Matter How Does it Differ to Focussing on Poverty Duncan Green Oxfam GB Ambedkar University November 2013 What do we mean by Poverty Absolute v Relative income Multidimensional narrow ID: 592255
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Slide1
Inequality: Why Does it Matter; How Does it Differ to Focussing on Poverty?
Duncan Green
Oxfam GB
Ambedkar
University
November 2013Slide2
What do we mean by Poverty?Absolute v Relative income
Multidimensional – narrow (
eg
Human Development Index)
Asking Poor People (Voices of the Poor)
Well
/ Ill
being
Static v Dynamic – fear of tomorrowSlide3
What’s happening to income poverty?Slide4
What do we mean by inequality?IncomeOpportunity: soft and hard versions
Outcomes
Multidimensional inequality
Vertical v Horizontal (spatial)
Intergenerational (temporal)
Measurement: Gini v deciles
PowerSlide5
Inequality is a rising concernSlide6
Shared by just about everybodyIMF links to major financial crises (rich elites recycling $) and social cohesion
World Bank highlights how much harder it is to end poverty in unequal countries (eg South Africa)
Stiglitz linking to political capture and positive feedback loops from influence
Planetary boundaries and the finite cake
Behavioural economics and link to well-beingSlide7
What’s happening to global income inequality?
Global Gini improving due to rise of BRICS
Global extremes getting worse
100 richest people = 4x poorest 1.4bn
Gini within countries mixed
Deteriorating in all but 4 G20 countries
But improving in many non-G20 countries, eg in Latin AmericaSlide8
Globally, it’s the 2%Slide9
G20 doing badlySlide10
And good and bad performers convergingSlide11
Brazil v the RICSSlide12
Brazil’s success story on inequalityOver last decade, incomes of the poorest Brazilians have risen more than x5 faster than those of the richest
Hunger ‘largely dealt with’
Cf New Deal or post War UK
Women > men
Blacks > whites
Northeast > SoutheastSlide13
Cutting inequality needs much more than social protection
Rights-based constitution
Centre-left government
Full employment
Rising minimum wage, universal pension
An integrated and effective public administration
A high level of public participation
Political and economic stabilitySlide14
Gabriel Palma the most interestingDeciles tell you more than Gini (Convergence)
In all countries, deciles 5-9 have (and keep) about 50% of wealth
Rest is up for grabs between top 10% and bottom 40%
Key political question is whether middle class allies with top or bottomSlide15
What might an NGO inequality agenda look like?
Structures matter (oil v jobs)
Taxation – quantity and quality
Ceilings v floors (eg land)
Redistribution > income (eg tertiary ed = 16% social spending in Brazil)
More on attitudes and beliefs: gender, but also caste, ethnicity, children, disability
Focus on inequality between or within countries?Slide16Slide17
Oxfam India on Inequality
Income
Missing
Jobs, Low Wages and
Discrimination
Education & Health
Public v Private
To
Have or Not a Toilet
About
Networks and
Chances
Rents
and RedistributionSlide18
Thanks!