: Verleihung an Branko Milanović| date = 15 February 2018|language=German|trans-title=Hans Matthöfer Prize for Business Journalism: Awarded to Branko Milanović | access-date = 21 June 2023}}</ref> and was included in the ''Financial Times'' 12 top books in business and economics published in 2016.<ref>{{cite news | url = https://www.ft.com/content/315c348e-b819-11e6-ba85-95d1533d9a62|work=Financial Times|url-access=subscription | title= Best books of 2016: Economics | access-date = 22 February 2017}}</ref> He received, together with [[Mariana Mazzucato]], the 2018 Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/news/2017/oct/iipp-director-awarded-2018-leontief-economics-prize|publisher=[[University College London]]|website=UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose | title= 2018 Leontief Prize Winners Mariana Mazzucato and Branko Milanovic | date=4 October 2018|access-date = 21 June 2023}}</ref>

His book ''Capitalism, Alone: The Future of the System that Rules the World'' was published in September 2019.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674987593 | title= Capitalism, Alone| access-date = 28 October 2020}}</ref> It was included by the ''[[Foreign Affairs]]'' magazine on the Best Books list for 2020.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=Foreign Affairs| url = https://www.foreignaffairs.com/lists/2020-12-04/best-books-2020 | title=The Best of Books 2020 |date=4 December 2020|access-date = 19 January 2021}}</ref> In July 2020, the magazine ''[[Prospect (magazine)|Prospect]]'' included him among the top 50 thinkers for the year 2020.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=[[Prospect (magazine)|Prospect]]|url = https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/the-worlds-top-50-thinkers-2020 | title= The world's top 50 thinkers 2020 | date= 14 July 2020|access-date = 21 June 2023}}</ref>

===The elephant curve=== Milanović became widely known for the [[The Elephant Curve|"elephant-shaped curve"]] that first appeared in a 2013 article titled "Global Income Distribution: From the Fall of the Berlin Wall to the Great Recession", co-written with Christoph Lakner, senior economist of the World Bank.<ref name=wall>{{Cite journal|publisher=[[World Bank]]|website=Open Knowledge|url=http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/12/18633621/global-income-distribution-fall-berlin-wall-great-recession|title=Global Income Distribution : From the Fall of the Berlin Wall to the Great Recession|date=19 December 2013 |hdl=10986/16935|last1=Lakner|first1=Christoph|last2=Milanović|first2=Branko|series=Policy Research Working Papers |doi=10.1596/1813-9450-6719 |access-date=21 June 2023|hdl-access=free|url-access=}}</ref> The graph showed that those around the 70th–90th [[percentile]] in global income, roughly corresponding to the lower earners in the [[Developed country|developed world]], had missed out on real-income growth over the twenty years between 1988 and 2008.<ref>{{cite news| last=Walker|first=Andrew|url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37542494 |work=[[BBC]]| title= Globalisation: Where on the elephant are you? |date=4 October 2016| access-date = 21 June 2023}}</ref>

In 2020, he published an update of the global-growth curve, which ostensibly showed how the distribution of income growth has changed in the years following 2008.<ref>{{Cite web|first=Branco|last=Milanović |title=Elephant who lost its trunk: Continued growth in Asia, but the slowdown in top 1% growth after the financial crisis |url=https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/elephant-who-lost-its-trunk-continued-growth-asia-slowdown-top-1-growth-after|publisher=[[Centre for Economic Policy Research]] |date=6 October 2020|access-date=21 June 2023|website=CEPR |language=en}}</ref> The data showed that, since the [[2008 financial crisis]], the incomes of the poorest people in the world have risen the fastest. The ''[[Financial Times]]'' commented that "the latest data indicates a clear link between trade integration and falling global inequality" and "a large reduction in global inequality over the past decade" but "again requires careful interpretation" because "as Milanovic says, over the past 30 years there has been 'the greatest reshuffle of individual income positions since the Industrial Revolution'", resulting, among other developments, in "lower-income urban Chinese households, who came close to the bottom of the global distribution in 1988, now enjoy[ing] living standards above the global [[median]]."<ref>{{Cite news |date=24 November 2011|first=Chris|last=Giles |title=The globalisation elephant has left the room |work=[[Financial Times]] |url=https://www.ft.com/content/15da7889-e3e2-4334-82c0-92632b9dfe42|url-access=subscription |access-date=21 June 2023}}</ref>

In October 2023, Milanovic published a history of studies of income inequality "Visions of Inequality" <ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674264144| title= Visions of Inequality| access-date = 27 May 2026}}</ref>, for which he received the Joseph J. Spengler 2025 prize awarded by History of Economics Society [url=https://historyofeconomics.org/awards-and-honors/spengler-book-prize/]. In October 2025, he received the title of Doctor Honoris Causa from Université de Génève.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.unige.ch/dies/en/ceremony-2025 |title=Dies academicus ceremony 2025 |website=unige.ch |access-date=2026-05-30}}</ref>

