Book Description
World Poverty provides a general summary of world poverty at the beginning of the 21st century, then an introduction to modern world system theory and its attempts to explain world poverty and inequality. Separate chapters contain an overview of poverty in Africa, Latin America, and then Asia. Remaining chapters offer explanations for why some countries in the world (mostly in Asia) have become richer and reduced the ranks of their poor through ties with the global economy while others have not. Kerbo provides extensive evidence for why the nature of the state in developing countries is the most important factor in stagnation or even economic development with poverty reduction. But, in contrast to previous research and new statements by the World Bank, he has created a model attempting to explain why and how some countries have “good governance” and others do not. The book concludes with what we now know about world poverty and what does and does not work to reduce it.
Customer Reviews:
A Great Textbook.......2007-08-11
This was my textbook for my class in Sociology. However this book teaches about some history of the countries and how come they are or are not poor. This book discusses the inequities of the different aspects of each country. The book is timeless and should be read by all especially in our economy of now. I think it would also make a good economics book.
Average customer rating:
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Who Gains From Free Trade: Export-Led Growth, Inequality and Poverty in Latin America (Routledge Studies in Development Economics)
Vos & Ganuza
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 Comparative
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ASIN: 0415770440 |
Book Description
Since the late 1980s, almost all Latin American countries have gone through a process of far-reaching economic reforms, featuring in particular trade, financial and capital account liberalization. At first the reforms seemed to be working as promised and trade expanded. However, at the turn of the century, the economies have shown unstable and rather dismal growth. Some argue trade liberalization is partly to be blamed for this.
Who Gains from Free Trade examines the extent to which trade reforms have been an important source of the slowdown of economic growth, rising inequality and rising poverty as observed in many parts of the region. This volume presents an comprehensive analysis of this important topic, utilizing research based on 16 country narratives of policy reform and economic performance; rigorous general equilibrium (CGE) modelling of the economy-wide effects of trade reform for all country cases; alongside application of an innovative method of microsimulations to assess the employment and factor income distribution impact of policy reforms on poverty and inequality at the household level.
The study finds that trade liberalization and the switch to export-led growth are not the cause of the growth slowdown in Latin America. Nor are they the cause of rising poverty and inequality. If anything, the impact on growth and poverty in general has been positive, but very small. Thus, further trade opening is neither the solution to the region's economic woes, nor should we expect any disastrous implications for aggregate poverty.
Book Description
Revised following the 2004 presidential election, a graphic portrait of the growing gap between the rich and everyone else in America.
• In 1968, African Americans earned 55 cents for every dollar of white income. At the current pace, it would take 581 years for African Americans to achieve income parity.
• States including Alabama, Tennessee, and Virginia tax food and basic needs at a higher rate than income from investments.
• Welfare for very low income people totaled $193 billion in 2004. Aid to "dependent corporations" exceeded $800 billion.
This updated edition of the widely touted Economic Apartheid in America looks at the causes and manifestations of wealth disparities in the United States, including tax policy in light of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts and recent corporate scandals.
Published with two leading organizations dedicated to addressing economic inequality, the book looks at recent changes in income and wealth distribution and examines the economic policies and shifts in power that have fueled the growing divide.
Praised by Sojurners as "a clear blueprint on how to combat growing inequality," Economic Apartheid in America provides "much-needed groundwork for more democratic discussion and participation in economic life" (Tikkun). With "a wealth of eye-opening data" (The Beacon) focusing on the decline of organized labor and civic institutions, the battle over global trade, and the growing inequality of income and wages, it argues that most Americans are shut out of the discussion of the rules governing their economic lives.
Accessible and engaging and illustrated throughout with charts, graphs, and political cartoons, the book lays out a comprehensive plan for action. Charts, graphs, and black-and-white illustrations throughout.
Customer Reviews:
More of a primer.......2007-07-11
This book isn't bad. But the content makes it difficult to be entertaining. I would compare it to a college freshmen economic textbook. But it's not just boring text. There are interesting graphs and charts. And even some lame cartoons. But it's done very well and has some excellent commentary. It's almost entertaining. But again, it's tough to sit down and actually read content about labor unions and minimum wage and stay excited. But as far as the books that I've seen or read that paint a big picture of our economy and it's current state . . . this is the best.
Informative, important, and easy to read.......2007-04-17
Co-authors Chuck Collins and Felice Yeskel discuss the widening gap between America's rich and poor, and why it's in our interest to pay attention.
