Growing Inequality: What Can We Do?

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 5-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michel Camdessus
Keyword(s):  
Wealth Inequality ◽  
Medium Term ◽  
Education Outcomes ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The World ◽  
Fiscal Space ◽  
Global Initiative ◽  
Emerging And Developing Countries ◽  
Social Turmoil ◽  
Total Wealth

Growing inequality in the world is disturbing. For example, on average, the top 10 percent of the households hold 50 percent of total wealth. Inequality is even higher in emerging and developing countries. Rising inequality in disposable income has adverse consequences on growth over the medium term and leads to growing frustrations and potentially social turmoil. It adversely affects people’s living conditions, societal cohesion, and social mobility. Governments need to tackle rising inequality urgently and create opportunities and advancement for all. They need to invest in human capital and provide the poor with better health services and stronger education. Means-tested transfers focused on young children have often achieved more equitable health and education outcomes. These efforts require increased fiscal space. Increased progressivity in taxation would (within reason) also help reduce inequality. Additionally, a global initiative on inequality, in which countries would commit to implement their own-designed measures to increase the income of the poorest 40 percent faster than the national median, is proposed. Countries would support each other by sharing experiences, while multilateral organizations would help them design their policies. Two global conferences, in 2023 and in 2028, would examine progress and identify the most effective policies.

If Not Now, When? Energy Price Reform in Arab Countries; April 2017 Rabat, Morocco

Policy Papers ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (30) ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
Energy Price ◽  
Energy Prices ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The World ◽  
Price Reform ◽  
Excessive Consumption ◽  
Fiscal Space ◽  
Energy Products

Regulating energy prices has been a common practice around the world. The objective is, generally, to facilitate access to energy products, which are central to people’s well-being and countries’ economic development. However, energy price regulation also leads to wasteful and excessive consumption, discourages investment in the energy sector, and locks in inefficient technologies. Low energy prices also result in subsidies that erode fiscal space, while benefits for the poor are limited. All these effects have been evident in Arab countries, where domestic energy prices are among the lowest in the world. The current environment of low oil prices offers a unique opportunity for change. Lessons from international experience suggest how well thought-out and sequenced reforms can be successful.

scholarly journals How Do the Poor Respond to Rising Prices?

2000 ◽  
Vol 39 (4II) ◽  
pp. 827-842
Author(s):  
Zareen Fatima Naqvi ◽  
Mohammad Akbar
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Social Services ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Food Prices ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The World ◽  
Fiscal Space ◽  
The Government

Recent estimates show that after falling in the 1980s, poverty has made a comeback in Pakistan during the 1990s. The Government of Pakistan (GOP) estimate show an increase in caloric poverty headcount from 17 percent in 1987-88 to 33 percent in 1998-99 and also rising income inequality during the 1990s.1 In contrast preliminary estimates by the World Bank show that poverty may not have risen as rapidly during the 1990s and may even have stagnated.2 Slow down in economic growth, rising open unemployment, rising food and non-food prices, reduction in the fiscal space for pro-poor public programmes, poor governance hampering delivery of social services to the poor; are factors that have been attributed to the growing poverty and vulnerability of households in recent years.

China und Lateinamerika

2006 ◽  
Vol 36 (142) ◽  
pp. 113-126
Author(s):  
Enrique Dussel Peters
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
World Market ◽  
Global Integration ◽  
Integration Process ◽  
Medium Term ◽  
The World ◽  
New Challenges

China's socioeconomic accumulation in the last 30 years has been probably one of the most outstanding global developments and has resulted in massive new challenges for core and periphery countries. The article examines how China's rapid and massive integration to the world market has posed new challenges for countries such as Mexico - and most of Latin America - as a result of China's successful exportoriented industrialization. China's accumulation and global integration process does, however, not only question and challenges the export-possibilities in the periphery, but also the global inability to provide energy in the medium term.

