Most students of development put more energy into understanding the causes and consequences of absolute poverty than of inequality. But globalization—with new opportunities to win and to lose—is changing that. Equality is an issues of rising concern, and nowhere is it more worrying than in Latin America, home to many of the world's most unequal societies.
In this book, CGD President Nancy Birdsall and her coauthors Augusto de la Torre, chief economist for Latin America at the World Bank, and Rachel Menezes, former economic policy associate at the Inter-American Dialogue, explore the links between recent growth trends, changing patterns of inequality, and rising cynicism and frustration across the region with the political leadership. They present a dozen economic policy tools aimed explicitly at outcomes that are fairer for the great majority of people, yet do not sacrifice growth. Success with these fair growth reforms requires political leadership and technical know-how on the part of government officials and legislators, as well as the support and input of business, civil society groups, students, and intellectuals.