In Memoriam: Michael Wallerstein

Fall 2006, Volume 28, Number 1

Michael Wallerstein, one of the world’s leading political economists and a former IPR faculty fellow, died of brain cancer on January 7 at his home in New Haven, Conn. He was 54.

Wallerstein, who studied Western European comparative politics, labor-market institutions, income inequality, and social justice, arrived at Northwestern University in 1994 following a decade at the University of California-Los Angeles. He joined the Institute for Policy Research shortly thereafter. He remained at Northwestern, where he served for three years as chair of its political science department, until 2004 when he went to Yale University.

At his last IPR talk in May 2004, he spoke about the striking differences in income inequality in advanced industrial societies. His research demonstrated that centralized bargaining institutions were strongly correlated with egalitarian wages, and he argued that current trends toward decentralized wage-setting in many countries is likely to lead to rising wage inequality.

Wallerstein published numerous articles and two books, including Globalization and Egalitarian Redistribution (Princeton University Press, 2006) that he co-edited with Pranab Bardhan and Samuel Bowles. In 2005, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

The Political Economy Section of the American Political Science Association, in which he participated, has established an award in his honor.