Comparative Study Of Islamic Economic Law And The Capitalist

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 104
Author(s):  
Tesa Mellina ◽  
Mohammad Ghozali
Keyword(s):  
Economic System ◽  
Capitalist System ◽  
Economic Problems ◽  
Economic Law ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Economic Practice ◽  
The World ◽  
Islamic Economic ◽  
Economic Injustice ◽  
Islamic Values

The implementation ofthe capitalist system has eliminated the Islamic values in economic practice. After the financial crisis hit the world, the capitalist system reaped many questions and its greatnessbegins to be doubted. The capitalist system implementationprecisely creates new problems in the economy. The concept of individualism which is the main key in capitalist practice only creates economic injustice and misery of the poor. The only economic theory that is expected as a light in dealing with economic problems is an economic system that is able to create justice,the welfare of all parties and blessings both the world and the hereafter. The theory is the Islamic economics which in practice is inseparable from Islamiceconomic law. Islamic economic law that underlies the Islamic economic system is totally different from the capitalist economic system.Keywords: Islamic Economic Law; Islamic economics; Capitalist Economy

The Age of Em

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Hanson
Keyword(s):  
Career Paths ◽  
World Economy ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Wealth Inequality ◽  
Moral Progress ◽  
Fast Computer ◽  
The World ◽  
Body Sizes ◽  
Detailed Picture

Robots may one day rule the world, but what is a robot-ruled Earth like? Many think the first truly smart robots will be brain emulations or ems. Scan a human brain, then run a model with the same connections on a fast computer, and you have a robot brain, but recognizably human. Train an em to do some job and copy it a million times: an army of workers is at your disposal. When they can be made cheaply, within perhaps a century, ems will displace humans in most jobs. In this new economic era, the world economy may double in size every few weeks. Some say we can't know the future, especially following such a disruptive new technology, but Professor Robin Hanson sets out to prove them wrong. Applying decades of expertise in physics, computer science, and economics, he uses standard theories to paint a detailed picture of a world dominated by ems. While human lives don't change greatly in the em era, em lives are as different from ours as our lives are from those of our farmer and forager ancestors. Ems make us question common assumptions of moral progress, because they reject many of the values we hold dear. Read about em mind speeds, body sizes, job training and career paths, energy use and cooling infrastructure, virtual reality, aging and retirement, death and immortality, security, wealth inequality, religion, teleportation, identity, cities, politics, law, war, status, friendship and love. This book shows you just how strange your descendants may be, though ems are no stranger than we would appear to our ancestors. To most ems, it seems good to be an em.

Human Rights and 21st Century Challenges

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
First Century ◽  
World Population ◽  
Security Environment ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Relative Share ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
The World ◽  
Twenty First Century

The world faces significant and interrelated challenges in the twenty-first century which threaten human rights in a number of ways. This book examines the relationship between human rights and three of the largest challenges of the twenty-first century: conflict and security, environment, and poverty. Technological advances in fighting wars have led to the introduction of new weapons which threaten to transform the very nature of conflict. In addition, states confront threats to security which arise from a new set of international actors not clearly defined and which operate globally. Climate change, with its potentially catastrophic impacts, features a combination of characteristics which are novel for humanity. The problem is caused by the sum of innumerable individual actions across the globe and over time, and similarly involves risks that are geographically and temporally diffuse. In recent decades, the challenges involved in addressing global and national poverty have also changed. For example, the relative share of the poor in the world population has decreased significantly while the relative share of the poor who live in countries with significant domestic capacity has increased strongly. Overcoming these global and interlocking threats constitutes this century’s core political and moral task. This book examines how these challenges may be addressed using a human rights framework. It considers how these challenges threaten human rights and seeks to reassess our understanding of human rights in the light of these challenges. The analysis considers both foundational and applied questions. The approach is multidisciplinary and contributors include some of the most prominent lawyers, philosophers, and political theorists in the debate. The authors not only include leading academics but also those who have played important roles in shaping the policy debates on these questions. Each Part includes contributions by those who have served as Special Rapporteurs within the United Nations human rights system on the challenges under consideration.

Private Agricultural R&D: Do the Poor Benefit?

