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The noted economist and philosopher Amartya Sen argues that the dictum “all people are created equal” serves largely to deflect attention from the fact that we differ in age, gender, talents, and physical abilities as well as in material advantages and social background. He argues for concentrating on higher and more basic values: individual capabilities and freedom to achieve objectives. By concentrating on the equity and efficiency of social arrangements in promoting freedoms and capabilities of individuals, Sen adds an important new angle to arguments about such vital issues as gender inequalities, welfare policies, affirmative action, and public provision of health care and education.
The issues surrounding poverty and inequality continue to be of central concern to academics, politicians and policymakers but the way in which we seek to analyse them continues to change. This is a guide to some of the new approaches that have been developed, while also making a contribution to the ongoing public debate.
The issues surrounding poverty and inequality continue to be of central concern to academics, politicians and policymakers but the way in which we seek to analyse them continues to change. This volume provides a guide to some of the new approaches that have been developed, while also making a real contribution to the ongoing public debate.
Is there a tradeoff between raising growth and reducing inequality and poverty? This paper reviews the theoretical and empirical literature on the complex links between growth, inequality, and poverty, with causation going in both directions. The evidence suggests that growth can be effective in reducing poverty, but its impact on inequality is ambiguous and depends on the underlying sources of growth. The impact of poverty and inequality on growth is likewise ambiguous, as several channels mediate the relationship. But most plausible mechanisms suggest that poverty and inequality reduce growth, at least in the long run. Policies play a role in shaping these relationships and those designed to improve equality of opportunity can simultaneously improve inclusiveness and growth.
This paper analyzes the extent of income inequality from a global perspective, its drivers, and what to do about it. The drivers of inequality vary widely amongst countries, with some common drivers being the skill premium associated with technical change and globalization, weakening protection for labor, and lack of financial inclusion in developing countries. We find that increasing the income share of the poor and the middle class actually increases growth while a rising income share of the top 20 percent results in lower growth—that is, when the rich get richer, benefits do not trickle down. This suggests that policies need to be country specific but should focus on raising the income share of the poor, and ensuring there is no hollowing out of the middle class. To tackle inequality, financial inclusion is imperative in emerging and developing countries while in advanced economies, policies should focus on raising human capital and skills and making tax systems more progressive.
Essays exploring the relationship between economic growth and inequality and the implications for policy makers.
The process of globalization has implications for human rights, though the relationship between the two is not always clear. How does globalization effect human rights in local contexts? Globalization, Poverty, and Income Inequality examines the relationships between globalization and trade liberalization, and poverty and income inequality, using Indonesia as a case study. This empirically rigorous investigation finds that although increased trade tends to reduce poverty, there are exceptions. For example, globalization via trade in certified organic coffee has not helped low-income farmers. And globalized access to treatments for visual problems has been countermanded by rising digitization that negatively affects the visually disabled poor. Ultimately, the chapters describe an ambiguous relationship between trade liberalization and inequality, both of which can increase or decrease in proportion to one another depending on region and sector. This empirically driven work provides a nuanced view of the trade-poverty relationship, contributing balanced testimony to policy debates being held internationally.
Capitalism is under attack. Defenders say that capitalism has raised billions of people from poverty. But a central activity of capitalism today, Wall Street style, is speculation (gambling), using other people’s money, and privatizing the profits while socializing the debts. Skeptics argue that capitalism has redistributed the wealth of the planet in favor of a very few, meanwhile leaving the planet in bad shape and leaving billions of people out in the cold. Wealth is now extremely mal-distributed, opportunity is far from equal, and upward social mobility has declined significantly in recent decades. This book reviews the evidence and arguments pro and con in considerable detail. The evidence is mixed. The main virtue of capitalism is its emphasis on competition as a driver of innovation and, thus, of economic growth. It is true that economic growth has accelerated in recent centuries, and it is true that billions of people have been lifted from poverty. But it is not necessarily true that intense “winner take all” competition in the marketplace is the explanation for growth. Neoclassical economic theory posits that self-interest is the primary motive for all economic decisions, leaving little room for cooperation and even less for altruism. The theory applies to an unrealistic “model” of human behavior, known as Homo economicus or “economic man”, whose characteristic activity is buying or selling. The reason for using the adjective word “social” – as in socialism” or “social service” or “social democracy” -- is, essentially, to deny those postulates of standard economic theory. Real humans are not rational utility maximizers (whatever that is) and very often do things that are not in their own personal best interests. This can happen because other interests, such as family loyalty, professional, religious, or patriotic duty, may take precedence. Real people rarely behave like Homo economicus, who has rivals but no friends. He (or she) does not trust anyone, hence cannot cooperate with others, and can never create, or live in, a viable social system (or marriage). Yet social systems, ranging from families and tribes to firms, cities, and nations do (and must) exist or civilization cannot exist. A viable social system must not allow “winner takes all”. It must reallocate some of the societal wealth being created by competitive activities to support the young, the old and the weak, because all of those people have equal rights, if not the same luck or the same skills. Both competition and cooperation have important roles to play. A hybrid capitalism involving both is the only viable solution. The book ends with a specific suggestion, namely Universal Basic Income, or UBI.
This poignant book examines poverty, wealth and inequality in the UK, and provides insight into its history, its present-day forms and possible routes to its eradication. The book demonstrates how poverty, wealth and inequality are constructed in the UK, noting that it is not an innate part of the human experience, but a phenomenon which is constructed by economic and social circumstances. Using work ranging from Malthus’ interrogation of the ‘natural right of the poor to full support in [...] society’ to more contemporary approaches, including Thomas Picketty's Capitalism in the Twenty First Century, the authors examine various forms of poverty, wealth and inequality in the UK, using the UK Household Longitudinal Study, Understanding Society, dataset to ground their findings in quantitative evidence. The book concludes with an assessment of what is required to potentially end poverty in the UK, and a call to apply evidence-based research to the reshaping of social policy in the UK. This book is an excellent resource for students, policy makers and lecturers seeking a greater understanding of poverty, wealth and inequality in the UK. It will be of particular interest to those working in or studying the fields of human geography, economics and social policy.
Deals with income distribution methods and their economic applications.