== Selected works == {{Library resources box|about=no|by=yes}}

===Books=== * ''Liberalization and Entrepreneurship. Dynamics of Reform in Socialism and Capitalism,'' 1989. M.E. Sharpe. * ''Income, Inequality, and Poverty during the Transition from Planned To Market Economy.'' 1998. World Bank. * (with Ethan Kapstein) ''Income and Influence.'' 2003. Upjohn Institute. * (with Christiaan Grootaert and Jeanine Braithwaite) ''Poverty and Social Assistance in Transition Countries.'' 1999. St. Martin's Press. * ''Worlds Apart. Measuring International and Global Inequality.'' 2005. Princeton/Oxford. * ''The Haves and the Have-Nots: A Brief and Idiosyncratic History of Global Inequality'', 2010, Basic Books, New York. * ''Global inequality: A New Approach for the Age of Globalization'', 2016, [[Harvard University Press]]. * ''[[Capitalism, Alone|Capitalism, Alone: The Future of the System That Rules the World]]'', 2019, Harvard University Press. * ''Visions of Inequality: From the French Revolution to the End of the Cold War'', 2023, Harvard University Press. * ''The Great Global Transformation: National Market Liberalism in a Multipolar World'', Nov. 2025, Penguin's/Alen Lane.

===Articles=== * (with Marco Ranaldi), “Capitalist systems and income inequality”, ''Journal of Comparative Economics'', 2021 * (with Li Yang and Filip Novokmet), “From workers to capitalists in less than two generations: A study of Chinese urban elite transformation between 1988 and 2013”, ''British Journal of Sociology'', vol. 72, No. 3, June 2021. * “Towards an explanation of inequality in pre-modern societies: the role of colonies and high population density”, ''The Economic History Review'', vol. 71, No. 4, 2018. * (with Christoph Lakner), “Global income distribution: from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the Great Recession”, ''World Bank Economic Review'', vol. 30, No. 2, pp.&nbsp;203–232, July 2016. * (with Leif Wenar) “Are Liberal Peoples Peaceful?”, ''Journal of Political Philosophy'', Volume 17, Issue 4, 2009. * Global inequality of opportunity: how much of our income is determined by where we live”, ''Review of Economics and Statistics'', vol. 97, No. 2 (May), 2015. * (with Peter Lindert and Jeffrey Williamson), “Pre-industrial inequality”, ''Economic Journal'', March 2011, * “An estimate of average income and inequality in Byzantium around year 1000”, ''Review of Income and Wealth'', vol. 52, No. 3, 2006. * “Economic integration and income convergence: not such a strong link?”, ''Review of Economics and Statistics'', vol. 88, No, 4, 2006. * “Can We Discern the Effect of Globalization on Income Distribution? Evidence from Household Budget Surveys", ''World Bank Economic Review'', No. 1, 2005. * “The Two Faces of Globalization: Against Globalization as We Know it”, ''World Development'', April 2003, pp.&nbsp;667–683. * (with Shlomo Yitzhaki), "Decomposing World Income Distribution: Does the World Have a Middle Class?", ''Review of Income and Wealth'', Vol. 48, No. 2, June 2002. * “True World Income Distribution, 1988 and 1993: First Calculations Based on Household Surveys Alone”, ''Economic Journal'', vol. 112, No. 476, January 2002. * "Cash Transfers, Direct Taxes and Income Distribution in Late Socialism", ''Journal of Comparative Economics'', No.2, 1994. * "Remittances and Income Distribution", ''Journal of Economic Studies'', No.5, 1987. * "Patterns of Regional Growth in Yugoslavia, 1952 1983", ''Journal of Development Economics'', vol. 25, 1987. * "The Austrian Theory of the Labor Managed Firm", ''Journal of Comparative Economics'', No.6, 1982.

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20090902152216/http://carnegieendowment.org/experts/index.cfm?fa=expert_view&expert_id=208 CarnegieEndowment.org] * [http://glineq.blogspot.com/ globalinequality blog] * [http://www.gc.cuny.edu/liscenter-branko-milanovic CUNY bio] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141208144952/http://www.gc.cuny.edu/liscenter-branko-milanovic |date=2014-12-08 }}

{{Globalization}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Milanovic, Branko}} [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:World Bank people]] [[Category:21st-century American economists]] [[Category:Serbian economists]] [[Category:American people of Serbian descent]] [[Category:University of Belgrade alumni]] [[Category:University of Belgrade Faculty of Economics alumni]] [[Category:CUNY Graduate Center faculty]] [[Category:1953 births]] [[Category:American bloggers]] [[Category:University of Maryland, College Park faculty]] [[Category:Center for Global Development]] [[Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers]] [[Category:Recipients of the October Prize of the City of Belgrade]]