How to design Income and Wealth Cap Policies? An Analytical Framework built from 14 Policy Proposals.

Preventing rising economic inequalities in a non-growing economy is a major challenge to which no clear solution has emerged from postgrowth studies yet. However, within this debate, scholars agree that any strategy to reduce inequality must include a reduction of income and/or assets of the wealthy. Despite this acknowledgment, caps on wealth and income have surprisingly been poorly studied. This paper aims to fill this gap by exploring this innovative policy with the following question: what are the main parameters to consider when designing a policy of income and/or wealth caps? Using an inductive approach, a qualitative content analysis of 14 policy proposals was performed, including 4 concrete cases. An analytical framework identifying 6 major parameters was built from data, to be used by policymakers and researchers. Furthermore, a dialogue between academic and political proposals reveals a wide gap between these two categories and brings out new directions for research. This article discusses how such policies should be designed to increase their popularity and it portrays the context in which they were implemented in the past. Finally, it is argued that these policies represent a key leverage to finance eco-social policies that are required to lead our societies to more sustainable pathways.