With clarity and conviction, Economic Apartheid In America details the reasons for this country's increasing disparity between the wealthiest and everyone else. It begins with a discussion of the societal risks economic inequality poses, including a decrease in family security, threats to our democratic institutions, and the decay of social cohesion. The book indicates that families in all but the highest earning brackets face declining real incomes, increasing personal debt, a virtual disappearance in both retirement and personal savings, and unavailable or unaffordable health care coverage. In addition, education and child care costs are on the rise and the federal minimum wage is so outdated it can no longer realistically keep a family of four above the poverty line.
The authors explain how high concentrations of wealth place excessive power in the hands of too few, primarily through political influence and corporate disenfranchisement of workers. This has resulted in an uneven playing field on which the wealthiest individuals and corporations enjoy higher income, numerous tax breaks, and greater returns on investment, while the poorest are expected to bear higher living costs, declining income, and an ever-increasing tax burden. The book also discusses the persistent disparities in earning power for minorities and women.
Collins and Yeskel point out that it wasn't always this way. In the post World War II era families in every income bracket enjoyed comparably sized increases in earnings, allowing a more even distribution of wealth and, with the notable exceptions of women and minorities, a greater level of overall prosperity. Now, in the post-Reagan era of globalization and the proliferation of "free-market capitalism," corporations have compromised wage-earner security through downsizing, outsourcing, and excessive executive compensation.
The book admonishes readers to effect change through the use of grassroots organizing efforts, the support of political leaders who favor limits on corporate welfare and an increase in the minimum wage, the reinvigoration of unionized labor, and the creation/adaptation of government social services that support working families. In addition, several strategies, from socially responsible investing to publicly funded elections, are offered as methods to close the economic divide.
Other notable topics discussed in the book include the Federal Reserve's over-aversion to inflation, the abuse of commonwealth resources, a cultural shift towards greed and consumerism, and the perpetuation of class divide via intergenerational retention of wealth. While at times the book suffers from a tone of activist desperation, overall it offers an informed summation and practical solutions for a critical issue facing society.
Book Description
Flat World, Big Gaps critically considers the impact of economic liberalization and globalization on inequality and poverty. The first half surveys the major analytical issues in the recent study of global inequalities. The second half of the volume surveys recent inequality trends in various parts of the world including the OECD, the USA, Eastern Europe and the CIS economies, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, India, East Asia and China.
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Poverty and Inequality in Latin America: Issues and New Challenges (From the Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies)
Manufacturer: University of Notre Dame Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Economic Conditions
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Economic Policy & Development
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| Central America
| Americas
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| Americas
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| Poverty
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ASIN: 0268038686 |
Book Description
In fall 1995 leading academics joined politicians, entrepreneurs, union leaders, and other civic leaders at the University of Notre Dame to discuss the present and emerging challenges in resolving issues of poverty and inequality in Latin America. The resulting multidisciplinary approach integrated good analytical work with sound advice in the hope that new policies can provide more effective answers to both new and chronic questions.
"This is an important volume, with significant implications for regional policy makers, comparative policy analysts, and would-be organizers of the laboring and marginalized poor." --Political Studies
". . . The best book available on poverty and inequality in the new era of neoliberalism in Latin America." --Political Science Quaterly
"This collection explores strategies such as job creation and reconstructing, sensitivity to new problems, and development of a more flexible work force. The contributors call for a redefinition of roles and regulations, and for redesigning the current social order." --Abstracts of Public Administration, Development, and Environment
Book Description
Looks at the daily lives of poor people to demonstrate that the poor pay more than others, by both monetary and other measures, to meet basic needs.
Book Description
We are used to thinking about inequality within countries--about rich Americans versus poor Americans, for instance. But what about inequality between all citizens of the world? Worlds Apart addresses just how to measure global inequality among individuals, and shows that inequality is shaped by complex forces often working in different directions. Branko Milanovic, a top World Bank economist, analyzes income distribution worldwide using, for the first time, household survey data from more than 100 countries. He evenhandedly explains the main approaches to the problem, offers a more accurate way of measuring inequality among individuals, and discusses the relevant policies of first-world countries and nongovernmental organizations.
Inequality has increased between nations over the last half century (richer countries have generally grown faster than poorer countries). And yet the two most populous nations, China and India, have also grown fast. But over the past two decades inequality within countries has increased. As complex as reconciling these three data trends may be, it is clear: the inequality between the world's individuals is staggering. At the turn of the twenty-first century, the richest 5 percent of people receive one-third of total global income, as much as the poorest 80 percent. While a few poor countries are catching up with the rich world, the differences between the richest and poorest individuals around the globe are huge and likely growing.
Customer Reviews:
Very good!.......2006-03-21
Anyone interested in the distribution of income on an international and world basis must read this book. It is a thorough and rich analysis of the topic. The best of its kind!
