Formation/Cours

An increasing base of literature shows ‘disappointing poverty trends’ and rising inequality both in the global North and the global South, although with a large cross-country variation since some countries perform better than others. Inequality in many societies is on the rise: gains of globalization have been concentrated with a small elite while incomes and wealth of the rest have stagnated or declined. At the same time, school systems and welfare provisions have expanded, aiming at equalizing opportunities. How to explain this paradox of increasing opportunities and disappointing poverty and inequality trends? How to explain cross-country variation in poverty and inequality levels? This seminar examines aspects of poverty and inequality with insights from economics, philosophy, sociology and public policy. It covers contexts of all levels of development. In the first part, we discuss the definitions and measurements of poverty and inequality, how they vary across countries and change over time, and critically assess how such variation may create identification issues and affect policy responses. In the second part, we review empirical research findings in economics and sociology regarding poverty and inequality trends in different contexts. We take a closer look at different cross-sectional and longitudinal research designs that consider poverty and inequality as static and dynamic phenomena. In the third part, we investigate how policy interventions affect poverty and inequality. We examine social benefits (cash transfers), social investment provisions (care services, active labour market policies, education and training), and taxes as policy responses, and discuss issues related to policy design and their redistributive implications.