Tackling inequality: Looking for Leverage in the Global North

Skriftserien, 2017

TemaNord, 2018

Policies that reduce these "child penalties" for women are likely to reduce the gender gap. Such policies could, for example, include making parental leave less generous (thereby lowering employers' expectations of career disruptions) or equalising (expected) parental leave between men and women by dividing these rights more equally between the parents. The above items do not necessarily represent policy recommendations as income distribution goals must be weighed against other objectives relating to, for example, incentives for innovation, entrepreneurship and (human and real) capital investment, employment and fiscal sustainability. But the options should be considered if one wants to put more emphasis on equity goals than has been the case recently.

IDS Bulletin, 2010

Although important gains have been made in reducing global poverty, the pace of progress across the world is not on track to achieve the 2015 MDG targets. Is this due to lack of ownership on the part of national governments and the international community? This article examines whether the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) and donor policy statements are aligned with MDG priorities and targets. The analysis found a high degree of commitment to MDGs as a whole but both PRSPs and donor statements are selective, consistently emphasising income poverty and social investments for education, health and water but not other targets concerned with empowerment and inclusion of the most vulnerable such as gender violence or women's political representation. The article concludes that a new, ninth Goal needs to be added-to reduce inequality-to make the MDGs aligned to the original purpose of the Millennium Declaration.

2005

Several thousands of years ago, Aristotle famously argued that 'extremes of wealth and poverty are the main sources of evil' in the world. In our time, evil signifies short, miserable and undignified lives; xenophobia, urban crime and violence. Yet a common point with Aristotle's epoch is that all these phenomena disproportionately impact the poor rather than the rich. Seen from this perspective, it can be argued that to talk meaningfully about poverty inevitably also implies talking about wealth, insofar as it is the processes and institutions that connect people differently that make some poor and others rich. In other words, attacking poverty requires a focus on inequality. However, inequality has been treated marginally in international development policy. It is as if what matters in creating a more humane world is absolute poverty. In this view, if extreme poverty is falling, governments should not worry about what happens at the other end of the income distribution. This is particularly evident when one considers the Millennium Development Goals. Several factors have contributed to the unfortunate divorce of poverty and inequality. In the 1990s, the view gained ground among some economists that high growth rates were sufficient to alleviate poverty, especially if income distribution remained unchanged. Governments were advised that they need not follow equity-based growth strategies, as what mattered most was the income level of the poor, rather than equality, whose pursuit might affect efficiency and ultimately growth itself. The fixation with growth and absolute poverty coincided with the triumph of free-market ideas and the finance and technology-induced boom of the 1990s. Even low-income countries in Africa started to experience growth in the late 1990s after the regression of the previous decade. On the eve of the new millennium, there was thus a strong belief that the plight of the poor could be improved without questioning macroeconomic policy orthodoxy and income distribution. However, an increasing body of evidence is showing that highly unequal societies need higher levels of growth than relatively equal ones to overcome poverty, and that there is no trade-off between equity and growth. In particular, poverty is closely related to inequalities of class, ethnicity and gender, which are therefore dysfunctional for development. High levels of inequality make it harder for the poor to participate in the growth process; restrict the expansion of the domestic market; may raise crime levels or cause violent conflict; and may create institutions that lock the poor into poverty traps. This clearly implies that there is a real need for specific policies that promote greater equity in

When news arrives from faraway places of disaster, hunger and economic setbacks, our political figures and media usually start talking about how to mount a rescue with foreign aid. It's the cowboy in the white hat. After all, some of the world's most powerful institutions, notably the IMF and World Bank, lead the aid industry. It has a global budget of over 70 billion Euros a year and employs a global workforce of more than half a million. Its people rub elbows with diplomats, military commanders and influential pundits. It has strong lobbies in capital cities and still has a certain residual appeal for the public, at least in much of Europe. These things help account the forward motion and longevity of the foreign aid system, which reaches its 60th birthday next year. Now the proposition that the foreign aid industry can help remedy inequality is seldom heard, but it has a certain plausibility. For a lot of people, foreign aid sounds like simply a bigger version of our public welfare systems, which genuinely do redress social and economic inequalities. But that's mythology. The realities of foreign aid are different. The proposition that today's foreign aid industry could lead efforts to roll back inequality is not realistic. Its current purposes and strategies afford it little

World Development, 2007

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Europe's Income, Wealth, Consumption, and Inequality, 2021

The chapter demonstrates that while the Nordic countries remain relatively affluent and egalitarian, inequality of disposable household income has been on the rise over the past 30 years. The increase in income inequality and relative income poverty has been strongest in Sweden and more modest in three other countries. In Sweden and, to a lesser extent, in Finland and Denmark, a reduced role for social transfers among the working age population has contributed to a decline in relative income levels enjoyed by the bottom deciles. Often in the wake of serious macroeconomic downturns, politicians have reduced the generosity of social transfers to improve labour market incentives. Even if these reforms have had the intended effect on employment, the increase in earnings has not been sufficient to replace the loss of social transfers.

2004

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