The Centre for Development and Enterprise roundtable discussion on the politics and economics of inequality:
Poverty and inequality: Facts, trends, and hard choices
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Poverty and Inequality_Exec Summary .pdf - 266.4KB | |
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Poverty and Inequality_CDE RT 15.pdf - 938.4KB |
http://www.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/download.htm?uri=lll-2524-1&type=coll
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), the famous French philosopher and writer, prepared his Discourse on Inequality (also called the Second Discourse) as an entry in a competition organized by the Academy of Dijon in 1754. He had won first prize in a previous competition (in 1750) with his Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts (the First Discourse), a victory which had helped to make him famous. The Second Discourse did not fare so well in the contest. When the Second Discourse was published again in 1782, Rousseau inserted a few short minor additions into the text. These are included here but are not indicated. The resource is available via the Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS) website, and can be downloaded as a zipped HTML file.From Intute.ac.ukThe World Economic and Social Survey 2009
http://www.un.org/esa/policy/wess/
The World Economic and Social Survey 2009: Promoting Development, Saving the Planet, was launched today. This flagship publication from the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) argues that failing to address the current level of global inequality over the next half century or more, while the world goes about trying to solve the climate problem, is economically, politically and ethically unacceptable. It contends that low-emissions, high-growth pathways for development are both feasible and necessary. Download the report in full (pdf) from the web site.
Oxfam, the British aid organization that banded together with a dozen other organizations in 1995 to form Oxfam International, has a website loaded with resources, one of which is a video library. There are many issues covered, such as climate change, tsunami survivors, AIDS, and many videos include celebrities, including Colin Firth, Scarlett Johansson, Helen Mirren, and Annie Lennox. To increase their reach, many of the videos are also available on Youtube. To view the video in fullscreen, click on the screen icon next to the speaker icon. One of the more heart wrenching videos is the one titled "Our Home After Sidr-Documentary from Oxfam." It is the abridged version of a documentary, but conveys, nonetheless the dire situation of these Bangladesh survivors. Visitors should also not miss short animated video "Face the Music" about climate change, which uses only music and animation to show how climate change hits the poor "first and worst." [KMG] Scout Report
Engines of Inequality: Class, Race, and Family Structure
Source: Scholarship at Penn Law
The past 30 years has witnessed a dramatic divergence in family structure by social class, income, education, and race. This article reviews the data on these trends, explores their significance, and assesses social scientists’ recent attempts to explain them. The article concludes that society-wide changes in economic conditions or social expectations cannot account for these patterns. Rather, for reasons that are poorly understood, cultural disparities have emerged by class and race in attitudes and behaviors surrounding family, sexuality, and reproduction. These disparities will likely fuel social and economic inequality and contribute to disparities in children’s life prospects for decades to come.
+ Full Paper (PDF; 312 KB)
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Inequality in Latin America : determinants and consequences
Source: World Bank Policy Research Working Papers
Latin America is together with Sub-Saharan Africa the most unequal region of the world. This paper documents recent inequality trends in the Latin American region, going beyond traditional measures of income inequality. The paper also reviews some of the explanations that have been put forward to understand the current situation, and discusses why reducing income inequality should be an important policy priority. In particular, the authors discuss channels through which inequality can affect growth and output volatility. On the whole, the analysis suggests a two-pronged approach to reduce inequality in the region that combines policies aimed at improving the distribution of assets (especially education) with elements aimed at improving the capacity of the state to redistribute income through taxes and transfers.
+ Full Paper (PDF; 241 KB)
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CDE
convened a round table in March 2010 at which some of South Africa’s
leading experts spoke about the politics and economics of inequality. We
also invited Professor Paul Romer, an internationally renowned,
Stanford-based economist specialising in economic growth in developing
countries, to explore key issues surrounding inequality, growth and jobs
in developing country contexts.