Average customer rating:
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Growth, Inequality, and Poverty: Prospects for Pro-Poor Economic Development (Wider Studies in Development Economics)
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Development & Growth
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ASIN: 0199282242 |
Book Description
The relationship between growth, inequality, and poverty lies at the heart of development economics. This volume draws together many of the most important recent contributions to the controversies surrounding this topic. Some of the chapters help explain why there is profound disagreement on crucial issues of growth, poverty and inequality within academic circles, and among organizations and various groups active in the development field. Another central theme is the cross-country evidence on the relationship between growth and poverty, and the extent to which it is valid to draw policy conclusions from this empirical evidence. The volume also shows how new microeconomic techniques such as poverty maps and microsimulation models can be used to improve poverty analysis and the design of pro-poor policies. The overall conclusion points to the need for diverse strategies towards growth and poverty, rather than simple blanket policy rules. Initial conditions, specific country structures, and time horizons all play a significant role. Initial conditions affect the speed with which growth reduces poverty and can also determine whether policies such as trade liberalization have a pro-poor or an anti-poor outcome. Improved education is valuable in itself, and also contributes to poverty reduction; but its effect on inequality depends on supply and demand factors, which differ significantly across countries. Likewise, the quantitative impact on poverty of redistribution from the rich to the poor vis-a-vis an increase in total national income can vary greatly across countries. Hence the need for creative approaches to poverty which take full account of the specific circumstances of individual nations and which assign a central role to inequality analysis in the discussion of poverty-alleviation policies.
Book Description
First published in 1973, this book presents a systematic treatment of the conceptual framework as well as the practical problems of measurement of inequality. Alternative approaches are evaluated in terms of their philosophical assumptions, economic content, and statistical requirements. In a new introduction, Amartya Sen, jointly with James Foster, critically surveys the literature that followed the publication of this book, and also evaluates the main analytical issues in the appraisal of economic inequality and poverty.
Customer Reviews:
The standard source on economic inequality.......2006-02-17
Despite the fact that the discipline of economic inequality measurement is thriving in the last twenty or so years (may be thirty something if you count from Atkinson (1970) paper), the textbook format publications of the general character are rare; I can only think of Lambert (2002) as another major source. Amartya Sen is a Nobel prize winner in the area of inequality, poverty and famines; and James Foster who wrote an extensive commentary featured in this second edition of the original Sen's lectures is arguably the most often cited author in inequality and poverty measurement due to his principal contributions on the classes of decomposable measures and poverty orderings.
It should be noted that Sen is kinda difficult reading; his language is a little bit archaic, and not very typical for the modern highly mathematized economic publications (don't worry, you'll see enough abstract algebra once you start going into the details of the derivation of the properties of inequality/poverty indices...)
I don't think that the other review gives anything close to the real merit of this book, as it seems to be written by an information econometrician rather than somebody doing substantive distribution research. I would comment that generalized entropy measures are important, if not central, in the inequality measurement due to their nice properties, but are not the only measures possible. The authors rather wanted to give a big picture, and, as I said, you can get all sorts of details in the article publications they refer to.
A key to evaluating inequality.......1999-06-11
I learned a lot from Sen's and Foster's book. It is an important key to the understanding of inequality measures. Especially the welfare funcion seems to be a much better measure to describe income than the average per capita income.
I, however, have one objection. Sen is careful enough not to completely reject Theil's formula (see formula 2.11 in "On Economic Inequality"). And although Sen and James E. Foster are puzzled by the application of entropy to economics, they seemingly also feel, that it is interesting enough to be discussed.
Unfortunately though, Sen called Theil's formula not only "interesting", but also "arbitrary". Here is an example for how Sen's further comments on Theil's measure successfully inhibited other researchers to develop an understanding for entropy measures. "Sen ... describes the major flaw in T very nicely when he states that it 'is not a measure that is exactly overflowing with intuitive sense'. Why then would econometricians - or anyone else - want to use T?" This response (from a participant from Macquarie University, 1991 Conference of the Australian Association for Research in Education) is regrettable. I wish, Sen and Foster would reevaluate entropy measures and their application to the measurement of inequality.
"Intuitive" understanding of entropy is rare. (That is why confusing entropy problems with energy problems is common.) The major flaw in evaluating entropy measures often is lack of common knowledge in physics as well as lack of intuition. If sociologists and economists don't trust physicists or engineers, they at least should observe how the "Shannon index" is used in statistical ecology.
As for economics, you find excellent examples for how to use Theil's measure in James K. Galbraith's "Created Unequal" (1998, ISBN 0-684-84988-7).
Book Description
This text serves as a self-contained course on income distribution and poverty, with additional emphasis on issues of discrimination. Sections of the book revisit microeconomics and basic statistics. Also includes considerable detail on the role of labor markets as a source of income differences among individuals. The role of public policy on income/wealth inequality and poverty is also fully explored.
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