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jock R. Anderson ◽  
Regina Birner ◽  
Latha Najarajan ◽  
Anwar Naseem ◽  
Carl E. Pray
Keyword(s):  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Agricultural Research ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Agricultural Technologies ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The World ◽  
Agricultural Research And Development ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Private agricultural research and development can foster the growth of agricultural productivity in the diverse farming systems of the developing world comparable to the public sector. We examine the extent to which technologies developed by private entities reach smallholder and resource-poor farmers, and the impact they have on poverty reduction. We critically review cases of successfully deployed improved agricultural technologies delivered by the private sector in both large and small developing countries for instructive lessons for policy makers around the world.

scholarly journals Creative leaps in theory: the might of abduction

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Veen
Keyword(s):  
Health Professions ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Health Professions Education ◽  
Abductive Reasoning ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The World

AbstractThis paper argues that abductive reasoning has a central place in theorizing Health Professions Education. At the root of abduction lies a fundamental debate: How do we connect practice, which is always singular and unique, with theory, which describes the world in terms of rules, generalizations, and universals? While abduction was initially seen as the ‘poor cousin’ of deduction and induction, ultimately it has something important to tell us about the role of imagination and humility in theorizing Health Professions Education. It is that which makes theory possible, because it allows us to ask what might be the case and calls attention to the role of creative leaps in theory. Becoming aware of the abductive reasoning we already perform in our research allows us to take the role of imagination—something rarely associated with theory—seriously.

scholarly journals Looking into the future ten years later: big full containerships and their arrival to south American ports

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo J. Sánchez ◽  
Daniel E. Perrotti ◽  
Alejandra Gomez Paz Fort
Keyword(s):  
Economies Of Scale ◽  
South American ◽  
Medium Term ◽  
Trade Routes ◽  
Factors Associated ◽  
Cascading Effect ◽  
Dependent Variables ◽  
The World ◽  
Nominal Capacity ◽  
Global Increase

AbstractSince 2006, when the Emma Maersk broke into the world of shipping, the growth in containership size has remained a continuous trend.For the last 14 years, since 2006, the enlargement of fullcontainerships size has remained a continuous trend since Emma Maersk broke into the world of shipping. This process - that also affected north-south trades - has crucial implications in the shipping business, particularly in the planning of ports and its services and related activities. This paper analyses the global increase in vessel size and forecasts larger vessels’ arrival to South American coasts. The paper analyses evidence since 2006 to understand the factors behind the trend for bigger ships (fleets between 18,000 and 24,000 TEU) and introduce a validated methodology for the prediction of the size of container ships. Experts presented a consensus vision in which factors associated with infrastructure, economics, technology, and the environment play a crucial role in driving the trend. Next, the paper presents a methodology for forecasting the size of containerships and applies it to Latin America’s trade. The models include two alternative thresholds for the dependent variables (1310 ft LOA and 18,000 TEU of nominal capacity) that are controlled by cascading effect (i.e., the size gap between Latin America and the world’s main trade routes), and the economic activity at the destination countries (represented by port activity). Finally, the conclusions highlight the forecast’s call to take action on infrastructure planning and investments, analyzing issues such as “economies of scale,” concentration, or entry barriers. Overall, the paper warns about the importance of efficient medium-term planning in the port industry to maximize its economic impact.

Cooperation dynamics of polycentric climate governance

2015 ◽  
Vol 25 (13) ◽  
pp. 2503-2517 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vítor V. Vasconcelos ◽  
Francisco C. Santos ◽  
Jorge M. Pacheco
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
Evolutionary Game ◽  
Wealth Inequality ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Viable Solution ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Global Coordination ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Climate Change Governance

Global coordination for the preservation of a common good, such as climate, is one of the most prominent challenges of modern societies. In this manuscript, we use the framework of evolutionary game theory to investigate whether a polycentric structure of multiple small-scale agreements provides a viable solution to solve global dilemmas as climate change governance. We review a stochastic model which incorporates a threshold game of collective action and the idea of risky goods, capturing essential features unveiled in recent experiments. We show how reducing uncertainty both in terms of the perception of disaster and in terms of goals induce a transition to cooperation. Taking into account wealth inequality, we explore the impact of the homophily, potentially present in the network of influence of the rich and the poor, in the different contributions of the players. Finally, we discuss the impact of polycentric sanctioning institutions, showing how such a scenario also proves to be more efficient than a single global institution.

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